Benjamin Netanyahu has demanded that Sir Keir Starmer take decisive action to protect Britain’s Jewish communities, saying words alone were insufficient in the wake of the Golders Green stabbings, as Israel warned that London had become too dangerous “to openly walk the streets as a Jew.”
The Israeli prime minister’s intervention came as the British government faced a wave of international and domestic condemnation following Wednesday morning’s knife attack in north London, in which two Jewish men — one in his 70s and another in his 30s — were stabbed on Golders Green Road by a suspect who was seen running along the street armed with a knife and attempting to target Jewish members of the public. Both victims were taken to hospital in a stable condition. A 45-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, with counter-terrorism police now leading the investigation.
Netanyahu called on the Prime Minister to “protect the Jews of England and bring anti-Semites to justice,” while the Israeli foreign ministry issued a blunt statement saying Starmer’s words were “no substitute for confronting the roots of anti-Semitism festering across the United Kingdom.” The ministry added: “British Jews should not need security patrols and emergency volunteers to live openly as Jews. Enough words. The UK must act decisively and urgently.”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog went further, saying London — “one of the great capital cities of the West” — had “become dangerous to openly walk the streets as a Jew.” Ambassador Yehuda Kaploun, the US president’s anti-Semitism tsar, said he was “heartbroken and outraged” by the attack. “Enough is enough,” he said. “The UK must take decisive action to ensure the safety and security of Jewish communities now.”
At home, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch called the situation a “national emergency,” saying it was “no longer a growing pattern” but “an epidemic of violence against Jewish people” that needed to be treated with the urgency it deserved. Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey echoed the call for Starmer to “do more” to keep Jewish communities safe.
Responding after Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, Starmer acknowledged the situation was “deeply concerning” and said everyone needed to do “everything we can” to support the police investigation. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood confirmed the suspect was in custody and described the attack as “abhorrent,” while Communities Secretary Steve Reed said antisemitic violence “will not be tolerated in our country.”
The Golders Green attack is the latest in a sustained and escalating campaign of violence against Jewish targets in Britain. The stabbings occurred just hours after a memorial wall in Golders Green — commemorating anti-regime protesters killed in Iran — was targeted in an arson attack. In March, four Hatzola ambulances were firebombed in the car park of a Golders Green synagogue, with two British men and a 17-year-old dual British-Pakistani national subsequently charged. Islamist militant group Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiyya, which is suspected of having links to the Iranian regime, has claimed responsibility for multiple attacks on Jewish targets across Europe, including an attempted arson at a Finchley synagogue earlier this month.
Last October, two worshippers were killed in an attack on a Manchester synagogue — the first fatal antisemitic attack recorded by the Community Security Trust since it began monitoring incidents in 1984. The CST reported 3,700 anti-Jewish hate incidents in 2025, the second-highest annual total ever recorded, representing a four per cent rise on the previous year. Jewish people have the highest rate of religious hate crimes of any faith group in the most recent official figures.
Last month, two Iranian immigrants were charged with spying on Jewish people in London on behalf of the Tehran regime. Herzog had at that time accused Starmer of allowing Iranian terrorists to “do what they want” in the UK, saying: “How come in Britain, the Prime Minister says there were about 10 or 20 events only last year linked to Iranian terror? What is this?”
Starmer had made tackling antisemitism one of his central priorities on becoming Labour leader in 2020, suspending his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn after Corbyn claimed the scale of Labour’s antisemitism crisis under his leadership had been exaggerated. But the Prime Minister now faces mounting accusations that despite additional security funding for synagogues and Jewish schools, he has failed to contain the surge in anti-Jewish hate crimes since entering Downing Street.
