Police have received requests from ten-year-old girls to have armed officers guarding their Hanukkah parties in the wake of recent antisemitic violence, according to Manchester’s chief constable.
Sir Stephen Watson from Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said his force had received calls from groups of children whose “fear” had driven them to feel they needed police protection after the deadly terrorist attack on Bondi Beach on Sunday.
He also said his force had received reports of people in the UK “celebrating” the attack, which he labelled “intolerable” and “sickeningly distasteful”.
The speech comes just two months after a fatal attack at a synagogue in Manchester, which killed two people. Knifeman Jihad al-Shamie stabbed several people at the Heaton Park shul during a Yom Kippur service in October.
Two gunmen opened fire at Sydney’s Bondi Beach last weekend, killing 15 Jewish people while they celebrated Chanukkah. Among those killed was 10-year-old Matilda, who was remembered as a “ray of sunshine” and loved animals and dancing.
Sir Stephen told an event hosted by the Policy Exchange think tank: “’The fear, particularly amongst our Jewish communities, has got worse. And the grounds that underpin the fear have become more realistic.
“It cannot be the case that you can for any reason fail to appreciate why it is that we are getting telephone calls into Greater Manchester Police, day in and day out over the recent days, where you have a group of ten-year-old girls wanting to go to a Hanukkah party, where they should be frankly interested in balloons and bicycles, are making a request for armed police officers.
“You cannot say that is a ridiculous request, you understand from whence it comes.”
He also described reports of people “celebrating” the attack on Bondi Beach: “I know that I had reports that there were people in Manchester celebrating the Bondi attack in ways which is just sickeningly distasteful.
“It seems to me that we need to get to the heart of that, we need to get behind that, because there is stuff which is lawful, but it is intolerable, and what is intolerable can, over time, become unlawful — and that’s where politicians come in.”
He added the “intolerable has become normalised” and has “almost become accepted as the way things are”.
On Wednesday, Sir Stephen and his London counterpart Sir Mark Rowley announced protesters chanting “globalise the intifada” will now be arrested because the “context has changed” in the wake of the Bondi Beach terror attack.
The heads of GMP and the Metropolitan Police said both forces will “act decisively and make arrests”, adding that the measures were designed to “deter intimidation”.
They said: “We have consistently been advised by the CPS that many of the phrases causing fear in Jewish communities don’t meet prosecution thresholds.
“Now, in the escalating threat context, we will recalibrate to be more assertive.”
Following the attack, Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese said it appeared to be “motivated by Islamic State ideology”. He later announced a crackdown on hate speech and a gun buyback scheme.
The proposed buyback will be the largest since reforms introduced after the 1996 Port Arthur massacre in Tasmania, which prompted Australia to adopt some of the world’s toughest gun controls.
Surviving suspect Naveed Akram, 24, has been charged with 15 counts of murder and committing a terrorist attack following the incident on Sunday.
Alongside his father Sajid, 50, he is accused of opening fire on crowds of more than 1,000 people. Sajid Akram was killed in an exchange of fire with police at the scene.
