Prime minister condemns ‘horrific antisemitic attack’ after four Jewish community ambulances set on fire
Keir Starmer has called for communities to “all stand together” in the face of an “horrific antisemitic attack”, which saw four Jewish community ambulances set on fire.
The Metropolitan Police confirmed the incident is being treated as an antisemitic hate crime, with CCTV showing three individuals setting light to an ambulance in the early hours of Monday morning,
Officers were called to Highfield Road in Golders Green at about 1.45am on Monday after receiving reports of a fire. The ambulances were run by Jewish charity Hatzola, which was established in 1979 and is run by volunteers, providing free medical transportation and emergency response to those living in north London.
The London fire brigade (LFB) said it had sent six fire engines and about 40 firefighters to the fire, which damaged four vehicles. Several cylinders on the vehicles exploded and caused windows to break in an adjacent block of flats, the LFB said. No injuries were initially reported.
Jewish community leaders condemned the attack, with the chief rabbi Ephraim Mirvis saying the targeting of the volunteer service was “particularly sickening”.
Investigators are working to identify who carried out the attack. It is understood to be too early to say if it was inspired by a particular group.
The prime minister said he had been in contact with Jewish community leaders and “it’s really important that we all stand together”.
He added:
This is a horrific antisemitic attack. And of course my thoughts, I think all of our thoughts, will be with those in the vicinity, the residents who are understandably very concerned, the Jewish community across the country deeply concerned.
I’ve already been in touch with community leaders this morning and will continue to do so during the day.
But antisemitism has no place in our society and it’s really important that we all stand together at a moment like this.
Key events
Ending his statement, Jarvis adressed the Jewish community, saying the government “will do everything in our power to keep you and your family safe”.
He said: “Whether you live here in London or in any part of the United Kingdom, please know that we stand with you. We are here for you, and we will do everything in our power to keep you and your family safe, not just today after this appalling incident, but every day.”
Jarvis said: “The prime minister has been clear that this government will lead the way, including through a relentless national security effort which is being mounted around the clock by MI5 and the police, who of course, have our full backing in their work to detect and disrupt plots targeting the Jewish community in our country.”
Jarvis said: “Now shocking though it was to wake to this morning’s developments, I know that for many, this outrage will not have come as a surprise, occurring as it has at a time of profound distress and vulnerability within our Jewish communities.
“Now, given the vicious torrent of antisemitism that was unleashed following the October 7 attacks, a dreadful manifestation of which we saw to our horror in Manchester last year when Heaton Park Hebrew congregation synagogue was the subject of a sickening act of terrorism on Yom Kippur.
“Today, as at that profoundly difficult moment, and as in the aftermath of the subsequent atrocity on Bondi Beach in Sydney, we declare once more that we stand with our Jewish friends, colleagues and neighbours. And with the oldest hatred on the rise, we assert our unwavering commitment to defeat it.”
Jarvis said: “As the home secretary has told the House earlier, support for the Jewish community in London is being stepped up. The police have the unshakable backing of this government.
Security minister Dan Jarvis is giving a statement on the attack in the Commons now.
He said police are treating the attack as an antisemitic hate crime.
“The investigation is now being led by counter-terrorism policing, although I should emphasise that this has not been declared a terrorist incident at this stage. No arrests have been made,” he said.
One Golders Green resident has said it is important to “stand up for the right values and join together on things that bind us” in the wake of the arson attack.
Sheina, 31, who did not want to give her last name for safety reasons, told PA Media: “Just because three people decided to do something that’s hate-filled, does not mean my sense of safety should be threatened.
“I feel like Jews are always framed as victims because we get targeted, but I think it’s also important to point out that Jews are very strong people.
“We just want to live in peace with everyone, and it would be in everybody’s best interest for themselves to do so as well.”
She added: “People should be aware that the atmosphere of appeasement leads to this.
“It is important that people stand up for the right values and join together on things that bind us together and not stay quiet and let what happened in Nazi Germany happen again.”
Kemi Badenoch said an antisemitic arson attack in Golders Green on Monday morning demonstrated “an increase in the hatred of Jews”.
The Conservative party leader said: “Showing action, not just words, I think, is what Jewish people want to see.”
Badenoch told PA Media while on a visit to King’s Lynn, Norfolk: “It’s quite clear that there is a particular problem with rising attacks on Jewish people. There is an increase in the hatred of Jews.”
She added: “I think that we need to do more than just telling Jewish people to have more security. I think it’s appalling that I go to Jewish primary schools and they’ve got security guards standing outside.”
Badenoch’s comments on the attack comes days after she backed her shadow justice secretary, Nick Timothy, after he claimed that Islamic prayers taking place in public are intimidating, un-British and an “act of domination”, comments that have been roundly condemned as Islamophobic.
