A TOP counter-terrorism cop yesterday warned that violence in Israel and Gaza could inspire fanatics to launch an attack in the UK.
Met Commander Dominic Murphy urged the public to remain vigilant, with tensions high since the Hamas slaughter of Israelis and reprisal air strikes on Gaza.
Nigel HowardPolice seen patrolling in London’s Golders Green[/caption]
It comes as 1,000 officers prepare to police a pro-Palestine march in London today and a smaller demo between the Egyptian and Turkish embassies.
A counter-terror team will monitor both for signs of support for banned groups, such as the wearing of images glorifying Hamas seen on a march last week. Anyone backing Hamas or Hezbollah, another proscribed terror group, will be arrested.
The current terrorism threat level of “substantial” is under review.
Mr Murphy said: “We are alive to the fact that events overseas do inspire . . . terrorist attacks elsewhere, especially here in the UK, and we have seen this in the past.”
His warning echoed MI5 director-general Ken McCallum’s message earlier this week about the spectre of Iranian-backed terror strikes in the UK in the wake of the “monstrous attacks” on Israel.
Police have said, meanwhile, that no action will be taken today over the anti-Zionist chant “From the rivers to the sea, Palestine will be free”.
Met deputy assistant commissioner Ade Adelekan said the force was “aware of the strength of feeling” about it, but said police had taken advice and its use away from Jewish institutions would not be an offence. He said there had been a “significant rise” in Islamophobic hate crimes, with 218 in London from October 1 to 18 compared to 15 in the same period last year.
There have been 21 arrests — one for defacing posters of kidnapped Israelis and another for anti-Jewish graffiti.
Police are conducting reassurance patrols in communities with large Jewish populations, such as Golders Green and Stamford Hill in North London. They have visited 445 schools and 1,930 places of worship, including London’s 300 synagogues and Muslim mosques.
THE Board of Deputies of British Jews met BBC director-general Tim Davie yesterday to express its “outrage” at the Beeb’s failure to describe Hamas as terrorists and its speculation that Israel bombed a hospital in Gaza City.
It said the BBC confirmed it will, in future, describe Hamas as a proscribed terrorist organisation in the UK.
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