London: Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Sunday (Monday AEST) there was no place for anti-Semitism in society and that British Jews should not have to endure “shameful racism”, after a video online appeared to show people shouting anti-Semitic abuse from a car in London.
Johnson was responding in part to the video, posted earlier on Sunday, showing a convoy of cars bearing Palestinian flags driving through a Jewish community in north London and broadcasting anti-Semitic messages from a megaphone.
Police investigating the incident later said they had made four arrests.
“There is no place for anti-Semitism in our society,” Johnson said on Twitter. “Ahead of Shavuot, I stand with Britain’s Jews who should not have to endure the type of shameful racism we have seen today.”
Israeli-Palestinian violence has reached its worst level in years over the last week.
“Whatever your view of the conflict in Israel and Gaza, there is no justification for inciting anti-Jewish or anti-Muslim hatred,” communities minister Robert Jenrick said in a statement.
Britain’s Metropolitan police said they have received reports of people shouting anti-Semitic abuse from a car travelling in a convoy of vehicles through the St John’s Wood area of north London.
Read the article by William James in The Sydney Morning Herald.