Golders Green attack has left British Jews 'scared and intimidated', says Starmer after being heckled meeting emergency workers
Starmer spoke hours after being booed and heckled while visiting Haztola first responders this morning
Sir Keir Starmer has said the Golders Green terror attack was "extreme racism" that left Jewish people "scared, intimidated, and wondering if they belong".
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The Prime Minister said Jews in the UK are "scared" and that their anxiety became “terror” after yesterday's attack, in which saw two Jewish men stabbed in broad daylight.
He listed a slew of recent attacks on Jewish people while making a statement in Downing Street on Thursday afternoon.
"People are scared, scared to show who they are in their community, scared to go to synagogue to practice their religion, scared to go to university as a Jew, to send their children to school as a Jew, to tell their colleagues that they are Jewish, even to use our NHS," the premier said.
“Nobody should live like that in Britain, but Jews do.
“And so yesterday, this anxiety that is always there went to another place, to terror, frankly. That is the right word.”
The attempted murder in Golders Green was the most recent attack in a slew across London, leaving many Jewish people feeling Britain is no longer safe.
Pro-Palestine marches have become controversial as some protesters utilise anti-Semitic chants and slogans.
Sir Keir Starmer said: “Take the marches that happen regularly across Britain.
“Of course, we protect freedom of speech and peaceful protest in this country, but if you are marching with people wearing pictures of paragliders without calling it out, you are venerating the murder of Jews.
“If you stand alongside people who say, ‘globalise the Intifada’, you are calling for terrorism against Jews, and people who use that phrase should be prosecuted. It is racism, extreme racism, and it has left a minority community in this country scared, intimidated, wondering if they belong."
Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Mark Rowley will appear on LBC's Nick Ferrari at Breakfast on Friday, Live from 7am.
Events like the attack in Golders Green “keep happening”, the Prime Minister said.
Addressing reporters, Sir Keir Starmer said: “At moments like this, we often say, this is not Britain that these attacks are an affront to British values, to British tolerance, British decency. But they keep happening, don’t they?
“And so today, instead, I will simply say that our values are not a gift handed down generation to generation. They are something we earn each day through action. They come from us.
“Antisemitism is an old, old hatred, history shows that the roots are deep, and if you turn away, it grows back.
“Yet, far too many people in this country diminish it. They either don’t see it or they don’t want to see it.”
Sir Keir's statement came hours after he was greeted with chants of “Keir Starmer, Jew harmer” as he visited the scene of the attack to meet emergency services who responded to the terrorist attack.
Up to 100 furious demonstrators shouted "shame on you" and "traitor" at the PM as he arrived to meet first responders who helped the two victims who were stabbed in the area just after 11am on Wednesday.
Many protesters brandished signs criticising the Prime Minister outside Hatzola ambulance station, including one showing former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn holding a face mask of Sir Keir.
There was a heavy police presence, with officers linking arms to stop protesters spilling into the driveway.
Sir Keir was whisked away from protesters by police at lunchtime before being driven into a private meeting at the new headquarters of Hatzola - London's Jewish ambulance service.
One protester, Mendy Muster, 23, from Golders Green, said: "We all think he is a coward for not answering us directly. He does want to be held accountable.
"He knows he has let us down. He knows it is his fault and he taking too long. He should have been yesterday let alone today. He is not doing enough he is not preventing anything he is reacting."
One protester, who gave his name as Matthew, 62, from north London, said: “I’m coming to stand with my community and protest against the endless platitudes that are offered up after every incident.
“I’m tired of Cobra meetings. I want to see action,” he said.
Jenny, who did not give her surname, said the Jewish community is “angry” and “fed up” with the Prime Minister.
“We want an end to the hate marches, to the calls of global intifada, to the calls of revolution,” she added.
Another protester named Levi, who was holding a banner with the slogan “Keir Starmer Jew Harmer”, said: “We are here today because Keir Starmer has come to the Jewish community but instead of looking to speak to us, he went instead behind the gates.”
Yesterday lunchtime, Shloime Rand, 34, was knifed in the chest by a man prowling the streets with a knife. Moshe Shine, 76, was then stabbed in the neck at a bus stop.
One witness to Wednesday’s incident described a suspect walking away from the scene as one of the victims bled from his neck. The suspected knifeman was eventually Tasered to the ground and arrested.
The suspect being questioned by police over the attack has been named as Essa Suleiman, according to reports.
The incident, which has been declared a terrorist attack, is being investigated by authorities.
The Primer Minister earlier said the criminal justice response to the attack in north London must be “swift, agile and visible".
The Government said it will invest a further £25 million into increased police patrols and protective security to keep Jewish communities safe in the wake of the double stabbing in north London.
Meanwhile, legislation will also be fast-tracked in the coming weeks to provide authorities with powers to target individuals and groups acting on behalf of state-sponsored organisations, following a number of incidents linked to Iranian proxies.
It means anyone acting as a proxy of a state-sponsored group can be investigated and prosecuted under the National Security Act, treating them in the same way as a foreign intelligence operative.
The Government said the new funding brings the total amount committed to protecting Jewish communities to £58 million for the year and will be spent on increasing police patrols, boosting security at synagogues, schools and community centres and putting more plain-clothes and specialist officers in targeted communities.
Green Party leader Zack Polanski has come under fire after he retweeted a social media post criticising the police officers who took down the attacker.
Mr Polanski reshared a post on X that was critical of the two police officers who took down the 45-year-old after he stabbed two Jewish men in Golders Green on Wednesday.
The post said: "So essentially his officers were repeatedly and violently kicking a mentally ill man in the head when he was already incapacitated by taser."
A Green Party source told LBC: "Zack has seen the video like everyone else, and doesn't know the full picture and knows it was a very difficult situation for the authorities, but we do need to understand more about the response."
He has been criticised by Conservative and Labour politicians for showing more sympathy with the attacker than with the police officers who were stopping him.
Labour MP Jonathan Hinder said: "This is so telling. Polanski hates the brave police officers who stopped this. He's more concerned about the antisemitic terrorist with a knife in his hand! Isn't that right Zack Polanski?"
Neil O'Brien, a Conservative MP, added: "As usual, the Greens' sympathies are with the terrorist rather than the brave police officers stopping him."
This comes as the man suspected of carrying out a knife attack was previously referred to the Government’s counter-extremism programme, police have said.
The 45-year-old was born in Somalia and came to the UK legally as a child in the 1990s, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said earlier on Thursday.
The Metropolitan Police said he was known to Prevent and that a referral had been made in 2020 which was closed in the same year.
In a statement on Thursday afternoon, the force said: “Given the investigation remains ongoing, we will not be providing any further information in respect of this matter at this time and we remain focused on securing justice for the victims of this attack.”