Pro-Palestinian marches may be stopped in UK after anti-Semitic attacks — Starmer

LONDON, May 2. /TASS/. Pro-Palestinian marches may be suspended in the UK after a series of anti-Semitic attacks, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in an interview with the BBC Broadcasting Corporation. "When you hear some of those chants - ‘globalize the intifada’ the one that I would pick out - then clearly there should be tougher action in relation to that," he said. "I think it’s time to look across the board at protests and the cumulative effect. I think it’s time for some people protesting to just reflect on what the Jewish community is going through and the overall impact this is having." However, he added that people have the right to be deeply alarmed by the events in the Middle East, especially in the Gaza Strip. Earlier, Chief Rabbi of the United Jewish Community of Great Britain and the Commonwealth Ephraim Mirvis proposed suspending pro-Palestinian marches after a terrorist attack in the north of London. The Conservative Party and the right-wing populist Reform UK party called on the Labor government to take a tougher stance on the demonstrations. The Greens and the leftist Your Party said that anti-Semitic attacks should not serve as grounds for restricting civil liberties. On April 29, a British citizen born in Somalia wounded two men, aged 34 and 76, with a knife in the Golders Green area, where a large Jewish community lives. They are in the hospital, their condition is stable. The attacker was arrested on the spot. The incident was declared a terrorist attack. On April 30, the British security services raised the terrorist threat level from "significant" to "severe" (level four out of five). This means that terrorist attacks are "highly likely" in the next six months. Since the outbreak of the war in Iran at the end of February, several attacks on Jewish organizations have been recorded in London — ambulances of the Jewish volunteer organization Hatzalah were set on fire and there were attempts to set fire to the building of the Jewish charity organization Jewish Futures and two synagogues.