Keir Starmer claimed they showed the Conservative party “has a problem with Muslims”.
Home secretary Shabana Mahmood has vowed to “pursue” anybody who may have attacked Hatzola in north-west London, and “make them face the consequences of this wicked crime”.
She told the Commons that “mercifully, no one was hurt” in the incident.
“And for that, we owe our thanks to the police and fire services who responded with speed and professionalism,” Mahmood continued.
“An investigation is underway. We know the Metropolitan Police are treating this as an antisemitic hate crime and have stepped up their support to Jewish communities across London.
“That the attack was directed at Hatzola, a community ambulance service, an institution devoted to saving lives, illustrates how warped those behind this attack are.
“I am pleased that the health secretary [Wes Streeting] is providing replacement ambulances but clearly justice is required.
“There have as yet been no arrests, but the perpetrators must be in no doubt – we will pursue them and make them face the consequences of this wicked crime.”
Volunteers with the Jewish ambulance service charity, Hatzola, said the community is still reeling from the attack this morning.
Yossi Pincus, a volunteer senior paramedic and the registered manager of the North West London Hatzola, said:
Everyone is still reeling from the attack. Despite what society has become, it is still not expected, but we soldier on.
It has been somewhat simmering under the surface. There has definitely been a significant rise in antisemitism, and there is an intrinsic problem nationwide that does need to be addressed urgently.
Kevin Rawlinson
The blasts that boomed out in the early hours of Monday in suburban north-west London struck terror into people living in the surrounding streets. Their effects in Golders Green, with its large Jewish population, were still reverberating the following morning.
The antisemitic attack, in which four ambulances run by the Jewish charity Hatzola were set on fire, has left local people afraid. They are afraid because of the incident itself – but also because of what they see as a febrile atmosphere of antisemitism in the UK more generally.
“People are frightened. I am feeling vulnerable. If you had heard the explosions, it really was terrifying,” said Damon Hoff, the president of the Machzike Hadath synagogue; on whose land the ambulances were stationed.
Hoff, who was called to the scene in the immediate aftermath of the incident, said the UK’s Jewish community felt besieged – and constantly at the sharp end of events that were inherently global in nature. “I’m aware it is a global set of incidents; it is not just a UK or Jewish community issue. But, at the centre of the issue is the Jewish community.”
He said the site of the attack was locally recognised as the centre of the Golders Green’s Jewish community, saying: “Knock on any door around here, and they will know where the Hatzola ambulances are. There is no mincing words – this is an attack on the heart of this community.”
Asked to sum up how Golders Green was feeling the morning after, he said: “You are frightened, and you are feeling vulnerable. I’m here to represent a community that needs broad shoulders to rest on. The Jewish community has been under siege, and the streets of London are not good for Jewish people right now.”
Sam Adler, who lives nearby, added: “To target the heart of Golders Green is cynical and cowardly, because everyone knows why they have done it. One bit of negative press about Jews just gives them fuel to target us – there is no other reason.”
Forensic police officers are now carrying out searches alongside Brookside Road, near to the site where the ambulances were set ablaze.
The BBC reported that the arsonists used the area to flee after setting the ambulances ablaze, without explaining how they got that information. It said that officers were using cameras attached to telescopic poles to check house gutters.
Starmer says antisemitic arson attack an attack ‘not just on Jewish community’, but on everyone who values tolerance
Andrew Sparrow
Keir Starmer starts with a comment about the attack on the Jewish ambulance service overnight.
He says:
The idea that ambulances could be considered a target is simply horrendous. And I know the impact that that will have had on so many individuals, not just those, in the area …
The whole Jewish community, across the country, not least, because this is not an isolated incident and the rise of antisemitic hatred is there for all to see.
He confirms that the government will replace the ambulances. He goes on:
That is the right thing to do. But it also underscores what I think is a really important principle that this is not just an attack on the Jewish community, but it’s attack on all of us, on everyone who holds the fundamental British values of tolerance and respect.
Starmer says he has also discussed this today with Sarah Sackman, the constituency MP, and with Jewish leaders.
Keir Starmer met Jewish community leaders in Downing Street to discuss the Golders Green incident.
Asked if Jews in Britain should feel safe at the moment, after the meeting Michael Wegier, chief executive of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, told the Press Association: “Yes, we should feel safe but anxious, I think.
“There’s a very long, thousands of years, history of Jews who have, at the same time, felt anxious but felt resilient.
“I think resilience is the key word I would use to describe what the Jewish community needs now.
“I don’t think any of us would say we feel as safe as we did five years ago. There’s clearly been a decline, the figures show that.
“I am not sensing hysteria or panic in the Jewish community. The resilience is cutting through. But I think I have to be honest, we are feeling less safe than we did a few years ago.”