Hate crimes have spiked in Stamford Hill since the IDF moved into Rafah, community leaders have told the JC after footage emerged of hooligans chasing a Charedi boy and pelting him with stones.
The clip, published to X/Twitter by community watch group Shomrim, shows three boys approaching a strictly Orthodox 16-year-old earlier this month and gesticulating at him.
As he walks away, one of his attackers starts to run after him before throwing a stone at him.
The victim, who can be seen fleeing in the footage, is said to be “alright” because he is used to antisemitism in the area.
The Metropolitan police said they were investigating the incident, which is being treated as a hate crime, but that no arrests have yet been made.
Shomrim chief executive Chaim Hochhauser said the Jewish child had been walking to synagogue on Shabbat when he was the victim of an unprovoked attack.
"We are having quite a lot of trouble from these boys in the area [who attacked him], especially since October 7,” he said.
"They are just trying to frighten and harm the Jewish community.”
Hate crimes have increased significantly in the last month, Hochhauser said.
"We only come out [publicly] with 0.1 per cent of the incidents. Since the Israelis went into Rafah it has picked up a lot in the local area.”
In previous years, hate crimes have spiked in London when Israel goes to war.
The Community Security Trust recorded 4,103 antisemitic incidents in Britain in 2023 compared to just 1,662 the year before.
Following the October 7 attack, the charity’s director of policy, Dave Rich, said: "Normally it's a great city to be Jewish, but right now a lot of Jewish Londoners are not feeling that way."
While the perpetrators of most recent antisemitic crimes in Stamford Hill have referenced Palestine, Hochhauser claimed, they are typically not Muslims.
Rabbi Herschel Gluck, Shomrim president, said: "These hate crimes are being committed by IC1 [white] males and females.
“They’re just doing it because they’re yobs. They are exactly the same people who commit Islamophobia.
"They’re not doing this because they’ve chosen a side [in the Israel Palestine conflict]. They’re doing it because they feel that both these communities are vulnerable at the moment.
“They do exactly the same to members of the Muslim community. They’re just yobs behaving yobbishly.”
