Two from the Telegraph. Anti-semitism in modern life.
Prosecutors refused to treat Jews allegedly subjected to Nazi salutes, intimidation and harassment as victims of hate crime until threatened with legal action.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) only agreed to review the decision not to prosecute when lawyers for two of the complainants applied for a judicial review.
The CPS is now carrying out a full review of its original decision.
A 29-year-old man and a 69-year-old woman alleged they and others had been targeted outside the JW3 community centre in north London on Oct 27 last year.
They claimed they were subjected to intimidating chants of “globalise the intifada” and “one solution, Intifada revolution”, as well as at least one Nazi salute, by pro-Palestinian protestors.
Both complainants provided witness statements to police, who investigated. However, when the case was referred to the CPS, a decision was made not to prosecute.
The police encouraged the victims to challenge this decision through the Victims’ Right to Review (VRR) scheme, supporters of the pair say.
But the CPS determined they were not eligible as it did not consider them “victims” under the scheme. This effectively removed their ability to challenge the decision.
With the support of Stop the Hate UK, a Jewish campaign group, the pair subsequently instructed lawyers and initiated judicial review proceedings to challenge the CPS’s position.
The woman in the case . . . said in a victim statement seen by The Telegraph, that during the protests she was confronted by one pro-Palestine activist outside the JW3 centre who “stared straight at me, drumming and shouting hateful slogans in my direction. I then witnessed [him] make what I understood to be a Nazi salute – a raised arm that I recognised as ‘Sieg Heil’. I was shaken by his conduct and felt this was directed at me personally. . . conduct by protestors which made me fear for my immediate safety and for my future in this country as a Jewish woman. I was chased away from my home and my community and received no real reassurance or protection by police.””
The 69-year-old added: “I felt that it was no longer safe to stay in my home.
The legal challenge over the CPS’s response to the JW3 protest came after police and prosecutors had been accused of repeatedly allowing anti-Semitic hate speech to go unpunished.
The groups have now called on the Metropolitan Police and CPS to come down harder on displays of anti-Semitism, which include the harassment of Jews, open death threats and vocal support for the Hamas terror group. There has been ongoing controversy over claims of a two-tier justice system, with the authorities appearing to be reluctant to tackle growing incidents of anti-Semitic hate speech.
and
A London bus driver accused of “trapping” a Jewish passenger on board his vehicle has been suspended.
David Abraham, 52, an Orthodox Jew, said he was locked inside the bus in Stamford Hill, north London, on Monday after he accidentally dropped his bank card into the driver’s cabin. And he alleged that the driver, who has not been named, told him during the incident: “I don’t like Jewish people.”
The Metropolitan Police has opened a hate crime investigation and the driver has been suspended by Arriva, the bus operator, while the company investigates.
Mr Abraham was returning home from his synagogue at 1.35pm on Monday when he dropped his bank card into the driver’s cabin while attempting to pay his fare. When he asked for it to be returned, he said, the driver told him: “No, I am not giving it to you… I don’t want to see a Mossad agent in my face… I don’t like Jewish people.”
Mr Abraham then asked other passengers to assist him. “They were nervous and they [asked the driver] why he was behaving like that,” he told The Jewish Chronicle, adding that the other passengers eventually disembarked.
“He [the driver] told me to get out [and leave the card] and said, ‘If you don’t get out, I will lock you in the bus.’ I didn’t, and he locked me in the bus.”
Mr Abraham said he was inside the bus for an hour, during which time he called the police. “The police opened the cabin door, took my bank card and gave it to me.”
Sir Michael Ellis, a former attorney-general, said: “The police should be investigating this distressing incident as an alleged offence of false imprisonment. This is just the latest in a series of allegations of anti-Jewish hatred on public transport in London – and it requires an urgent response.”
