Counter-terror police arrest seven over plot to attack Jewish target

From the Telegraph and

Counter-terror police have arrested seven people suspected of plotting an arson attack on a Jewish target.

The arrests, in Harpenden and Stevenage, Hertfordshire, and in Birmingham, were part of a proactive investigation into an alleged conspiracy to commit arson.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said that while the intended target was believed to be related to the Jewish community, the specific location was not known.

There has been a string of arson attacks on Jewish targets in London in recent weeks . . . Counter-terror police have been leading the investigations and have made a spate of arrests in the last 48 hours.

A Met spokesman said: “Seven of these arrests, carried out in the past 48 hours, are part of a proactive investigation into alleged conspiracy to commit arson. At this time, while it is believed that the intended target of this conspiracy is a venue related to the Jewish community, the specific target or venue is not known.

“Detectives from CTP [Counter-Terror Police] London arrested three men, aged 24, 25 and 26, in Harpenden shortly after 9pm on Sunday, April 19. They were taken into custody before being released on bail. On Monday, April 20, a 25-year-old man was arrested in Stevenage. A 26-year-old man and two women aged 50 and 59 were also arrested in a car near Birmingham.

“They have all been taken to a London police station, where they currently remain in custody.”

Since the attack on the Hatzola ambulances in Golders Green on March 23, CTP officers have arrested 23 people. Eight have been charged with arson-related offences, while 13 remain in custody or on bail under active police investigation.

Kemi Badenoch has claimed there would be a national emergency if black churches were attacked in the same way as Jewish synagogues.  The Conservative leader . . . told LBC: “As a black woman in this country, I have never seen the level of racism, discrimination, intimidation and attacks that have been directed at the Jewish community.

“I think that if people were firebombing black churches – the way that synagogues have been attacked, people killed, being firebombed, the ambulance services being firebombed – I think there would be a national emergency.

“I think we’re getting to that stage.”

Jewish leaders have warned that anti-Semitism in the UK is “gathering momentum” and have accused the police and the Government of failing to protect them.