“What The Hell Happened To This COUNTRY!” | Two Jewish Men Stabbed In London Antisemitic Attack

Added: 2026-04-29

[00:00:00]Let's go over to my next guest. He's former Conservative Cabinet Minister, uh, Lord John Redwood. Uh, welcome, John.

[00:00:09]>> Well, good afternoon and so, so sad that we're meeting on this occasion when the such dreadful news again.

[00:00:15]>> Yeah, exactly.

[00:00:16]>> An avalanche of terror against the Jewish community.

[00:00:19]>> I mean, I was going to talk to you obviously about the king's speech in Washington. I was going to talk to you about Kristama's sorted attempts to save his own sorry backside. Lots of these big stories going on. There's a lot going on on the migrant crisis today. Uh and the shocking news that 6 million people uh on benefits are earning more, if you can call it earning, than people who are working. All of these huge stories we should be discussing, but I'm afraid this has to take precedence.

[00:00:48]Another shocking anti-semitic attack in Gold's Green. Uh, you know, as I just said, two poor victims stabbed uh by this knife wielding maniac. The community there sick to death of Karma saying, "Oh, this is devastating. This is shocking. This kind of violence won't be tolerated." You Shabbana Mammud said, "We will strain every senue in our bodies to keep the Jewish community safe." You kind of want to respond to that. No, you won't. Uh and you've got Sadique Khan, the mayor of London, saying there is no place for this kind of anti-semitism in London. Well, uh sadly there clearly is. Uh these platitudes from these politicians don't get us anywhere. The Jewish community in Gold's Green are calling for action.

[00:01:36]They want something done and they've got a point, haven't they, John?

[00:01:40]>> Well, of course they have. And you're absolutely right. I mean, all politicians and all men and women of goodwill are appalled by what's happened and will make the proper condemnatory comments and send sympathies. But when you when you've got the power, if you are the prime minister or the home secretary or the mayor of London, uh, working with the police, uh, working with the prosecuting authorities and responsible for law and order in our country, platitudes are no good. And I'm really devastated that once again we have another one of these incidents and I haven't heard a single positive idea of something that the government or the mayor is going to do that is going to be better which might make it less likely we get another one next week. And I think it is time to talk about the detailed things that have to happen uh to try and get on top of this awful problem because we are losing our Jewish community. quite a lot of them who've got some money or the ability to move are going to move out of the country altogether. And it's devastating for for Jewish people whose family may have come here originally uh fleeing terror on the continent and we were a haven. We were a country of liberty and freedom but uh had law and order on our streets and they were safe to pursue their own religion with us without troubling anybody >> and they are now being so badly let down. So, we need a police response. We we need a criminal justice response. And I think we need um an educational response for teenagers in our schools.

[00:03:10]And I think we need religious leaders not of the Jewish faith uh where they've got people in their faith that are anti-Jewish to give leadership to say this is completely unacceptable.

[00:03:20]>> And I think we need uh some political moves. Uh Kia Starama, it was emerging over the weekend, is finally finally considering uh ba banning or uh prescribing the IRGC, the Iranian.

[00:03:36]>> Well, eventually, but we've been asking him to do that for >> Well, I'm saying I'm saying he now should do that. He should ban the Muslim Brotherhood. uh we need that kind of gesture and I think it is time uh for this government to think very seriously about whether or not is it is going to allow these uh due hatred pro Palestinian marches to snake through the cities of this country every weekend for much longer in your view is it time to ban those marches John >> well I think it's it's certainly time to say to those who organize them that if people go on those marches chanting anti-Jewish chance, >> which they do, which they do, >> and carrying anti-Jewish banners, then those people will be arrested and they won't get a license again to have a march. I think you got to make the people who organized the march responsible. I'm all in favor of of freedom to protest. But I think you have to say if you want another one of these marches, there won't be a single banner and there won't be a single chant. And if we hear one, not only will that person be prosecuted, uh, but that will mean you can't organize a march in the future.

