Appeal after car driven towards Jewish children
An investigation has been launched after a car was driven towards three Jewish schoolchildren in north-west London.
The Metropolitan Police said it was treating the incident on Holders Hill Road, Finchley, as "religiously aggravated assault".
The head teacher of Hasmonean High School for Boys said in a letter to parents on Wednesday that police were appealing for witnesses after what the school called an "antisemitic traffic incident."
The father of one of the three 14-year-old boys involved said he believed the driver was trying to "terrorise" the children.
The school's letter said the car had mounted the kerb around 15:40 BST on 20 April, and the children had been forced to move out of the way, but no-one was injured.
The father said his son was "shaken".
Speaking to the BBC, he said: "There were dozens of kids walking around in kippot [skullcaps]. Three of them – my son and two friends – were round the corner from the school waiting to cross the road.
"A black saloon car was waiting on the inside lane closest to them. As the lights turned green, the car sped up significantly and mounted the kerb where they were standing. They jumped backwards out of the way as the car hurtled towards them and then the car sped off. Had they not jumped, they would have been hit."
He said that the children could not see the driver and that nothing was said to them or shouted at them.
"But it's pretty clear that whoever it was was trying to scare them," he added.
"They were visibly Jewish kids. He was waiting at the lights and saw these kids and saw an opportunity."
'Gambling with safety'
The father said: "There's no question in our minds – and in the mind of the investigating officer that I've spoken to – that there appeared to be intent," he said.
"Otherwise, if you had narrowly missed three children, you would get out and see what happened. There's no evidence of that. The car literally screeched off afterwards.
"It was somebody who clearly saw an opportunity to clearly target young, visibly Jewish children and take a pop at them in a way that could have caused serious injury, had they not jumped out of the way."
The father said he had safety concerns about sending his children to school.
"As people who identify openly as Jews and want to show our identities, you feel like you are gambling with your children's safety," he said.
"I would like people to realise that when we send our children as Jews off to school in the morning there are thousands of parents who wonder what kind of world we let our children go into and whether they will come home safe.
"I hope the general public will now show open support for the Jewish community, by reaching, speaking out, and saying clearly this isn't the Britain we want for all our children."
A spokesperson for Hasmonean High School for Boys said: "At this challenging time we are working closely with all in our community and appropriate agencies to support our students' safety."
Community Security Trust, a charity set up to protect British Jews from antisemitism, said the incident was reported to them and was being investigated by the Met.
A spokesperson for the force said inquiries were ongoing to establish the circumstances.
"We remain in close contact with the nearby school. At this stage, no arrests have been made," they added.
On Wednesday, the Met announced that a team of 100 additional officers would be deployed to protect London's Jewish communities.
The force said the new Community Protection Team would be made up of officers from neighbourhood policing, specialist protection and those with counter terrorism capabilities.
It comes as the number of antisemitic hate crimes recorded by the Met rose sharply last month, with 140 offences logged in April, compared with 98 in March and 67 in February.
Listen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hello.bbclondon@bbc.co.uk
(Feed generated with FetchRSS)