Jewish residents call for an end to weekly ‘intimidating’ Swiss Cottage protests

Jewish residents of Swiss Cottage are calling for an end to the weekly anti-Israel protest that has taken place in their area since October 2023, claiming the demonstrations are “intimidating” and that they amount to "psychological torment."

The demonstration, held every Friday evening from 4.30 to 6.00pm outside Swiss Cottage tube station, is staged just minutes away from Belsize Square Synagogue, Chabad Lubavitch of West Hampstead and close to South Hampstead United Synagogue, as well as several schools.

Locals claim that the “frightening” event has seriously disrupted their lives, forcing some to avoid the area altogether.

The Metropolitan Police said the force “recognised the cumulative impact” of the protests and added that they had made several arrests over alleged antisemitic speech and assault committed by some of the 30-50 activists.

The JC has seen evidence of over 60 alleged criminal offences at the protests, including suspected racially aggravated public order offences, physical assault, and the expression of support for Hamas – a proscribed terror group under UK law.

On one occasion, a Jewish counter-protester claimed to have had their foot run over. Last month, a demonstrator was recorded calling Jews the "scum of the earth” while another was heard yelling: “Long live the resistance, glory to the resistance, intifada revolution.”

On September 20, a speaker at the demo was arrested after apparently chanting: “I love October 7, I support an organisation beginning with H.” A week later, a protester declared: “October 7 is just one event along this long, long, long road of the struggle to freedom.”

Yet more protesters have been caught on camera seemingly making offensive remarks about Zionism, including one who called it “the cancer of the 21st century”, adding “It has to be defeated, it has to be wiped out”. Another was arrested after saying: “Terminally deranged Zionists need to be put down.”

A poster at the Shabbat protest states: "You're not anti-racist if you're not anti-Zionist"[Missing Credit]

The regular protest is organised by the UK branch of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) – a fringe group of Jewish activists who posted a video calling October 7 “resistance, not terrorism” and mourned the death of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in a post that said, “his martyrdom is not in vain” – and Jewish Network for Palestine (JNP).

Leaflets distributed by the group at Swiss Cottage target Israel’s ambassador Tzipi Hotovely, who lives locally. “Expel Israeli ambassador Tzipi Hotovely from the UK for inciting genocide. This Friday Rosh Hashanah join our protest,” said one IJAN and JNP leaflet.

Speakers given a platform by the group have included Tony Greenstein, a founding member of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign who was expelled from the Labour Party over allegations of antisemitism, and Haim Bresheeth, the founder of JNP who used a January speech at the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHCR) to say Israeli soldiers “should all commit suicide.”

Meanwhile, on August 6 last year, the Chief Inspector in charge of policing the protest allegedly dismissed footage showing incidents as “impeccable by all accounts” in an email to one resident. Since then, locals have told the JC that the harassment has not stopped. For many, the demonstrations are unbearable.

A post on IJAN's Instagram story in the hours after Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh's death called the terror boss a "martyr" (Photo: X)[Missing Credit]

Adrian Cohen, a senior vice president at the Board of Deputies and concerned Swiss Cottage resident, can see Palestinian flags from the demonstration paraded outside his kitchen window and hear the loudspeakers from inside his home.

He said, “It is staggering that this has been going on for well over a year in a residential area. It is not about a local issue or amenity, it is about foreign affairs.” He pointed to the weekly protests in central London and suggested that activists could attend those, rather than a demonstration in a residential area. 

Another resident described how protesters march up and down the road waving large flags, “It’s to taunt local residents, it is an obsession,” she said.

An IJAN poster calling for a protest over the Israeli ambassador's residence in Swiss Cottage (Photo: Facebook)[Missing Credit]

Local resident Lara Max added: “This is a Jewish part of London. Prior to this [protest] it was a peaceful, calm, leafy area. If the protesters are trying to make a political point, surely this is the wrong place to do that. They have instead come to a largely Jewish area.”

Max’s daughter attends a school near the protest, and she has changed her pick-up route on Fridays to avoid what she calls “anti-Jewish racism.”

She said: “It is intimidating and disruptive; they are promoting terror and calling for the destruction of a country – if that isn’t genocidal, I don’t know what is. If you have the misfortune to walk past with a child, how do you explain it to them? Their chants and posters are about Israel not existing. A lot of people, Jewish and non-Jewish, now avoid the area entirely.”

Another resident, who wished to remain anonymous, said she and her nine-year-old daughter take a different route home on Fridays to avoid the protests. “It is horrendous, I am frightened of these people," she said. "They say it officially starts at 5.30, but they begin setting up at 4.00, and it is every single week. It is relentless.”

