Lord Polak
To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the antisemitic arson attack on ambulances in Golders Green, and what steps they are taking to protect Jewish communities from similar attacks in the future.
The Minister of State, Home Office (Lord Hanson of Flint) (Lab)
My Lords, the police are in the early stages of their investigation. They have arrested two British nationals, who are now on bail, and the police are looking at possible motivation. I cannot speculate further at this time. The Government have supported the Jewish community with record levels of security funding, police support, and clear action to root out antisemitism wherever it appears.
Lord Polak (Con)
I thank the Minister, but as we celebrate Passover next week, the ancient festival of freedom, it is shocking that the Jewish community needs help to enjoy that freedom in 2026. Over the past weeks, I have stood in this place and spoken of the Golders Green ambulance attack, antisemitism on campus, 20 failed IRGC plots, proscribing the IRGC, West Midlands police lies, BBC antisemitism, proscribing the IRGC again, hate marches, and the deadly terrorist attack in Manchester. I am not sure whether noble Lords have noticed a pattern. The Jewish community is being intimidated and terrorised at home, here in the UK. I ask the Minister just one question: can he name any other community that is obliged to have professional guards and enhanced security systems to protect all its places of worship, all its schools and all its communal buildings?
Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)
The noble Lord will know that I think the attacks he has listed are vile crimes. Some are still under investigation, but they are vile crimes and there is absolutely no place in this United Kingdom for antisemitism. There is a range of other communities which regularly face attack, but I share his concern that the Jewish community is being singled out. In this Government, from the Prime Minister downwards, we will take a stand against antisemitism, we will not tolerate it, and we will take steps both to protect the Jewish community and ultimately to drive out the causes of those attacks in the first place.
Lord Palmer of Childs Hill (LD)
My Lords, I must first declare an interest in that Hatzola, which runs the ambulances, came to my home when my wife broke her leg, and it came to my home when I fell down and was unconscious, and took me to hospital. It is a Jewish organisation but it does not help only Jews. I have been in Golders Green, the area we are talking about, when a woman fell down in the middle of the street, and Hatzola came to deal with it. There was a man lying prone on the pavement, of who knows what religion, and Hatzola came to help him. This is a charitable organisation. I ask the Minister this question with great reluctance, because I have always said we must not conflate the things that happen in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza with what happens in the UK, but is there not a similarity between these attacks on the ambulances in Golders Green and the Hamas attacks on the peaceful settlements of kibbutzim in southern Israel? Is there not a playbook here, where Jews in Israel and the UK are being targeted? Can the Minister ask the police authorities whether Hamas is active in the UK?
Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)
First of all, I share the noble Lord’s concern about the attack and about the damage that was done. In response to that damage, the Government have replaced those four ambulances that were burned and will help support that organisation in future to rebuild the types of services that the noble Lord referred to so that we can have a continuum of support in that way. I hope the House will recognise that I cannot comment on the motivation of the attack. Two individuals have been arrested and they are on bail. We do not know what their motivation was, but I say to the noble Lord that antisemitism, whether in Israel or in the United Kingdom, is a vile action. It needs to be attacked and shown up for what it is, and the Government, both at home and abroad, as my noble friend Lady Chapman mentioned earlier, will take action to ensure that we drive it out. We can of course attack the State of Israel and its policies but antisemitism is an entirely different thing, and I share the noble Lord’s concern on that matter.
Lord Roe of West Wickham (Lab)
My Lords, I would like to ask my noble friend the Minister a practical question, but first I must commend the actions of my former colleagues in tackling this terrible incident—this vile attack on the Jewish community in London—because they faced great danger and difficulty in doing so; having spoken to them, I am sure of that. My question is focused on, and builds on, the question from the right reverend Prelate: what is the Home Office doing in combination with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government in interfaith work? My experience in these matters is that after events escalated in the Middle East, in the London Fire Brigade and in the Metropolitan Police we saw an extraordinary rise in physical attacks on both the Jewish and Muslim communities, almost in parallel. Our view as professionals in the security and safety space was that more work needed to be done to generate co-operation and mutual understanding and to counter some of the vile politics, antisemitism and Islamophobia that we were seeing played out in the most awful way in physical attacks on the streets. What are we doing in the interfaith space to support local community groups, which very often do great work but not always with the resources they need?
Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)
My noble friend is right to praise the emergency services that responded to the event, because they do not know what they are walking into at the time of an attack. The Government are very keen to support, and are doing a lot of good work through the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, with the Home Office and others, to encourage, that genuine interfaith co-operation, so that faiths understand and support each other and the division between Jew, Christian and Muslim is not one that is reflected by the community at large, and so that they put resilience in place to help give support after incidents such as this across community bases.
Lord Davies of Gower (Con)
My Lords, on behalf of His Majesty’s Official Opposition I too express my absolute horror at the antisemitic arson attack in Golders Green, which was an abhorrent attack on community ambulances provided by a peaceful volunteer-led service. Unfortunately, this is what happens when we have slogans such as “Globalise the intifada” and “From the river to the sea” aired so publicly on our streets. In light of this, what action will the Government take to choke off the rising tide of antisemitism, particularly arising from Islamist extremism? Will the Government perhaps now act to outlaw and proscribe the IRGC, which we asked for in debates on the Crime and Policing Bill?
Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)
The Government have taken very strong action and recently published Protecting What Matters. That will include, for example, specialist disruption units to detect, expose and counter extremist influence across the UK. We are looking at giving state threats designation powers, which is another form of proscription, in relation to a range of bodies. We are also increasing efforts to stop hate preachers and extremists both entering the UK and using platforms outside the UK to influence activity as a whole. The noble Lord knows that we keep the IRGC proscription under review, but that also does not mean that we do not take sanctions against the Iranian regime and very strong measures generally. But the review is ongoing, and we will never trail any proscription that we finally undertake.
Baroness Foster of Aghadrumsee (Non-Afl)
My Lords, I absolutely agree with the Minister’s assessment that this was a vile attack on the Jewish community. As a Christian, I stand in solidarity with that Jewish community today. Does the Minister agree with me that the growth of extremism and indeed the continued glorification and normalisation of terrorism in our society lead to attacks such as these, particularly with the impressionable young people who listen to these chants all the time and are influenced by them?
Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)
We should never glorify terrorism. I know that we have had debate on this in the Crime and Policing Bill, and we are still reflecting on points that the noble Baroness has mentioned. It is important that the Government and every individual citizen make a stand against antisemitism and extremism. We will do that, and I hope that I will have the support of the House in trying to devise policies to put that into practice.
Baroness Berger (Lab)
My Lords, we know from our security services that they have so far foiled at least 20 Iranian-backed, potentially lethal plots against the Jewish community on British soil in recent years. On Monday, Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia claimed responsibility online for the attack on the Hatzola ambulances, the veracity of which I know is under investigation. Can my noble friend the Minister say what assessment the Government have made of the extent, nature and severity of the Iranian threat against the British Jewish community?
Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)
We recognise that the Iranian state is a malign influence, and we have taken steps to sanction individuals and prevent them entering the United Kingdom, and, as I said to the noble Lord, Lord Davies of Gower, we keep the issue of proscription under review at all times. We have also given £28 million to the Jewish community to help protect synagogues and schools, and we will keep that under review. In addition, as my noble friend mentioned, the security services are active, day in, day out, in order to take intelligence-led action against potential plots against the Jewish community, and indeed in other areas of our society. This is an existential threat and the Government will take action when it is needed. However, we keep the issue of proscription under review as to whether that is an effective way of supporting our security services in achieving the objectives that we all want, which are that people from the Jewish community—to go back to the supplementary question from the noble Lord, Lord Polak—have a right to enjoy their religion and their community and to live safely in the United Kingdom like anybody else.