UK raises terror threat level after antisemitic stabbings; Starmer seeks protest curbs

The United Kingdom raised its terror threat level to severe this week following the stabbing of two Jewish men in Golders Green, an attack police described as terrorism, as Prime Minister Keir Starmer and the country’s most senior police officer warned that a surge in antisemitic incidents linked to the war in Gaza was endangering British Jews.

A 45-year-old man was charged Friday with attempted murder in connection with the Wednesday attack in the London neighborhood that is a center of Britain’s Jewish community. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley said the assault was part of a pattern in which Jews are now targeted by a range of extremist groups.

“The ghastly fact is that Jews are on everybody’s list, all of those hateful groups, whether you’re extreme right, whether you’re extreme left, whether you’re Islamist terrorist, whether you’re right-wing terrorist, and some hostile states as well now with some sort of Iranian-related threats,” Rowley told The Times. “There’s a ghastly Venn diagram that they’re at the middle of.”

The government raised the U.K. terror threat level from substantial, where it had been for more than a year, to severe — the second-highest on a five-point scale, indicating intelligence agencies consider an attack highly likely in the next six months. Officials said the change was not due solely to the Golders Green attack but also reflected an increased danger “from Islamist and extreme right-wing terrorist threat from individuals and small groups based in the U.K.”

The stabbing and the threat-level change come amid broader anxiety over antisemitic violence. In recent months, synagogues and other Jewish sites in London have been targeted in arson attacks, and the Community Security Trust, a charity that monitors antisemitism, reported that incidents across the country have more than doubled since the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza. The group recorded 3,700 incidents in 2025, up from 1,662 in 2022.

Starmer, speaking Saturday, said he would always defend the right to protest but argued that repeated pro-Palestinian marches have had a “cumulative effect” contributing to the rise in antisemitic incidents.

“When you see, when you hear some of those chants — ‘globalize the intifada’ would be one I would pick out — then clearly there should be tougher action in relation to that,” Starmer told the BBC. The Arabic word “intifada” is generally translated as “uprising.”

Rowley, in his comments, blamed social media for making antisemitism “more mainstream than before” and said British Jews are now the target of every extremist group spreading hate. He urged the public to report hate speech and for platforms to take greater responsibility for content that incites violence.

The Metropolitan Police said the Golders Green attacker acted alone and there was no immediate evidence of a broader plot. Police presence in Jewish communities across London has been increased.