They continued: “We look forward to seeing the detail of any forthcoming amendments in the hope that they will adequately re-establish the balance between the right to protest with the right of our community to practice our religion without fear and intimidation."
Board of Deputies President Phil Rosenberg said the measures were “something we have been calling for over recent months”.
He added: “Protests near synagogues have led to serious and unacceptable disruption to our communal life over the last 18 months. The intimidatory protests outside mosques during the violent disorder last summer were similarly intolerable.”
Yvette Cooper told guests at the Community Security Trust (CST)’s annual dinner that “there is no shying away from the fact that over the last 18 months” worshippers at Central Synagogue, Western Marble Arch and Westminster had been “hugely disrupted by protest activity”.
“On too many occasions, Shabbat services have been cancelled and people have stayed at home – worried to travel and attend shul as they normally would.”s
She later added that although “protest and freedom of expression are cornerstones of our democracy, and of course that must always be protected... the right to protest is not the right to intimidate”.
In January, the Metropolitan Police restricted a protest planned by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign from its original route at the BBC’s Broadcasting House because of its proximity to Central Synagogue.
Police said that the conditions were imposed after “taking into account the cumulative impact of the prolonged period of protest on Jewish Londoners", despite objections to the by the protest’s organisers.
In February, the Met Police moved an anti-Israel rally from Swiss Cottage to King’s Cross, which had been taking place in the proximity of three synagogues, following pressure from communal Jewish groups and the JC.
The home secretary said the new legislation would “give the police total clarity” and that “where a protest has an intimidating effect, such that it prevents people from accessing or attending their place of worship, the full range of public order conditions will be available for the police to use. Because everybody has a right to live in freedom from fear.”
CST Annual Dinner (Image: Blake Ezra Photography 2024)(C) Blake Ezra Photography 2024 Not to be reproduced without written permission.
Cooper added that the government would “never stand for the desecration of memorials and gravestones, or the vandalism and graffiti inflicted on synagogues, schools, shops and community centres”.
“These are not minor acts of criminal damage, they are hateful acts of antisemitism and they will continue to be punished as such.”
She also praised the work done by CST to protect the Jewish community, saying that their efforts make “the difference every single day between confidence and fear, between safety and danger, between life and death, and we owe you all a huge debt of thanks. For the research and analysis they undertake to expose the scourge of antisemitism … the critical security they provide for hundreds of Jewish communal buildings and events every year.
“The fact that, every week, thousands of British Jews go to school, or to synagogue, more confident in the knowledge that CST are providing protection and support.”
(L-R) David Lammy, Sir Gerald Ronson, Yvette Cooper and Mark Gardner (Image: Blake Ezra Photography 2024).(C) Blake Ezra Photography 2024 Not to be reproduced without written permission.
Over 1,100 guests attended the event including the Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, Foreign Secretary David Lammy, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley and the government’s adviser on antisemitism Lord Mann.
CST Chief Executive Mark Gardner MBE thanked CST volunteers, staff and trustees.
He pledged that the organisation would continue to work in the service of the community: “It’s been tough. It’s still tough. But we’re stronger for it... These are extraordinary times, but the longer they continue, the more they simply become the new reality: for us and especially for our children … We will do all that we can to deserve your trust. That remains my commitment to all of you; and it is CST’s pledge in the service of our community."
CST Chair Sir Gerald Ronson concluded the event with a warning about what he called a “moment of danger that we Jews are now in”.
“Social media is an open sewer of hatred flooding into people’s brains. These trends were bad enough before October 2023, but they are now much deeper and wider than ever before. It has impacted across British society, including national institutions and our places of work and culture … CST’s fight against the Jew-haters and the terrorists is relentless."
