The Washington PostDemocracy Dies in Darkness

During Israel-Hamas conflict, British Jews come under physical and verbal attack

May 21, 2021 at 1:10 p.m. EDT
Participants at a London antisemitism rally in December 2019. (Matthew Chattle/Barcroft Media/Getty Images)

LONDON — A convoy of cars made its way through the leafy neighborhood of St. John’s Wood, a north London area that many Jews call home. With horns blaring, windows blackened and cars draped with Palestinian flags, demonstrators hung out of windows and sunroofs.

From inside one car, a man shouted an antisemitic tirade into a megaphone, calling for the rape of Jewish women as horrified neighbors recorded from inside their homes.