One of the protesters as he appeared in a social media clip[Missing Credit]

Others say they have changed their route to synagogue for Shabbat services. One said: “I was meant to go to see a speaker at South Hampstead Synagogue on Friday afternoon, but I could not face having to go through the protest, so I did not go.”

Cohen, a member of South Hampstead, added: “It has affected so many members. I’m lucky that I live on the side of the protest where I don’t need to walk past it to go to shul, but I can always hear it.”

A third local, who asked to be named only as Kate, claimed to have witnessed violence at the protests. She recounted one incident in which a man on an e-bike jumped off and attacked a counter-protester.

On another occasion, she was walking past when a demonstrator was “shouting about genocide.” When she challenged him, he apparently responded by calling her a “Zionist b****.” Although she gave a witness statement to the police, she decided against pressing charges. The following week, she saw the same man at the protest again.

Now, she avoids the area entirely, walking further to go to the shops on a Friday afternoon.

Posters at the protest state "Zionists are mother and baby killers"[Missing Credit]

The protest was originally held outside Swiss Cottage Library but was moved outside the station after pro-Israel activist group Stop the Hate staged counter-protests nearby.

Despite a heavy police presence, residents say the demonstrations make them feel unsafe – and the sheer number of officers needed proves how tense the situation is. “I have lived here for 47 years, and I have never seen so many police hanging around the area in my life,” said Max.

“There are swarms of officers waiting for the protest to start. Something that requires that much police presence over 18 months is not a peaceful protest – it is an anti-Jewish racist protest,” she added.

The Met have asked locals to record impact statements[Missing Credit]

One resident concluded: “No child should have to deal with this on their doorstep for well over a year. Fridays feel frightening and volatile.”

Several others told the JC that they plan on recording impact statements to the police, who are collecting evidence about the effect of the Shabbat protest on locals.

A Met Police spokesperson said: “We recognise the cumulative impact that these protests have had, accepting that they are taking place on a weekly basis and at a time when fears, particularly in London’s Jewish communities, are already heightened.

“We police without fear or favour, acting independently and not taking the side of one cause or another. We don’t give permission for protests and we can’t limit their frequency or ban them either, except for in very exceptional circumstances involving significant violent disorder.

“For many months now, we have had officers deployed to Swiss Cottage each Friday evening. They have made numerous arrests, intervening when offences are identified, including when protesters cross the line into words or other expressions that constitute hate crimes or support for proscribed organisations.

“The officers’ role is to ensure people can exercise their right to peaceful protest, while ensuring that those in the wider community can go about their lives without serious disruption, using our powers under the Public Order Act to impose conditions if required.

“Our policing presence at these protests will continue as will our commitment to listen and engage with local communities.”

Responding to the JC’s enquiry, Tony Greenstein said: “No area of London is a Jewish area. We don't have ghettos anymore.”

“The right to demonstrate and assembly is protected by Article 11 of the ECHR and for Jews to put themselves in the vanguard of opposition to basic human rights is a deplorable state of affairs which may rebound in the future,” Greenstein went on.

“The suggestion that demonstrations against genocide and racism are intimidating to Jews suggests that all Jews are racist and supporting genocide. That smacks to me of antisemitism,” Greenstein added.

In an email to the JC, Bresheeth said: “The protest is calling for the expulsion of the Israeli Ambassador who has contemplated on television the destruction of every building in Gaza and the possibility of 600,000 Palestinian deaths in Gaza. That is incitement to the crime of genocide. We have been picketing and protesting peacefully for 67 weeks – any violence has been perpetrated by Zionists who have done everything in their power to disrupt this Jewish-led protest made up mainly of women.

“As a Jewish Israeli and the son of holocaust survivors I am outraged that the trauma my parents went through is used to justify the slaughter of Palestinians and the ethnic cleansing of a whole people from their land. Am I supposed to support what Israel is doing in Gaza? What is Jewish about genocide? What is Jewish about ethnic cleansing? What is Jewish about colonising lands of Palestinians? The Zionists and their partners in the West have replaced Judaism with Zionism, and our humanity, liberalism and pacifism with brutal military occupation, and now with a terrifying Genocide.”

He added: “Non of us [Gaza protesters] believes in violence, which is why we are so disturbed by what takes part in Gaza and the rest of Palestine. Any violence whatsoever is the result of Zionist attacks or police violent arrests” [sic].

The JC has contacted IJAN and JPN for comment.