‘People were shaking with fear’: The Jewish community centre besieged by pro-Palestine activists

How an event which included voices openly critical of Israel aroused such fury has raised questions about the motive behind the protest

“We were besieged,” says Raymond Simonson, the chief executive of Britain’s largest Jewish community centre, JW3, in north London. “Our visitors were pressed up against the outer perimeter. In front of them were people screaming and shouting in their faces.
“Nothing the protestors were doing had anything to do with freedom or peace. This was about intimidation and bullying. I’d defend the rights of anyone to protest, even outside this building, but when you shout ‘Nazis’ and ‘baby killers’ in the face of British Jews whose families have suffered at the hands of Nazis then that is not about sending a message of anything other than intimidation.”
It wasn’t just the nature of the protests in Finchley Road on Sunday that made this particular confrontation noteworthy – the footage from the day shows the aggression faced by attendees. It was also that this relatively small group of activists (about 150 at its peak) were demonstrating against what was, in all but name, a peace conference involving Israeli Jews, British Jews, Palestinians and Arab Israelis. Not only that, but the event was co-hosted by Haaretz, the Left-wing Israeli publisher that yesterday found itself blacklisted by three Israeli government ministries for using the phrases “apartheid” and “freedom fighters” at JW3. That a conference which included so many voices openly critical of Israel aroused such fury has led many to question the motivation behind the protest.
“Those directly affected were the 650 people attending,” says Simonson, 53, who has spent his whole career in youth and community work, and was involved in the JW3 project even before it opened 11 years ago. “But within minutes, hundreds of thousands of people had seen the footage of the mob on social media. I got messages asking if I was safe because people had heard ‘JW3 was under attack’. So even if you weren’t there it affects you – you can’t escape the anxiety. I’ve never seen people come in shaking and in tears with fear like this before. It was a different feeling.”
“We had done some preparation with the police and the Community Security Trust [a charity that provides protection for Jews facing anti-Semitism], so by the night before we’d upped our security even further. The event was supposed to start at 9am and by 8.45am we could see a group of protestors gathering and they had a lot of equipment with them – a PA system and microphones and drums.”
The annual cost of security at JW3 is £600,000 and bag and body checks make it difficult to quickly admit large numbers at the same time. Much of the focus since has been on images of a distressed 80-year-old Jewish woman who was attending the event, pictured in tears as she waited to get inside. There were also reports of children and teenagers being subjected to intimidation.
“We had police here from very early on but there weren’t enough,” says Simonson. “They were local police. Our dealings are mostly with counter-terrorist officers. The police called for back-up and about a dozen more arrived. They made a barrier between the queue and the protestors but the barrier was only one-person deep, so the protestors could still get almost as close as they were before and still chant and scream in the faces of our guests. We hoped the police would move them to the other side of the road but they didn’t feel they could.”
The pro-Pal shouts for Zionism to be eradicated from the Middle East in front of a Jewish centre. In full sight and hearing of the @metpoliceuk. A Jewish woman gets upset and seeks help and instead is targeted and abandoned by those who protect us. Again. Depressing and scary. pic.twitter.com/woBaAsWR3A
Fears of two-tier policing – the idea that authorities are reluctant to apply the same rigour to pro-Palestine protests as they are to other public order risks – were not assuaged when footage suggested a passer-by walking his dog was moved along by police for raising his middle finger to the protestors. All the while, other footage apparently shows protestors doing the same thing directly at the police, who appear to ignore it. 
TWO TIER POLICING IN ONE MORNING. Outside a peace conference at the JW3 community centre in North London. The video on the left (now with blurred out face) is of a Jewish man walking his dog who, enraged at the awful chants coming from the pro Hamas lot, gave them the finger.… pic.twitter.com/BSy1Cniw39
That morning, the Metropolitan Police said that in addition to officers attending the scene, the force was “in liaison with staff at the venue to ensure they feel supported … One person has been arrested for criminal damage.”
One man prominent at the protest chanted, “Shame, shame shame on your crocodile tears” and “How many children were killed today?”
Pro-Pals outside the Jewish community centre yesterday seem to delight in targeting Jewish women. Here a masked male points and chants at a young woman who is already clearly upset and scared. Another beats a drum in her ear. They are vile misogynists just like the rapists Hamas. pic.twitter.com/DE9UA9dEwp
The JW3 event was never billed as a “peace conference” but that was how a lot of people who attended described it – because it featured Palestinians and Israelis sharing a platform, something that has earned Simonson as much criticism as praise from within the Jewish community. One of the key moments was the presentation from the former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert and the former Palestinian minister for foreign affairs, Dr Nasser al-Kidwa, who wanted to discuss their joint peace initiative. Also speaking was Ayman Odeh, leader of the Arab Hadash–Ta’al party in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament. There was a recorded message from Tony Blair, which got leaked in advance – something Simonson describes as “unfortunate” – another of the stated reasons for the protests outside that morning.
Many of the protestors were masked. When their numbers reached more than 100 they attempted to block both entrances. “We wanted to get everyone in quickly but we just couldn’t take the risk of not doing the proper security checks,” he says. “I went to talk to people in the queue and tried to support those who were shaken or in tears. For the worst-affected people I moved them to the front, especially the elderly and children.”
