British Jewish institutions are deploying armed former military personnel to protect shuls, schools, and community centers as the United Kingdom faces what police leadership has characterized as an “epidemic” of antisemitic violence.
The Community Security Trust (CST), which advises Britain’s estimated 280,000 Jews on security matters, has hired ex-Royal Marines and Parachute Regiment veterans through a private contractor recruiting from “elite fighting units in the Royal Navy and army,” according to The Sunday Times. The organization has also trained over 2,000 volunteers in security protocols and Krav Maga, the Israeli martial art.
The security measures underscore what Mark Rowley, head of London’s Metropolitan Police, called the greatest-ever threat facing British Jews. In response to last Wednesday’s antisemitic stabbing attack—in which two Jewish men were stabbed and a suspect was charged with attempted murder—Britain raised its national terrorism threat level to “severe,” signaling that a terrorist attack is considered highly likely.
The stabbing attack occurred just 300 yards from an earlier arson attack targeting four ambulances owned by Hatzolah. That incident was part of a pattern of arson attacks on Jewish-linked sites that UK police say have been perpetrated by “thugs for hire” possibly recruited by Iran-linked terror groups.
The newly founded Islamist group Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya (HAYI), which has links to Iran, has claimed responsibility for many of the recent attacks in London and across Europe targeting American, Israeli, and Jewish targets, according to SITE Intelligence Group.
The hiring of former soldiers, which costs “tens of thousands of pounds,” reflects what the CST described as the “acute level of concern” felt among Britain’s Jews. While the CST operates with a 28 million pound ($38 million) annual Home Office grant for Jewish community security, many institutions have dipped into their own funds to hire additional personnel. Armed security officers now patrol Jewish areas of London and Manchester.
In a statement, the CST said: “We deploy a range of capabilities as part of our operations protecting the Jewish community. This includes high level specialist security operatives working alongside other guarding companies and CST volunteers. This reflects the level of threat currently faced by the Jewish community in this country.”
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
