A string of anti-Semitic attacks since the fighting in the Persian Gulf began has prompted the Board of Deputies of British Jews to launch its most extensive operation ever to protect Jewish lives and property in the United Kingdom.
The board’s Communal Security Organization, its defense arm, has been operating around the clock following a series of attacks including arson in Birmingham and London and the desecration of the Jewish cemetery in Portsmouth.
The security organization issued a warning of possible attacks by pro-Iraqi terrorists and far right-wing groups using the Gulf war to exploit racial tensions.
Police intelligence has said the Jewish community would not be the primary target of terrorist outrages. “But we are taking a slightly different view,” the security organization said, while cautioning Jews not to panic.
In London, after the first Iraqi missile attacks on Israel last week, the Holocaust memorial in Hyde Park was defaced with red paint.
On Wednesday, fire gutted two staff offices and other parts of the Hasmonean Boys’ School in Hendon, in northwestern London.
Police said the fire was arson but did not attribute it to “racial motivation.”
A Board of Deputies spokesman said it accepted the police evaluation but advised the community nevertheless “to pay particular attention to security needs.”
Arsonists struck at the Central Synagogue in the Midlands city of Birmingham. A car owned by a local kosher caterer, Janet Levy, was doused with gasoline and set on fire in the synagogue’s parking lot. Police are investigating.
SWASTIKAS ON GRAVESTONES
Despite an advance tip, police did not prevent anti-Semitic vandals from breaking into the Jewish cemetery on Fawcett Road in the southern coastal city of Portsmouth on Saturday night.
Fifteen gravestones were daubed with swastikas, SS insignias and obscene words. Some of the stones marked the graves of Jewish servicemen in both world wars. A house of prayer at the cemetery was also desecrated.
A spokesman for the board’s security group reported a significant number of minor incidents. He also said the recent arson at mosques in Batley, Yorkshire, in the country’s north, and Woking in Surrey, southwest of London, could be connected with the attacks on Jewish property.
Strong sympathy for Israel echoed in the House of Commons after Tuesday night’s SCUD missile attack on the Tel Aviv area.
Prime Minister John Major said, “Like all civilized people, I am appalled by this savage attack by Iraq on civilians sitting peacefully in their homes in Tel Aviv. I am sure that everyone in this country would want to express their deepest sympathy to those who have been hurt and to their families.”
The minister of state at the Foreign Office, Douglas Hogg, told Parliament on Wednesday that the government has “nothing but admiration and respect” for Israel.
Chief Rabbi Lord Immanuel Jakobovits sent a message to Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir applauding his “prudent and steadfast leadership.”
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