SHADOW Foreign Secretary Dame Priti Patel has described the Golders Green arson attack as “incomprehensible” and said the “level of anti-Semitism across our country is out of order”.
She said on GB News: “I find this incomprehensible. This is a community that I know very well, but also through the extensive work and support we’ve all done in the past and clearly takes place now. The fact that something like this is happening in modern Britain and in London today is really hard to comprehend.
“This is terrible. It is absolutely terrible. And it speaks volumes now that the way in which we feel about the Jewish community, their safety and security is paramount. There is a war taking place. Israel is under threat from Iran.
“There’s a lot of work that the British authorities need to do. The Metropolitan Police, in particular with counter-terrorism police, will absolutely need to find the perpetrators of this.
“This is a community in shock, but obviously a community that is living in fear. And I have to say, as someone that is very familiar with the Jewish community, I’ve grown up with them. I’ve lived amongst them. I just struggle to comprehend what has taken place.
“This is a volunteer ambulance service. This is people that volunteer within their community to save lives, and they’re under assault in this particular way. It’s abhorrent. It really is. The perpetrators of this must be found.”
She added: “The level of anti-Semitism across our country is out of order. It really is. We need to get a grip of this issue and quite frankly, we need to deal with this in the right kind of way. The authorities have the powers.
“It’s not good enough for people and the authorities to say they’re powerless. There are individuals who have been out there on those abhorrent hate marches, intimidating the Jewish community, behaving in an absolutely despicable way. That is the only word to use.
“They’re the ones showing intolerance against a peaceful community in London, but across our country. We saw just last October in Heaton Park, the atrocity that took place in the synagogue there. This, I’m afraid, is symptomatic of the level of hate that is being on display and perpetrated against the Jewish community, that is not acceptable.
“Quite frankly, it’s not the Britain that we love. It’s not the country that I grew up in, someone that lived and grew up with the Jewish community. I find this totally incomprehensible, unacceptable, and enough is enough. We have to stand against this. We really do, and show that tolerance prevails, and we, all of us, including the Jewish community in the United Kingdom, must be able to live their lives in peace and in the way in which they want to go about living.”
On a possible link to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps of Iran, she said: “We, myself, my colleagues, we’ve been speaking about the way in which Iranian proxies have been operating in our country. It was only two weeks ago that there were arrests made of individuals, Iranian individuals targeting the Jewish community.
“That tells us everything we need to know about Iranian proxies. They sponsor terrorism. They sponsor their hatred against certain communities, definitely against the Jewish community. The police and the counter-terrorism teams must act on this. They really must.
“And you know my views, I’ve said this again and again and again. I said it just last week in Parliament, Britain is an outlier. Parts of the world have basically proscribed the IRGC, ranging from the United States to our friends in the Gulf to the European Union even, and our Commonwealth colleagues in Canada.
“Britain needs to do exactly the same, and Britain must act now. This is an absolute disgrace. It really is. And let’s not forget, just on Friday, there were two arrests in Faslane of Iranian nationals as well, trying to access Britain’s nuclear submarines. This is a very serious threat.
“I’ve spoken many times before about the threat that Iran poses to our domestic homeland. The British government needs to get a grip on this now they really must, and I would say to them very clearly and firmly, once again, they need to prescribe the IRGC. We are at war.”
