Here We Go Again. Anti Semitism? Severe? How About Jewish Zionist Terror? Supported by the West?

 

UK terrorism threat level raised to 'severe' following Golders Green stabbing attacks

Rob Wood / BBC

Starmer flags new powers to tackle antisemitism as stab suspect identified - a recap

Supplied

The BBC understands that the suspect is 45-year-old Essa Suleiman, pictured here in 2008

Keir Starmer says the Jewish community has been left scared and intimidated as he urges people in the UK to "open their eyes to Jewish pain" after two men were stabbed in Golders Green yesterday. Here's the latest:

"Miracle" I'm alive, victim tells BBC

• The younger victim, 34-year-old Shloime Rand, tells the BBC it's a "miracle" he's alive, and that he hopes to be discharged "within the next few days". Asked whether enough had been done to deal with antisemitism, he says: "Definitely not"
• His mother said earlier that she was "pretty horrified that these things could happen on the streets of London"
• The other victim, a 76-year-old man, is also still in hospital

What we know about the suspect

• The BBC understands that the suspect is 45-year-old Essa Suleiman from south-east London. He was born in Somalia but came to the UK legally as a child in the 1990s, and is now a British citizen
• He was referred to the government's counter-extremism Prevent programme in 2020, but his case was "closed in the same year", the Metropolitan Police says

Getty Images

An Orthodox Jewish man walks towards the bus stop where a man was attacked on Wednesday

Meanwhile, at Downing Street

• In a press conference from Downing Street, the PM said the government would strengthen the "visible police presence in communities" and increase investment in Jewish security services, among other measures to tackle antisemitism - including measures relating to protests

In Golders Green

• Starmer was earlier met with protests and heckles during a visit to Golders Green. One, Sophia Ziff, told our correspondent she felt angry. "I don't feel safe. I do not feel supported," she said
• Meanwhile, prayers and religious study have continued this afternoon at the synagogue where the victims were worshipping shortly before Wednesday's attack. “This is who we are. This is where we come," one synagogue member told the BBC

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/c3ve2nr60xzt