The Metropolitan Police is setting up a new dedicated Community Protection Team of 100 additional officers to help protect Jewish communities across London after a series of antisemitic attacks, including the stabbing of two men.
The new team brings together neighborhood policing, specialist protection, and counter terrorism capabilities, providing a more visible, intelligence-led, and coordinated presence across Jewish areas.
The announcement comes as officers confirm more arrests for antisemitism, including detaining a 35-year-old man on Saturday after rocks were thrown at an ambulance belonging to the Jewish community.
Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said the new team was an important step in strengthening police response to the sustained threats Jewish communities are facing.
He also welcomed the government’s £18 million funding to support the protective police force, which has already paid for thousands of additional officer shifts at a time of exceptional pressure. However, he said that this funding was short-term.
“We are working with the government and the mayor to ensure the approach we are building can be sustained over time, not just for Jewish communities, but as a model that can support other communities across London when facing elevated risk,” he added.
Since late March, the UK has endured a number of high-profile arson attacks, with four Jewish ambulances burned and synagogues targeted. Last week, two Jewish men were also stabbed. Both victims survived the attack.
Crown Prosecution Service to expedite antisemitism cases
Over the past four weeks, police said they had arrested around 50 people for antisemitic hate crimes and charged eight individuals. Additionally, of those, 28 arrests have been made as part of investigations alongside counter terrorism policing for arson and other serious incidents. Overall, this means over 80 arrests have been made.
In order to provide the correct infrastructure for these arrests, the Crown Prosecution Service has updated legal guidance to speed up charging decisions in hate crime cases.
The guidance, issued by Director of Public Prosecutions Stephen Parkinson, focuses on the gathering of core evidence so action can be taken to make sure cases progress swiftly.
Key changes in the guidance include faster charging decisions: where the evidential threshold is met, charging decisions should be made, even if some supporting evidence can be obtained later. There will also be a sharper focus on core evidence, more of a reliance on victim accounts (in appropriate cases, prosecutors can make a charging decision based on a reliable victim’s account) and reduced pre-charge disclosure requirements in hate crime cases.
Stephen Parkinson, Director of Public Prosecutions, deplored the acts of extreme violence and criminal damage against the Jewish community in recent months.
He stressed that daily threats or abuse designed to harass and distress Jewish people were also criminal offences and were contributing to a climate of fear felt by the Jewish community.
“If we allow this behaviour to become normalized, then its seriousness will become diminished, and the problem of antisemitism will continue to grow. We must stop it in its tracks,” Parkinson said.
“I want to make it clear that if you are threatening or abusive toward someone and you intend to cause distress or are likely to cause distress, then that is an offence. If your actions are motivated by religious or racial hatred, then additional penalties apply.”
Dave Rich, director of policy at the Community Security Trust, welcomed “this clear and robust guidance from the CPS and said he hoped to see it implemented with real force across the country.”
“Anti-Jewish hate crimes are running at far too high a level, and we hope that quicker prosecutions will deter further offenders and will show the Jewish community that the CPS will act to bring antisemites to justice.”
Separately, The Times reported on Wednesday that perpetrators of antisemitic attacks orchestrated by Tehran would face 14 years in prison, even if they did not realize they were acting on behalf of Iranian proxies.
The report said that new legislation was set to be introduced during the King’s Speech on May 13 that would give the home secretary the power to designate proxy groups – such as those thought to be behind the recent attacks on the Jewish community – as members of a foreign intelligence service.
This is in specific reference to the shadowy online group Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia (HAYI), the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right, which has claimed 17 attacks on Jewish, Israeli, and Iranian dissident-linked sites since March 9. Of these, seven were carried out in London and five involved arson. The Golders Green attack was the first to be declared a terror incident.
HAYI seems to operate in the form of “gig economy” terrorism, recruiting petty criminals on social media to carry out acts of terrorism, sabotage, and espionage.
The new 14-year sentence was teased by Deputy Assistant Commissioner Vicki Evans, the senior national coordinator of Counter Terrorism Policing, on April 19. She warned anyone considering getting involved that the UK was considering prosecuting offences under the National Security Act.
The National Security Act 2023 was passed to counter threats from foreign states using espionage, cyber attacks, sabotage, and political interference. Right now, prosecutions under that law are quite rare, mainly because it is new. It primarily targets people working with or on behalf of foreign governments.
Under the Act, espionage offences are punishable with up to life imprisonment, while assisting a foreign intelligence service or carrying out a sabotage offence each carry sentences of up to 14 years in prison.