London: Gang Attacks Jewish Teens Celebrating Hanukkah

London: Gang Attacks Jewish Teens Celebrating Hanukkah

A group of Jewish teenagers was attacked by a gang of men in central London on Monday.

A video circulating on the web “shows a group of men throwing Nazi salutes, giving the middle finger, spitting on the passengers and then slamming their fists on the bus door and windows,” the Jerusalem Post reported.

The incident took place on Oxford Street where the Jewish teens made a brief stop on their way to Trafalgar Square to watch the lighting of London’s biggest menorah that marks the first night of the Jewish festival Hanukkah. “They were handing out food in the capital’s famous shopping destination, Oxford Street and dancing,” the UK daily Independent noted.

British media reports did not mention the identity of the culprits. They appear to be of Middle Eastern origin. Men at the scene “wave their shoes – an insult in some countries,” the BBC noted, a tacit reference to the Arab-Islamic culture. One man can be heard shouting “Free Palestine” at the group, a report said.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson reacted to the clip on Twitter, calling it “disturbing”.

This is disturbing footage. Racism of any kind will never be tolerated in our society and we will continue to do all we can to root it out. https://t.co/fnC1BoAxUE

— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) December 2, 2021

UK newspaper The Independent reported the details of the antisemitic incident:

Police are investigating a video which appears to show a group of men spitting at a bus full of Jewish passengers celebrating Hanukkah in central London.

Footage from inside the bus shows the men shouting and making obscene hand gestures and what appear to be Nazi salutes at the passengers. One man can be seen banging his shoe against the side of the vehicle.

The Metropolitan Police said the incident is being treated as a hate crime.

The open-top bus was full of people – including children – celebrating the first night of Hanukkah, a Jewish festival, on Monday, according to the Community Security Trust (CST), a charity which monitors antisemitic incidents and provides security support to British Jews.

They were handing out food in the capital’s famous shopping destination, Oxford Street and dancing, but “sadly this was interrupted by an extremely hostile, threatening and abusive group of men”, CST said.

In the video, people on board the bus can be heard saying “we are Jewish” and “we need to go”.

When the vehicle eventually pulls away, one of the men can be seen running alongside the bus and smashing his arm against the windows.

Reports show that antisemitism is at an all-time high in Britain. As the Gaza-based Hamas terrorist group unleashed a barrage of rockets on Israeli towns and cities, the British Jews once again became a target of hate for the Islamists and radical leftists. “From 8 May to 7 June, 460 incidents were reported to the charity – the highest monthly total since records began in 1984 – with 316 happening offline and 144 online,” the BBC reported.

British magazine The Spectator described the growing Jew-hatred in the country:

Every synagogue in the country has long been patrolled by security officers, and the prominent ones are watched by police.

Every Jewish school is equipped with advanced security systems and guards, and there are at least two charities specifically dedicated to keeping the community safe.

Sadly, with good reason. The everyday threat that British Jews encounter spans the spectrum from antisemitic graffiti at one end to full-on terror attacks at the other.

The UK campuses have become a breeding ground for antisemitism and anti-Israel activism. Last month, a mob of leftwing agitators attacked the Israeli ambassador to the UK as she attended an event hosted by a student group at the London School of Economics. “Israeli Ambassador to the UK Tzipi Hotovely was evacuated under heavy security from an event at the London School of Economics on Tuesday evening amid a large protest by pro-Palestinian activists against her presence,” the Times of Israel reported.

The nexus between the Islamists and leftists have propelled the careers of politicians like Jeremy Corbyn, who chaired the opposition Labour party from 2015 to 2020.

The London-based weekly, The Jewish Chronicle (JC), noted the silence of the British Labour Party and the leftwing circles. “Those from the leftwing of the Labour Party and beyond seemed to have absolutely nothing to say about a pretty clear cut incident of racism on the streets of the UK. Nothing to say about a group of children having a holiday party ruined for the simple crime of being Jewish in London,” the JC columnist, Josh Kaplan, wrote.

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