Antisemitic hate crimes in London have seen a 14-fold increase since the Israel-Hamas war escalated earlier this month. The Metropolitan Police in London has recorded approximately 408 offences this month, compared to 28 in the same period last year. Despite the surge, Scotland Yard is preparing for another round of Pro-Palestine protests on the streets of London on 28th October (Saturday).
The Met Police stated that it has arrested 75 individuals linked to the Israel-Gaza conflict, and is investigating 10 potential breaches of terrorism laws.
Speaking about chants of “jihad” at previous pro-Palestine protests which were condemned as unacceptable by the UK government, the Met Police said, “If somebody is calling for jihad specifically against Israel the officers will intervene, gather the information. We’ll be working with colleagues (from counterterrorism) in relation to what the best course of action is.”
It is important to note that Hamas is a proscribed terrorist organisation in the United Kingdom and supporting a banned, terrorist group is a criminal offence which can be penalised by a prison sentence of up to 14 years.
Further, Met Police have been looking for four people who allegedly supported terrorism. This include a man who, on 21st October, held a placard declaring “I full support for Hamas”, and three women who are accused of having brandished photos of paragliders, a direct reference to the 7th October terrorist attack on Israel as several Hamas terrorists used paragliders to airdrop in Israel and carried out the terrorist attacks.
Regarding the four suspects accused of supporting terrorism, Head of the Met’s counter-terrorism command, Commander Dominic Murphy said officers had been unable to track down the suspects. He said, “Detectives have carried out numerous inquiries to identify these people and we are now asking the public to take a good look at these images and tell us if they know who these people are.”
Subsequently, they have also released pictures of thes suspects asking help from the public. They have even urged the suspects to approach the Met Police on their own.
He added, “I would stress that we want to speak to these people to help us with our inquiries, and in fact, I would urge them to get in touch with us directly.”
According to Met Police, the cases of Islamaphobic too has seen a rise and it has increased from 65 offences in October 2022 to 174 so far this month.
Meanwhile, regarding the law and order situation, Met Police Commander Kyle Gordon said, “We’ve been clear over the last week that wherever possible we will police up to the line of the law.”
He added, “Our most experienced and knowledgeable officers are working on the policing of these events, making sure we are utilising all legislation to its fullest extent. I would encourage anyone who sees any crimes happening at the moment to report it to the nearest police officer.”
He further urged, “Any footage or images of potential crimes should be reported to us – we have specialist teams whose role is to scour thousands of pieces of content identifying crime.”
Earlier, the Met Police faced massive criticism for not arresting protestors who gave calls of “jihad” against Israel at a protest last weekend. It had defended open calls for Jihad in Central London, stating that calls for jihad against Israel had nothing to do with terrorism. It added that the word jihad has a number of meanings.
This prompted the UK government including Home Secretary Suvella Braverman to confront and quiz the Metropolitan Police chief over his force’s response to open calls for Jihad in Central London. Following which, the Met Police has stated that it would intervene in cases where such calls are made and avoid a repeat of last time.