Two Jewish schools in north-west London are set to close temporarily because of safety fears after the crisis in Israel and Gaza, as ministers announced £3m for a charity that helps protect Jewish community sites.
The extra support for the Community Security Trust (CST) was announced after a roundtable discussion at Downing Street involving ministers, police and the charity, which recorded a quadrupling of antisemitic incidents in the UK since Hamas’s attack on Israel.
The meeting was chaired by the home secretary, Suella Braverman, who asked police chiefs to consider using their existing Section 14 powers under the Public Order Act “where appropriate” to prevent assemblies blocking roads, including outside Jewish monuments and buildings such as the Israeli embassy.
No 10 said the additional money – which brings the total funding for Jewish community protection for 2023-24 to £18m – would enable the CST to place additional guards at schools it supports and allow for additional security staff outside synagogues on Friday nights and Saturday mornings when Jewish communities are marking the sabbath.
Rishi Sunak said: “This is now the third deadliest terror attack in the world since 1970. The United Kingdom must and will continue to stand in solidarity with Israel.”
No 10 also said that the College of Policing and the National Police Chiefs’ Council would “clarify” guidance to commanders as they police protests over the weekend, when a number of demonstrations are planned.
The CST said it has recorded at least 89 “anti-Jewish hate” incidents from 7 October to 10 October. Tell Mama, a charity that monitors hate crime against British muslims, said it was deeply concerned after anti-Muslim cases reported to its service had tripled since the Hamas incursion on 7 October. The charity also said it was “deeply concerned with the rise in antisemitic incidents”.
The organisers of the annual Palestine Festival of Literature announced that a book launch that was due to take place on Thursday night in partnership with Amnesty International and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign would not be going ahead due to security concerns.
Ateres Beis Yaakov primary school in Colindale and Torah Vodaas primary school in Edgware reportedly told parents on Thursday evening that they would not reopen until Monday.
Rabbi Feldman, from Torah Vodaas, told parents in a letter that there was “no specific threat to our school” and that it was “not a decision that has been taken lightly”, Sky News reported.
The developments come after a major demonstration outside the Israeli embassy in London that prompted Braverman to write to police chiefs saying that waving a Palestinian flag and chanting pro-Arab songs could amount to a public order offence if it could be deemed to be in support of terror atrocities.
She said after the meeting: “I have been clear with police chiefs in England and Wales that there can be zero tolerance for antisemitism, and that they should act immediately to crack down on any criminality – both in our streets and online.”
Earlier on Thursday, the Metropolitan police published an open letter to London’s Jewish communities from the force’s deputy commissioner, Dame Lynne Owens, in which she pledged support and solidarity.
Owens said that she understood why, after the Hamas attack on Israel, the sight of people outside the Israeli embassy “waving flags, chanting, letting off flares, some with scarves across their faces” would be interpreted as a direct statement of support for atrocities that took place.
But she added: “The law on this is very clear, but it is also very specific and we have to act within it. What we cannot do is interpret support for the Palestinian cause more broadly as automatically being support for Hamas or any other proscribed group, even when it follows so soon after an attack carried out by that group and when to many the link seems indisputable.
“An expression of support for the Palestinian people more broadly, including flying the Palestinian flag, does not, alone, constitute a criminal offence.”
Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, meanwhile, visited a synagogue in north London, where he said there was a need “to talk honestly” about the impact on the UK from the attacks on Israel.
