LONDON – In the wake of a terror-linked stabbing attack that injured two Jewish men in a London neighborhood with a large Jewish population, United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer has called for stricter enforcement against inflammatory rhetoric at pro-Palestinian demonstrations, acknowledging that the rise in antisemitic violence across the country has put British Jewish communities on high alert. The incident, which took place on Wednesday in Golders Green – a longstanding hub of British Jewish life – left two men hospitalized, and a 45-year-old suspect has already been charged with attempted murder. London’s Metropolitan Police have formally classified the attack as an act of terrorism, marking the latest in a growing string of antisemitic incidents targeting Jewish people and sites across the capital, including recent arson attempts at local synagogues.
Speaking to the BBC on Saturday, Starmer emphasized that while the UK upholds the fundamental right to peaceful protest, authorities must not tolerate language that incites violence and hatred. He specifically called out the chant “globalize the intifada” – a phrase that translates to “globalize the uprising” – as an example of rhetoric that demands far tougher legal action. Starmer also noted that repeated large-scale pro-Palestinian marches have created a cumulative effect that has contributed to the sharp spike in antisemitic incidents recorded across the nation. When pressed on whether future protests could be restricted, the prime minister did not rule out formal bans for demonstrations that cross the line from peaceful protest to hate speech and intimidation.
The severity of the current threat to British Jews was underscored by the UK’s most senior law enforcement official, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley, who warned Friday that Jewish communities are now facing the most sustained and widespread security challenge in modern British history. Rowley blamed the proliferation of antisemitic content on social media platforms for normalizing anti-Jewish hatred in mainstream public discourse, noting that Jewish people have become a shared target for almost every extremist faction operating in the UK today. “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,” Rowley told The Times. “There’s a ghastly Venn diagram that they’re at the middle of.”
Following Wednesday’s stabbing attack, UK authorities raised the country’s official terror threat level from “substantial” to “severe” – the second-highest ranking on the government’s five-point threat scale. A “severe” classification indicates that intelligence agencies assess a terrorist attack to be highly likely within the next six months. Government officials clarified that the adjustment was not triggered solely by the Golders Green incident, but reflects a broader increase in risk from both Islamist and far-right extremist actors, most of whom are individuals or small independent groups based within the UK.
Data from the Community Security Trust, a charity that monitors antisemitism and protects Jewish communities across the UK, confirms that hate incidents have skyrocketed since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on southern Israel and the subsequent outbreak of war in Gaza. The organization recorded 3,700 antisemitic incidents nationwide in 2025, a more than 120% increase from the 1,662 incidents recorded in 2022 before the current conflict began.