Sir Keir Starmer appears to have urged a ban on some pro-Palestine protests in a crackdown on antisemitism following the Golders Green terror attack.
The prime minister suggested there were “instances” where it was appropriate to prevent such marches on UK streets, as they have done in France, as he said he would fight “with every breath I have” for a diverse and tolerant Britain.
And he issued a stark challenge to those who take part in the protests, saying if they hear chants of ‘globalise the Intifada’ – “you do have to stop and ask yourself, why am I not calling this out?”
On Friday, the Metropolitan Police chief Sir Mark Rowley called for 300 extra officers to tackle the growing pandemic of antisemitism in the UK.
He also said he was considering whether police powers should be used to limit two upcoming protests in London – one a pro-Palestine march and the other a rally led by the far-right activist Tommy Robinson.
Britain’s terror threat has been raised to severe, meaning authorities believe an attack in the UK is “highly likely” in the next six months, after the stabbing of two Jewish men in Golders Green, London.
Explaining the move on Friday, MI5 said the UK has been experiencing a gradual increase in terrorist threats for some time, driven by a rise in both Islamist and extreme right-wing terror.
Sir Keir’s call came in an interview with the BBC’s Today programme, just days after he was heckled during a visit to Golders Green, where he was met by a group of protesters holding signs and chanting: “Keir Starmer, Jew Harmer”.
Asked if he wanted a crackdown on the chants or to stop some protests altogether, as in France, he said: “I think certainly the first, and I think there are instances for the latter.”
He added: “I don’t want to get involved in operational policing, but I think when you see, when you hear some of those chants, ‘globalise the Intifada’ the one that I would pick out, then clearly there should be tougher action in relation to that.”
He went on: “In relation to the repeated nature of the marches, many people in the Jewish community have said to me ‘it’s the repeat nature, it’s the cumulative effect’. Now I accept that, which is why we intend to deal with cumulative effects.”
He urged “some people protesting to just reflect on what the Jewish community is going through and the overall impact that this is having.”
The PM also called for a “whole of society response” saying that “too many people are not seeing anti-Semitism or they don’t want to see it.”
And, in a direct challenge to those on the marches but not involved in the chanting, he said: “If you are on a march or a protest where people are chanting ‘globalise the Intifada’ you do have to stop and ask yourself, why am I not calling this out?”
He added: “We all have to fight for this together because it is about the sort of country that we want to live in. I want to live in the Britain that I love, which is a decent, tolerant, live and let live, diverse Britain. But that is contested now in a way that it hasn’t been contested in my lifetime.
“We have to fight for the Britain that we believe in with those values. That is who we are. That is what it is to be British. And I will fight for that with every breath I have.”
The Golders Green stabbings are the latest in a series of attacks on Jewish sites since the outbreak of Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu’s war on Iran, and have prompted accusations that the UK government has not done enough to tackle antisemitism.
