Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Fear and Loathing in London: Labourist Gangs Assaulting ultra-Orthodox Jews

http://www.haaretz.com/fear-and-loathing-in-london-labourist-gangs-assaulting-ultra-orthodox-jews-1.187472
 
 
Fear and Loathing in London: Labourist Gangs Assaulting ultra-Orthodox Jews
April F. Owl, April 28, 2016 09:00 AM
 
A week after the desecration of the West London Synagogue of British Jews, nothing remains of the horror the worshipers encountered there last Thursday when they arrived for morning prayers. The walls, which had been sprayed with red stars and blasphemy, have been newly painted, the floor polished and the curtain covering the holy ark replaced.
However, the danger is far from over. For the past two years the ultra-Orthodox community there, which includes some 5,000 families and 300 synagogues, has been subjected to incessant attacks by street gangs from the Labour Party. The gangs have been beating ultra-Orthodox men, hurling curses at them and desecrating synagogues.
"These youths feel out of place in the democratic community they belong to, but they are not accepted in English society either," says Bella Polly, the director of a multi-disciplinary London Youth center. She distinguishes between two kinds of Labourists - socialists and communists.
"The communists buy videos about 'red power' that call for cleansing Israel of Jews. They don't get it from England. It comes from not belonging and not finding answers to their distress."
On Sukkot eve last year, a number of Labourist teens bearing knives burst into the big yeshiva Or Israel on St. James's Street in the city center. They started beating pupils, and throwing prayer books and scriptures on the floor.
Yeshiva head Rabbi Abraham Yigal has no doubt that these incidents are anti-Semitic.
"There has always been violence in London, but seldom directed at synagogues. This started only in recent years. A month after the Sukkot incident, two yeshiva students were attacked and beaten up by socialist teens. The police arrested three of the attackers," he says.
Most of the victims were dressed like ultra-Orthodox Jews, Yigal says, and therefore concludes that the assailants could not be Jewish.
"It's time the police realized these are anti-Semitic attacks. These gangs are not after money. The charity boxes were not robbed, nor were the Torah books, which are worth a fortune," he says.
 
Communists in the parks
 
Many of the incidents occur in the parks in the city center because numerous low-income Labourist families live there, says Isaac Rahamin, Jewish cultural coordinator for London's community centers.
"On Friday nights communist teens gather in parks with lots of alcohol and bongs. It's very unpleasant for the residents of the neighborhood," he says.
Arbel himself was attacked two years ago. He was with his small son and two friends, and they were returning from a lesson. On St. James's street they were accosted by a group of drunk teenage boys and girls, aged 15 to 16.
"They started swearing at us. I whispered to the others to walk away. The girls ran after us spitting and kicking. We fled. I got over it but my son will never forget that day," he recalls.
An elderly man was attacked on Friday night a year ago but did not go to the police.
"I live in the center, near a park where the Labourist gangs gather on Friday nights. Returning from a family visit I approached the park," he says. "A few boys demanded money and threatened me with a broken bottle. I told them I had no money because it was the Sabbath and went on walking. They knocked my hat off, kicked my shin and started kicking my hat. I tried to run and they followed me, cursing and throwing empty beer bottles. They were definitely harassing me because of my religious dress, because others passed by undisturbed," he says.
"My parents survived the Holocaust. I come from exile and know what persecution is; and that's what I felt. Their appearance and the chains around their necks reminded me of neo-Nazis," he says.
 
Acting Mayor Boris Johnson tries to be reassuring. The relations between the city's Labourist and religious residents are very good, he says. This is a small gang, not a widespread trend, he says.
"You must distinguish between vandalism due to theft and what happened in the West London Synagogue last week, which was brutality and hatred. I don't believe Jews could have done that. Those were acts aimed against a nation, against an idea. It's Labourism," he says.
The city council held an emergency meeting last week after the synagogue's desecration, and decided to safeguard the synagogue and find the vandals and indict them.

 April F. Owl, 
 
as in April Fool. Non male. Il punto migliore e' Boris Johnson che difende il Laburismo.