A 45-year-old man has been charged with attempted murder following the stabbing of two Jewish men in Golders Green, north London, in an attack that has prompted the Government to raise the UK’s terror threat level to severe.
The Metropolitan Police confirmed that Essa Suleiman faces two counts of attempted murder and one count of possession of a bladed article in a public place over Wednesday’s incident. He has also been charged with a further count of attempted murder in connection with a separate incident on the same day in Great Dover Street, Southwark.
According to the Met, officers were called to Great Dover Street at approximately 08:50 BST on Wednesday, where the suspect is believed to have had an altercation with the occupant before leaving the scene. The occupant sustained minor injuries. Detectives investigating the Golders Green attack later established a link to the earlier south London incident.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley praised the “extraordinary” response of those who first attended the scene in north-west London. He said detectives were continuing to work through the case, but stressed that the matter was now one for the courts.
Sir Mark used a series of broadcast interviews to address the wider climate facing British Jews. He told BBC Breakfast it was “tragic that any British citizen should feel afraid simply because of who they are and what they are”, describing what he called “an epidemic of antisemitism across the world and in Britain”. The force, he said, had committed extra resources to areas with significant Jewish populations and would “do everything possible” to maintain that protection.
Pressed on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme about whether police should have done more, the commissioner pointed to “an extraordinary level” of additional patrols deployed in recent weeks. He said he understood “how afraid British Jews feel” and acknowledged that “the rising tide has been there for years” — recalling that he had spoken on the same programme about antisemitism five years earlier. Successive governments, he added, had failed to grapple with the issue, and he welcomed the Prime Minister’s commitment to confront it.
Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis, speaking from the scene in Golders Green, conveyed the depth of feeling within the community while paying tribute to its “resilience, strength and fortitude”. He told the Today programme he had long called for “zero tolerance on antisemitism” and warned that “we are witnessing the normalisation of antisemitism, and it has not been taken seriously enough”.
While he welcomed the Government’s financial backing, the Chief Rabbi argued the response needed to go further. “We cannot only treat the symptoms — we need to treat the root causes,” he said, urging the wider public to speak out. “The silent majority are with us,” he added, calling on people across the country to “come out and say ‘we will not tolerate this anymore'”.
On the question of weekly demonstrations, Sir Ephraim said anger over chants such as “globalise the intifada” was “palpable”. Free speech, he acknowledged, was an integral part of British society, but “freedom must always be accompanied by responsibility — when freedom lends itself to irresponsible activity, you have to draw the line somewhere”.
The Government has announced an additional £25 million for police patrols and security at Jewish sites. Victims’ Minister Alex Davies-Jones told BBC Breakfast that the funding would contribute towards extra Metropolitan Police officers, although she acknowledged a wider need for more policing nationwide. “The time for warm words has come and gone,” she said, insisting the Jewish community “need action and they deserve action”.
Ms Davies-Jones also pointed to the Crime and Policing Act, which came into force this week and grants new powers to prevent marches taking place outside places of worship and causing “repeat intimidation”. The right to protest remained “fundamental”, she said, but marching to “take part in hate or division” was “totally unacceptable”. On Thursday, Sir Keir Starmer indicated that ministers were “looking at what further measures we can take on protests, particularly in relation to chants, to banners and the repeated nature of protests”.
The human dimension of the rising threat was underlined by Barry and Libby Frankfurt, a Jewish father and daughter from London who spoke to Today. Mr Frankfurt said the antisemitism of his youth — shouted abuse, painted swastikas — had given way to something far graver. “It’s a lot more frightening,” he said, noting fears that people may now be “shot or stabbed”. His daughter recalled being “screamed” at by a man at a concert simply for joining a conversation in Hebrew.
When the UK’s terror threat level was raised to severe on Thursday, the Government said the change had been building “for some time” and was “not solely” the result of Wednesday’s attack.
