“The last hour would not come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone or a tree would say: Muslim, or the servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him; but the tree Gharqad would not say, for it is the tree of the Jews.” (Sahih Muslim 6985)

“CAA Offers £10,000 Reward for Information Leading to Conviction in Connection with ‘Life-or-Death’ Antisemitic Attack in West Hampstead,” Campaign Against Antisemitism, April 14, 2022:

…Over Chanukah, a Jewish man was allegedly violently attacked by a man carrying what appeared to be a knife in an antisemitic attack in the north London neighbourhood. The alleged assailant said that he wanted to “Kill my first Jew” but has not been traced.

Police released a CCTV image of a man whom they need to speak with. The photograph that has been released may not be of the assailant.

Following the attack, police faced criticism for their initial slow response, which they had said would take an hour to respond to, however the police investigation was upgraded following intervention by CST. Nevertheless, the investigation has stalled, and we are now again appealing to the public to provide information so that justice can be done for the victim.

The incident took place on 2nd December at around 19:20, when the victim was returning from work. He exited West Hampstead Underground Station and walked to the nearby Marks and Spencer supermarket located in West Hampstead Square.

He saw the alleged attacker desecrating a 4-metre high public Chanukiah that was erected on West Hampstead Square to celebrate the Jewish festival of Chanukah, pulling the object down before proceeding to stamp on in and shout antisemitic abuse.

With no prior interaction, the attacker approached the victim and aggressively said: “You look Jewish” and that he was “looking for a Jew to kill” after singling out the victim among other pedestrians, despite there being no visible indication of his Jewish background.

He allegedly asked threateningly: “Are you Jewish?” The victim, understandably wishing to avoid a confrontation, said “No,” to which the man replied: “Good, I want to find a Jew to kill.”

The victim entered a nearby Marks and Spencer supermarket and the man remained outside. The victim was worried for the safety of other Jews and their families in the neighbourhood where the man was loitering, which has a sizeable Jewish population. The victim approached a supermarket employee, who said that the man had been in the store earlier.

The victim decided to call the police, explaining the situation to them over the course of about eight minutes.

Officers told the victim that they did not consider the case urgent enough for a priority response and would come within an hour, despite the attacker threatening to kill Jews.

After a short period of time, the victim spotted the man again, outside the shop, pulling down the public Chanukiah which someone had put back up in the intervening time. The victim also said that the man was shouting aggressively at a young woman, aged 18-25 who fled the square. He then returned to pulling the Chanukiah to the ground.

Fearing for the young woman, the victim and the supermarket employee confronted the man from a ten-metre distance. The attacker allegedly shouted at him in response: “I knew you were Jewish, you lied to me” and began walking towards his victim while shouting: “You are Jewish. I am going to kill you.” He said something in Arabic before allegedly declaring: “I want to kill my first Jew.”

The victim ran back into Marks and Spencer and turned to see if the man had followed him, which he had, having put on a facemask in the meantime.

As the assailant walked into the shop, he shouted at the victim again: “You are Jewish.”

The man reached the victim, allegedly squaring up to him aggressively with barely a metre between them. Within seconds, the man allegedly pushed the victim as hard as he could with both hands on the victim’s chest, forcing the victim to take a step backwards, all the while repeating: “You are Jewish. I am going to kill you.”