London police make 4 arrests in string of antisemitic crimes

Police in London arrested two men in connection with antisemitic arson attacks and another two for threats and intimidation of Jews, and two other suspects confessed to harassing a Jew for traffic on TikTok, the Metropolitan Police said this weekend.

The alleged crimes and actions against suspected perpetrators are part of a surge in antisemitic attacks in the United Kingdom, and authorities’ efforts to counter that surge amid scrutiny at home and abroad.

One of the men arrested on arson charges, a 19-year-old who was apprehended on Thursday, was the third person held in the investigation into the attempted arson attack on a synagogue in Finchley, London, on April 15, police said.

The other man arrested on arson charges, a 48-year-old, is the ninth person to be arrested in connection with the March 23 arson attack on four ambulances of the Hatzola Northwest Jewish group in Golders Green, London.

The third detainee was arrested on Friday after allegedly threatening Jews, including children, aboard a London bus while shouting antisemitic abuse and claiming to be carrying a knife. The suspect targeted Jewish passengers with threats and racist abuse, shouting, “Shame Hitler didn’t kill you” and “You should all go in the gas chambers” before his arrest, The Jewish Chronicle of London quoted witnesses as saying.

Separately, a man who threatened to cut a group of Jews’ throats in Manchester has pleaded guilty to multiple hate crime offenses. Wayne Kelly, 65, appeared before a district judge at Manchester Magistrate’s Court on Friday, The Jewish Chronicle reported. He admitted to targeting Jews verbally as they were walking to synagogue.

The two defendants who admitted to filming themselves harassing at least one Jew for videos they shared on the TikTok platform are Adam Bedoui, 20, from West Drayton, Hillingdon, and Abdelkader Amir Bousloub, 21, also from Hillingdon.

Both men pleaded guilty to a religiously aggravated public order offense at Thames Magistrate’s Court on Saturday, the police said.

“This was a deliberate and targeted antisemitic attack, aggravated by the pair’s intention to post the incident on social media to spread hatred. It is completely unacceptable and has no place in London,” Detective Superintendent Oliver Richter, who leads policing in Hackney and Tower Hamlets, said in the Metropolitan Police’s statement.

The arrests followed a wave of antisemitic incidents, including the stabbing of two Jews in London on April 29 by a Somalia-born British citizen. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and other British officials have vowed to prevent attacks on Jews and to punish perpetrators.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry said on April 30 that in light of the attacks, “the U.K. government can no longer claim this [antisemitism] is under control.”

Luke Akehurst, a British Labour Party lawmaker in the House of Commons told JNS on Friday that while antisemitism posed a challenge, this criticism was “not fair.”

Much of what the government does “to tackle violent antisemitism and terrorist threats isn’t publicized,” said Akehurst, a supporter of Israel and former director of the pro-Israel nonprofit We Believe in Israel. British authorities cooperate regularly with Israel in thwarting terrorist attacks, added Akehurst, who has vocally opposed far-left elements in the Labour Party.

Last week, leaders of British Jewry on Tuesday asked Starmer to protect the community, prosecute antisemitic lawbreakers and partner with communal bodies to counter “modern manifestations” of the hatred.

“Protect British Jews against those who wish us harm; prosecute those inciting hatred through swift application of the law; partner with the Jewish community by recognizing and challenging modern manifestations of antisemitism in Britain,” the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council wrote in a statement outlining their requests during the meeting.

The reference to “modern manifestations” referred to how hatred of Israel is used as cover at rallies and beyond for antisemitism, disguising some acts and rhetoric against Jewish people, which British law prohibits, as permissible criticism of the State of Israel. For many months, British police officers allowed slogans such as “Globalize the intifada” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” to be chanted at rallies despite how they were perceived by many Jews and others as calls for violence against Jews and ethnic cleansing of them, respectively.