‘He’s Jewish – you’re f*****g Jewish too’: Police probe two antisemitic incidents
Authorities look into footage posted on Twitter of a man abusing a visibly Jewish passer-by, before saying 'I will slit your throat for Palestine'
Lee Harpin is the Jewish News's political editor
Police are investigating claims that a passenger who was visibly Jewish was subjected to two antisemitic incidents in central London on the same evening.
Footage posted on Twitter by a user named Shlomie Liberow showed a male aggressively approaching the driver of red bus before leaving the vehicle via the front door and shouting:”He’s Jewish – you’re f**king Jewish too.”
The same male then put his face against the closed exit door of the bus and looked inwards at the person filming him, raising his middle finger and then shouting “I will slit your throat for Palestine.”
Liberow tweeted:”My brother [who is visibly Jewish] was attacked on the 113 bus, heading in direction of Oxford Circus, London at 11:33PM and threatened to ‘slit his throat for Palestine’.
” Will anything be done about this rampant antisemitism.”
My brother [who is visibly Jewish] was attacked on the 113 bus, heading in direction of Oxford Circus, London at 11:33PM and threatened to "slit his throat for Palestine".
Will anything be done about this rampant #Antisemitism @tfl @CST_UK @antisemitism pic.twitter.com/iCKV62rA8b— Shlomie Liberow (@Shlibness) July 4, 2021
He added: “All information is there for Metropolitan Police (to) address (the) fact that identifiably Jewish people face extreme racism on a daily occurrence.”
Liberow then claimed just one hour earlier his brother had been subjected to a separate antisemitic incident while travelling on a tube train.
Footage showed a group of young males on an escalator at a tube station.
A man who was standing on the left of the escalator near some England football fans was heard shouting ‘f***ing hate the Jews’ while he made a banging sound with his hand.
One of the other group then intervened saying:”Shut the f**k up.”
While another individual is heard to say:”We’ve got a Jew behind us.”
Family members of the group of football fans contacted MailOnline on Sunday and said the boys, who were wearing England flags, were not in any way associated with the man who was shouting antisemitic abuse.
The group of seven boys – who are all aged between 17 and 18 – are all in fact Jews and we’re trying to stick up for the man who was being verbally abused, David Adler, the father of one of the boys, said.
Hearing the comment about the “Jew behind us” one of the group of England fans – who is Adler’s son – retorted and said: “Actually, you’ve got nine Jews behind you” in an attempt to stick up for the abused man.
Adler later told MailOnline:”I’m pleased that my son chose to speak out and support the Jewish man on the underground.
“‘We’ve always told our kids to call wrong out and that’s what they were doing.
“A single bigoted racist has attacked a Jewish man, and a bunch of other football fans – who happen to ironically be Jewish – are trying to defend the guy.”
Mr Adler added: ‘The attacks on the Jewish man yesterday is horrific. I am genuinely nervous about my children when they go into town because of antisemitism.”
Posting the footage on Twitter, Liberow wrote:”The above may be of interest of the typical experiences for someone wearing religious garb on public transport in London.”
Responding to Liberow’s Twitter thread Metropolitan Police’s Chief Superintendent Rory Smith said:’This is awful and I’m sorry he had to experience this. I’ve tagged @MetCC and if you could DM them so that this can be fully investigated please?”
British Transport Police said in a statement:”We’re aware of a video posted online of a group displaying antisemitic behaviour on a London Underground escalator.
“We take such incidents very seriously and are investigating. If anybody has any information contact us on 0800 405040 or text 61016 quoting ref 90 of 4 July 2021.”
Siwan Hayward, director of compliance, policing operations and security at TfL, said: “We are appalled by the shocking incidents. All our customers have the right to travel without fear of abuse or intimidation, and hate crime has absolutely no place on our network.
“We stand against hate crime and are looking into these incidents urgently with the police. We urge anyone who experiences or witnesses hate crime to report it to the police immediately. It’s important that people tell us so we can stop it from happening again.”
The antisemitic incidents were condemned by the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews Marie van der Zyl. She said: “It is absolutely intolerable that a Jewish passenger travelling on public transport should be subjected to disgusting racist threats and abuse in the UK in 2021 not once but twice on the same day. Those responsible should be must be tracked down and prosecuted.”
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