“Around 10am we put in our own request to the right level of police – thankfully we have the knowledge of how to do that,” says Simonson. “Within 15 minutes a Section 14 notice [imposing restrictions under the Public Order Act] was issued and within 20 minutes five police vans turned up in full protective gear. They tried to talk to who appeared to be the leaders and then they began moving them to the other side of the road by 10.45am. The police stayed throughout. All the police, including the ones here at the start, did their best while facing vile, disgusting hate-fuelled abuse.”
Another activist filmed herself from the other side of the road accusing members of the counter-protest, who had gathered from around 11am, of “An onslaught of racist, derogatory hecking from the ‘Zionist Entity’… fuelled with genocide and absolute sickness”. She added, “Those people are all responsible for what is happening in Palestine…and people will pay for complicity and crimes.”
The stupidest political movement in history doing what it does best: chanting genocidal slogans at peace enthusiasts outside a Jewish community centre pic.twitter.com/0DFCW1XDA2
“‘Baying mob’ is not a phrase I would use often, but that was what it was outside on that morning,” says Simonson. “Haaretz published an advert with about 40 of the 80 speakers on the day, but that was clipped so that the protestors circulated a screenshot that showed only Olmert, Blair and the Labour MP Hamish Falconer.”
In the videos I see a member of my community who I am friendly with. He is the elderly father of an old schoolfriend and I have known him all my life.He is silently waiting to enter, watching these bigots as they shout at him about Jews not belonging. https://t.co/35nCwV4Ns6 pic.twitter.com/OdNsKZI7oS
The site of JW3 – Finchley Road – is not a visibly Jewish neighbourhood like Golders Green or Stamford Hill, and the decision to establish it in such an area was deliberate. The building’s design, with open walls of clear glass and huge signage proclaiming its identity and purpose (admittedly behind unavoidable security) is also deliberate – a statement of cultural pride in physical form. The centre provides a wide variety of community support as well as music, theatre and educational and health resources.
“We have the highest level of security for any Jewish building in the country,” says Simonson. “Mosques need security in this country and so do synagogues. But here you need a bag check, CCTV and monitoring just to go to the cinema. We check every small child who comes to see a puppet show, which is actually very sad. Security is our single largest cost.”
Sick weirdos blocking the pavement near where I live screaming abuse towards Jews attending a Jewish community centre. Spoke with ⁦@metpoliceuk⁩ officers who agreed with me that this was appalling but said their instructions were that they couldn’t do anything! #twotier pic.twitter.com/zVJpmnEZDD
Simonson reports that when the protest was at its height, he was informed a Palestinian woman who was attending the conference was stuck outside and was too scared to come in. His head of security went out to escort her and tried for ten minutes to get her through. In the end she couldn’t because she was so shaken. “I thought ‘well done, you’ve stopped a Palestinian woman coming to the conference and being heard’,” says Simonson. “Everyone else we know made it in. By 1pm all the protestors were gone.”
Some of the guests confronted the protestors and others covered themselves because they were being filmed. “I got called a Nazi,” says Simonson. “That was screamed at me. I got called that for hosting an event designed to talk about solutions to this conflict. Having said that, it still wouldn’t have been OK if the event had a Right-wing agenda.”
This racist rant happened outside a Jewish centre. What stabbed at my heart is they filmed and harassed Sharone Lifshitz who attended the peace conference. Her 84 year old father Oded is a hostage now. He would drive Gazans to hospital. This is truly sick.pic.twitter.com/Hx7X3tLKhe
Simonson’s mother was born in Nazi-occupied France and much of her family died in Auschwitz, including her uncle after whom he is named. This latest incident also needs to be seen in the context of a year of anxiety since the October 7 attacks by Hamas.
“For 11 years we have had security – [some of which] you can see and lots you can’t see. We have high-alert capability with the police and we have private security. Other than online abuse, the vast majority of anti-Semitism we have had over the years has been people shouting at us from outside – often from moving cars. The irony is, the abuse is usually heard first and loudest by a Muslim security guard, one of whom said to me he’s had more anti-Semitism than Islamophobia directed at him personally.
“In 2021, a convoy of cars came down from Bradford and elsewhere [masked men in cars covered in Palestinian flags]. When they got to the lights outside then realised where they had stopped to shout abuse at us. They were screaming ‘we will rape your Jewish wives and daughters’. It spiked every time there was an incident in Israel, though not on the scale of activity since October 7.”
Simonson reports how supportive the local Hampstead & Highgate MP Tulip Siddiq has been, and that CEOs of other arts and culture venues got in touch. “The police have been supportive,” he says. “On a local level the feeling is more positive, but on a decision-making level there is less faith in institutions. I think the feeling in that moment was ‘Where are we? Why aren’t we being protected?’ That is part of a narrative of how British Jews are feeling. I don’t feel abandoned personally, but you hear a lot of people say it. That sentiment can be corrosive.
“Our job at JW3 is about helping British Jews strengthen their confidence and pride. Even after this thing that’s happened, we open the next day as normal. We have Jewish staff here from the Left and the Right. We also have Muslim staff in our offices, in our nursery, our canteen and on security. We are not a political organisation so we have people here who have widely differing views.”
“I’ve had to deal with some personal threats and there are two people with restraining orders who can’t come anywhere near me or this building. The far-Left and the far-Right have got it in for us because we stand for something and that angers them. We have to double down on our values rather than pipe down about them. You have to believe there are many more people who are on your side. The people against us are louder but smaller.”