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London Police Looking for Antisemite that Left a Jewish Couple 'Scared to Death'

A vile antisemite has left a Jewish couple "scared to death" after telling them 'go back to your country' in a vile bus rant, a witness told a British news outlet, the Mirror. The eyewitness said the innocent pair were left in a state of shock after the tirade, which went on for several minutes on Monday afternoon.

The episode was apparently sparked by the man being held up by the victim's stroller as he boarded the bus in the Stamford Hill area of London.

A 27-year-old Jewish man, who witnessed the couple being abused on Monday, told The Mirror it was the worst case of antisemitism he had ever seen. "The couple were scared to death. It seems like that scumbag tried to take advantage of them because they were disabled.” he said. "As a Jew I've had people shouting at me from cars in the past but this continued for a good few minutes as if it was an acceptable thing to do."

The witness added that it appeared the thug launched his verbal assault because they pair were slow getting on the bus.

A shocking video of the incident involving the couple shows the victims, who are Hasidic Jews, telling the thug 'we are English' as he screams at them.

He tells the pair: "I will batter the f**k out of you. This is our f***ing country. I'm a f***ing Englishman, go back to your own f***ing damn country."

The man being targeted by the racist then leans forward and shouts 'I am English' while pointing at himself.

However, the thug ignores him and continues: "This is our country, not your country."

The female victim tries to reason with the man, asking him to 'open his eyes' while pointing out that there are English people living in her country.

She added: "We want to go away because of people like you."

The abusive passenger shouts back at her 'yeah so have some f***ing respect then, f***ing damn c***s'.

In the video he also shouts at the bus driver, complaining about the couple putting their buggy on the bus and 'taking their time'.

When he finally gets off, he shouts: "F***ing damn d***heads. You think you own this country, you don't own this f***ing damn country. You understand? Go f**k yourself."

The man boarded the bus at Manor House station and disembarked at Bethune Road in Stoke Newington at around 12.45pm.

The Metropolitan Police confirmed no one has been arrested although officers are appealing for information.

Andy Port, Neighbourhood Superintendent for Hackney, said: “We take all forms of hate crime seriously whether that be a crime based on a person’s race, religion, sexual orientation, disability or prejudice against a person who is transgender.

"We deplore any form or hate crime and will do everything in our power to bring to justice those responsible. Should anyone have any information with regards to the incident please contact 101 quoting CAD 5662/8Feb or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111."

University of Illinois Student's Israeli Flag Pelted with Eggs

Members of the University of Illinois’ Jewish community are on edge after a student said someone egged the Israeli flag hanging outside on his balcony.

The incident happened early Monday morning just after 1:00.

Jeremy Zelner said he was working on a paper when he heard something hitting the window. He went outside to check what it was.

“But by that time, the egging stopped and I looked outside and nobody was there,” he said. “So, it was a pretty relatively quick thing, but there was probably like 10, 15, 20 eggs that were just all over the balcony.”

He said he was initially stunned to see what had happened. Then it sunk in.

“Our first thought was, put it everywhere,” Zelner said. “We are not the type of people to be scared. We’re not the type of people that would be silenced. We’re not the type of people to back down from what we believe in.”

Zelner contacted Champaign Police and university officials. Police said they are still gathering information to start the initial investigation.

“I think that to target and vandalize an apartment based on it having an Israeli flag is clearly targeting someone for their national origin or for their ancestral identity,” UIUC Executive Director Erez Cohen told WCIA. “It’s basically hateful and it’s targeted. It’s a form of discrimination that we should not have on our campus or in our town. There is no room for hateful vandalism anywhere, especially in a town that really tries to be as diverse and as welcoming as possible.”

Zelner said he wants as many people as possible to see his video from after the egging, and his flag will remain on display.

“We were literally just putting up a flag that, you know, that’s a country that a lot of Jewish people live in,” Zelner explained. “We’re very in tune with the conflict, we understand what’s going on. We are people that are very welcoming to the conversation about it. And so, you know, I am very proud of being a Jewish person. I’m very proud of my friends who are Jewish as well. And we have conversations, we talk about it. And, you know, it’s important to have those conversations.”

“The students are very much in the spirit of this is not going to deter us from being proud of who we are and celebrating our identity,” Cohen said. “We are going to continue to do the same here at Hillel and make sure that our Jewish community feels that they are safe and they are proud to be Jewish.”

Zelner stressed that the door is open for conversations, but there was a difference between engaging in debate and engaging in anti-Semitism.

“You can say I don’t agree with [Israeli Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu, but you can’t say death to Israel,” Zelner said. “There’s a very obviously different wording in language and stuff like that… the door is open to conversation. But I think it’s very important to identify how not to be anti-Semitic and same for Jewish people, how to not be Islamophobic. Then there could be a safe space to talk about this.”

In October, Jewish students at UIUC filed a federal complaint about a rise in anti-Semitism at the university. They said the university did not take appropriate action to address vandalism of Jewish houses, an increase in swastikas and direct harassment of Jewish students.

In November, UIUC, along with the Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago, Illini Hillel, Hillel International, Illini Chabad, Arnold & Porter and the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, released a statement in support of Jewish students on campus.

Meanwhile the University pledged to take the following steps:

  • Creating Advisory Council on Jewish and Campus Life, made of undergraduate/graduate students, staff, alumni and representatives of the Jewish Community.

  • Create focused and regularly recurring educational programs regarding anti-Semitism.

  • Review procedures and practices and, when necessary, revise so they are aligned with values of opposing discrimination and harassment on campus.

U.C. Irvine Student Government Passes Antisemitic BDS Legislation

Similar legislation had been passed by a previous student government, but was repealed by legislation passed by the 2019-2020 student government, which the new legislation described as "hastily written to dismiss the voices of the students."