Counter-terrorism officers in London have launched 11 investigations and arrested 35 people after \u201ca sustained period of attack\u201d upon the Jewish community, the head of the UK\u2019s biggest police force has disclosed.<\/p>\n
In one of his starkest comments on antisemitism in the UK Mark Rowley, the Met commissioner, told MPs in a letter: \u201cBritish Jews are not currently safe in their capital city.\u201d<\/p>\n
The investigations, in which 10 people have been charged, include the attack on 29 April in Golders Green, in which two British Jews were stabbed, an arson attack on an ambulance and nine other incidents.<\/p>\n
The letter was disclosed as King Charles visited Golders Green, in north-west London, on Thursday and met victims of the stabbings last month in a show of support to the community.<\/p>\n
King Charles, left, with the chief rabbi, Sir Ephraim Mirvis, as he greets local residents during his visit to Golders Green in London. Photograph: Richard Pohle\/AP<\/p>\n
In a letter to the Commons home affairs select committee on Wednesday, Rowley wrote: \u201cOver the last six weeks Jewish Londoners have been under a sustained period of attack.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis has included the attack on a Hatzola ambulance on 23 March, nine other arson\/attempted arson attacks, and most significantly the terrorist attack on 29 April in Golders Green, in which two British Jews were stabbed. British Jews are not currently safe in their capital city. This is unacceptable.<\/p>\n
Rowley wrote that the counter-terrorism policing unit wasleading \u201c11 investigations, including those relating to the arsons, the Golders Green terrorist attack, and a further investigation into several discarded items discovered in Kensington Gardens. Across these investigations, we have made 35 arrests. Ten individuals have been charged and one has been convicted to date.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the Jewish Care charity centre in Golders Green Charles met victims Shloime Rand, 34, and Moshe Ben Baila, 76, also known as Norman Shine, along with the chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, Ephraim Mirvis, and Rowley.<\/p>\n
The chief rabbi told the king they \u201cappreciate it enormously\u201d that he had made the visit.<\/p>\n
King Charles visited Golders Green, in north-west London, on Thursday ain a show of support to the community. Photograph: Anadolu\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
The king also spoke with members of the Jewish community police force Shomrim, who were involved in responding to the attacks on 29 April.<\/p>\n
Shine, who was stabbed in the neck outside a bus stop during the attack, spoke about the \u201cgenuine warmth\u201d he had felt from the king.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cHe was very concerned. The most inspiring thing was that he didn\u2019t let go of my hand, I mean it was amazing; he is the king but I felt a genuine warmth and concern.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said that the visit felt \u201cextremely important\u201d for the whole Jewish community.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe feel we have a genuine friend in the king,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
After the meeting, Charles greeted the crowds gathered outside the charity centre on Golders Green Road and was presented with a loaf of traditional challah bread outside Grodz bakery on the high street. He also spoke to children from a local primary school.<\/p>\n
The alleged Golders Green attacker Essa Suleiman, 45, has been remanded in custody accused of three counts of attempted murder.<\/p>\n
Suleiman is accused of trying to kill his friend of 20 years Ishmail Hussein at his home in Southwark before stabbing the two people in the street on 29 April.<\/p>\n
Suleiman was born in Somalia and came to the UK legally as a child in the 1990s. He was reported to Prevent, the UK government\u2019s anti-extremism programme, in 2020 but the case was closed the same year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Counter-terrorism officers in London have launched 11 investigations and arrested 35 people after \u201ca sustained period of attack\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":959511,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,393,4884,257,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-959510","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-london","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116573535354609026","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/959510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=959510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/959510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/959511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=959510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=959510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=959510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}