[00:04:41]>> Do you know what's sad about this? Our reporter Samara Gill is down on the scene as she was just interviewing a little school boy who bravely said that he was going to carry on wearing his kipper uh because he's Jewish, but he said he was frightened to do so. I'm thinking of that little kid and he was with a lot of his mates as well. Uh their ancestors, the chances are their greatgrandparents uh were given haven in this country. Uh the chances are they escaped Nazi Germany and Britain said you can come here, you will not be persecuted. Here we are several generations later and they are being persecuted. What the hell happened to this country? Well, it's it's a disaster and I think that is why we we need to go back to the the fundamentals again and say that our schools and our adult community and our religious leaders and everyone else who influences young people have to get across who we are and we are a tolerant society. We we welcome people of all faith and of none. We allow them to follow their faith in in the privacies of their synagogues and churches. But we are not a theocracy. We do not police uh what other people say about their religions and we believe in freedom of speech. Uh we never resort to violence to pursue political aims and if they have a political point to make they can come on your television program or they can send an email to the House of Commons they can contact their MP. We do these things in civilized ways. We we fight with words what not with knives and with guns.

[00:06:19]>> Absolutely. Uh uh I as I say I live very close to Golders Green. Um you know I know a lot of these people. This is a community living in terror. Mark Rowley I'll play I'll play the footage in just a second. Mark Rowley the Met police chief went down there and said oh attack on an attack on Golders Green is an attack on all the areas of London. Well it's not. There is a difference. You know Golders Green is an intensely Jewish area. uh and it has been singled out quite clearly by anti anti-semites.

[00:06:51]It has become ground zero in the uh horrific explosion of anti-semitism gripping this country. So uh gold is green ground zero uh the epicenter of anti-Jewish sentiment in this country.

[00:07:09]Uh so this is a particular community that needs full protection, more protection than it's been getting so far. This is the third time it's been attacked in about four weeks.

[00:07:21]>> No, I agree that in the short term there has to be more police resource. The mayor needs to get behind that and talk to the the police about how that can be done. But we do need this whole community, whole society response as well because the these um these attackers, they're often youngsters. It wasn't on this occasion. Uh but they're somebody's son or grandson or or whatever. Um for the older ones, they too live in families and communities. Uh the the rest of the adults that know those people need to curb them, bring them under some kind of control.

[00:07:56]Otherwise, their family is going to be the scandal family family perpetrating violence in in this totally unacceptable way. So, we need that whole response.

[00:08:07]But I agree with you that the the initial response can come from the mayor and the police and then we need to make sure that when the police do take risks and I think the police in this case took risks and we're very grateful to them for doing that. uh then the prosecuting authorities have to follow up and make sure there is a sensible punishment for these people so they remember it and don't want to do it again.

[00:08:27]>> Yeah. I mean there's a lot of disquite in the Jewish community that uh perpetrators of anti-semitism are not shall we say pursued uh enough by our justice system that leniency uh is directed in their direction. So listen let me just play you a couple of uh clips. This is the prime minister with his reaction. He happened to be in the House of Commons when news of this latest horror in gold as Green filtered through.

[00:08:54]>> Deeply concerning uh to everyone in this house, there is now a police um investigation and I think we all need to do everything we can to support that um investigation and be absolutely clear in our determination uh to deal with any of these uh offenses like of which we've seen too much uh recently.

[00:09:16]Well, >> he's right about that. Way too much. And here's uh John the London mayor Sadi Kahn with his thoughts.

[00:09:22]>> I've lived in London all my life. Uh there's been anti-semitism faced by Londoners throughout my life and actually for the last few decades. I've never seen the sort of fear my friends, colleagues and neighbors are feeling because they are Jewish. I've never experienced uh this level of attacks on Jewish people across our country which today two Jewish Londoners are fighting for their lives.

