LONDON — “Stop the Jew hate” and “Jewish and proud” were among the slogans and signs at a spirited protest march and rally of hundreds of Jews and other opponents of Jew-hatred in Golders Green here March 23. They gathered to condemn an arson attack hours earlier outside the nearby Machzikei Hadath synagogue. The assault destroyed or badly damaged four ambulances belonging to the Jewish charity Hatzola. CCTV footage shows three thugs setting fire to the vehicles and fleeing. Minutes later the gas canisters in the ambulances exploded, shattering windows in nearby residences and in the synagogue.
Neighbors helped each other evacuate and find shelter in two local community centers. Forty firefighters were required to put out the blaze.
“Golders Green has one of the largest Jewish communities in the U.K., with more than 30 synagogues. Nearly half of residents in the ward identify as Jewish,” reports the London Times.
Linda Kettare, a local resident who is not Jewish, joined the rally organized by campaign groups Stop the Hate and Our Fight.
“This was a serious attack on all of us,” she told the Militant. “I slept through it, but a friend who lives in Fortune Green [two miles away] didn’t just hear the blast, but felt it, it was so powerful.”
“We won’t be beaten by thugs,” Yossi Pincus a volunteer senior paramedic for Hatzola told the Daily Telegraph. “We can’t let fear dictate our lives,”
Hatzola is a worldwide charity staffed by volunteers. It works with the National Health Service to provide an emergency service for Jews and others, irrespective of religion or national background.
A terrorist group, Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia, claimed online it was responsible for the attack. The same group claimed it carried out recent Jew-hating attacks in the Netherlands, Belgium and Greece.
Members of the Communist League joined the rally. They distributed a statement, “Condemn Jew-hating attack in Golders Green!” by Dag Tirsén and Julie Crawford, the CL candidates in the Southwark and Enfield council elections.
“The scourge of Jew-hatred has been on the rise since the 7 October 2023 pogrom organised by Hamas in collaboration with the Iranian regime,” the statement says. “Jew-hatred is not a Middle East question. It is a life-and-death question for working people in the U.K. and worldwide.”
“At the forefront of our election campaign is the fight against the poison of Jew-hatred and the defense of Israel’s right to exist as a refuge for Jews,” Tirsén told the Militant.