LONDON — Following violent attacks targeting Jewish residents in London, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced Saturday that authorities need to take stronger measures against individuals using specific inflammatory language during pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
While emphasizing his support for peaceful protest rights, Starmer indicated that certain Gaza-related marches might warrant prohibition due to their collective impact on rising antisemitic violence throughout the United Kingdom.
“When you see, when you hear some of those chants — ‘globalize the intifada’ would be one I would pick out — then clearly there should be tougher action in relation to that,” Starmer told the BBC. The Arabic word intifada is generally translated as “uprising.”
The prime minister’s comments came after authorities charged a 45-year-old suspect with attempted murder in connection with Wednesday’s knife attack against two Jewish victims in London’s Golders Green area, a neighborhood known as a hub for Britain’s Jewish population. Law enforcement officials have classified the incident as terrorism.
This assault represents just one episode in an ongoing pattern of violence that has included recent arson incidents targeting synagogues and additional Jewish facilities throughout London.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley issued a stark warning Friday, stating that Jewish communities in Britain now face unprecedented levels of danger, with social media platforms amplifying antisemitic sentiment beyond previous levels.
“The ghastly fact is that Jews are on everybody’s list, all of those hateful groups, whether you’re extreme right, whether you’re extreme left, whether you’re Islamist terrorist, whether you’re right-wing terrorist, and some hostile states as well now with some sort of Iranian-related threats,” he told The Times. “There’s a ghastly Venn diagram that they’re at the middle of.”
Following Wednesday’s stabbing incident, British officials elevated the nation’s terrorism alert status from substantial to severe, indicating intelligence services believe another attack is highly probable within six months.
Government officials clarified that this heightened threat assessment stems not only from the Golders Green violence but also reflects growing dangers “from Islamist and extreme right-wing terrorist threat from individuals and small groups based in the U.K.”
Data from the Community Security Trust charity reveals a dramatic surge in reported antisemitic incidents nationwide since Hamas-led militants launched their attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, triggering the subsequent Gaza war. The organization documented 3,700 incidents in 2025, representing a significant jump from 1,662 cases recorded in 2022.
