Anti-Israel activists on Thursday evening held massive protests near U.K. prime minister Keir Starmer's residence in London after a Syrian-born terrorist carried out a deadly attack outside a U.K. synagogue on Yom Kippur.
Video footage showed police officers struggling to contain hundreds of anti-Israel protesters who were marching and shouting slogans near Starmer's residence and key government buildings. Another clip captured officers clashing with the demonstrators and making arrests. Authorities arrested 40 people, including 6 for assaults on police officers, BBC reported.
The protests erupted just hours after Jihad al-Shamie, a terrorist who was born in Syria and became a British citizen in 2006, carried out a car ramming and stabbing attack outside a Manchester synagogue on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, resulting in two deaths. Police killed the assailant, arrested three individuals in connection with the incident, and declared it a terrorist attack.
The assailant's father allegedly lauded Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks on Israel in which 1,200 people were killed and another 250 were taken hostage. He praised Hamas's attack as a "miracle," saying "men like these prove they are Allah's men on earth," according to the Telegraph.
Starmer, for his part, sparked scrutiny last month when he announced the United Kingdom's recognition of a Palestinian state. The families of Israeli hostages denounced the move, saying that it "dramatically complicated efforts to bring home our loved ones." Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas has reportedly since demanded that the United Kingdom pay it reparations, which could be worth up to trillions of dollars.
U.K. home secretary Shabana Mahmood said she was "disappointed" by the anti-Israel protests following the Manchester synagogue attack and urged demonstrators to "step back" from planned marches this weekend.
Journalist Stephen Pollard was more blunt. "Look at what happened last night, hours after two Jews had been murdered and the deaths of many others prevented only by heroism," Pollard wrote in the Spectator, adding, "Mobs gathered not just in Whitehall but also in London railway stations and in Leeds, Manchester, Bristol, Bournemouth and elsewhere. Is this how normal people react after a terrorist attack?"
Anti-Semitism has surged across Europe since Hamas’s Oct. 7 terrorist attack. The United Kingdom had 1,500 anti-Semitic incidents in the first half of 2025, second only to the first six months of last year, according to the Community Security Trust. The European Commission likewise reported last year that "the conflicts in the Middle East have led to levels of antisemitism unprecedented since the founding of the European Union."