[00:09:46]People are scared. Jewish people are scared. Parents are scared. Children are scared. Teachers are scared. It cannot be right. That simply by virtue of a school being a Jewish school, it requires additional protection. Simply by virtue of a place of worship being a synagogue, it requires additional protection. By virtue of people being Jewish, there needs to be volunteers who represent and act and work in Shamrim and the Community Security Trust from city hall. We're going to carry on supporting the Jewish community. carry on investing in the CST and in our uh police. This must be a wakeup call.

[00:10:22]>> Just doesn't really add up to anything, does it? And if you uh know London well, John, as I do, a lot of synagogues around where I live, they look like fortresses these days. You know, barb wire, security cameras, guards outside.

[00:10:36]This is this is, you know, unbelievable in modern Britain, isn't it? Well, these two men, the prime minister and the mayor, have have the powers that the rest of us would like to help exercise to make a difference to this. And so, I would expect them to be ready with the statement that, well, we've done a bit, but we haven't done nearly enough, and these are the next things we're going to do, and have a sense of urgency. I mean, the mayor sounds like somebody who's just discovered there's an anti-semitic problem in London, that he hadn't seen or heard this before. Well, where's he been? People have been going on about this for for years. they've been going on ever since the Labor government arrived in office because it's got worse and and I think it's just desperate. So I can quite understand why the local community and the wider nation is really horrified that there is no more urgent or vigorous response. I think I heard the prime minister might get together a cobra committee.

[00:11:28]>> No, he's he's called a cobra. I think he's probably in that meeting now.

[00:11:31]>> Yeah. So he's called called a meeting in Whiteall and again they'll all sit round and make clever points and oh will you follow up and will you follow up you know why isn't there an action sheet ready why isn't he already saying there going to be more police and we're going to make sure there are prosecutions and that we're going to go into the schools and into the community centers and and get across the message that we are British we don't go beating people up because they've got the wrong religion >> we respect and tolerate all religions ions uh but we don't expect to live in a theocracy or to have one religion dominating.

[00:12:07]>> Absolutely.

[00:12:08]>> That is why people come here and live here and used to like living here and it is shocking that uh hundreds of thousands of Jewish people around the country feel less safe tonight after yet another violent attack and and see these leaders offering them absolutely nothing by way of positive reassurance or positive action. That means that these will become less likely in the future.

[00:12:31]>> Well, someone who lives very close to this and I know all these people, it's heartbreaking to see this. It's, as I keep saying, you know, it's all very well, oh, they're Jews. They're Jews.

[00:12:40]No, they're British. They're British citizens. They've lived here all their lives. One of my neighbors is about 65 years old, and he always says, "I've never been to Israel." Uh, so they're just British people. Last word, if you will, John. I think we have a problem in our universities in particular. rampant anti-semitism allowed to blossom there.

[00:13:01]Uh we need to do something about that, don't we?

[00:13:03]>> Well, of course we do. And and it's the other side of the freedom of speech coin that there are whole set of views you're not allowed to express in the university which are perfectly reasonable. And then there are bad views which seem to dominate in some sections in a really terrifying way. So yes, the university leaderships have got to get a grip on this and make sure they are representing the kind of society I've just described to you that I thought we were and I would like us to be. It's got to be a tolerant, freedomloving society where you can say anything that is nonviolent and discuss other people's ideas and views. uh but where you don't get behind one particular group who are linked to terrorist groups abroad and are trying to fight battles from abroad on the streets and in the universities of Britain. We don't want that. And it comes to something when people in the Middle East say that they're worried about some of our British universities because they think they're being radicalized there.

[00:14:00]>> I think they've got a point. Uh John, uh so sorry uh we had to speak in such sad circumstances, but it's always a pleasure to have you on the show. Next time uh we'll h hopefully deal with a few more happy topics. But good to talk to you. Thank you very much. Lord John Redwood, their former Conservative cabinet minister.