- Were you on the same train? Email cameron.roy@mailonline.co.uk
This is the moment a Jewish man wearing a skullcap was told ‘your religion is killing Muslims’ by a vape-puffing passenger on the London Underground.
The incident of alleged anti-Semitic abuse happened on a Northern Line journey between Chalk Farm and Belsize Park in the north of the city on Thursday.
In footage shared by the Campaign Against Antisemitism, who decided the blur the face of the passenger, he is seen appearing to goad the Jewish man by blowing smoke from his red vape towards him.
The Jewish man, who is recording the interaction, questions why the passenger is staring at him after he moves down the empty carriage to sit directly across from him.
‘Have you got a problem?’ he asks him.
After a few tense seconds with no reply, he asks: ‘Why have you got a problem? Why are you looking at me?’
The passenger replies: ‘Your religion kills Muslims, that’s why.’
The shocked Jewish man responds: ‘What?’
‘You kill Muslims’ replies the man, who then confirms that he is a Muslim.
The pair begin to have an argument after the Jewish man accuses him of being inconsiderate due to his vaping on the underground, with the Muslim man responding ‘I don’t give a sh**’.
Then the Jewish man said: ‘I haven’t done anything to you, you’ve got an issue with me, I’ve got no problem with you.’
The passenger replied: ‘You’ve done a lot… You’re wearing the hat.’
After being called out for wearing the hat, which is a brimless cap known as a kippah or yamaka worn by most Orthodox Jewish men at all times, the Jewish man bravely said: ‘So what you’re doing is called anti-Semitism. You’re anti-Semitic.’
‘But you kill Muslims’ responds the man, who has been pixelated for legal reasons.
The Jewish man replies: ‘I’ve done nothing. I’ve sat here on the tube. What you’re doing is anti-Semitic. You’ve got no idea what’s going on in my head.’
‘But your religion supports killing Muslims’ responds the vape-smoker.
As the Jewish man loudly denounces the Muslim’s behaviour – labelling it anti-Semitic several times – the vape smoker said: ‘You’re recording me innit?’
‘Yeah of course, because what you’re doing is anti-Semitic. I’ll deal with it. You’re an idiot’ replies the Jewish man who then stands up and leaves the train.
Following the incident, British Transport Police confirmed they were investigating the incident, posting on social media: ‘Good evening. I personally spoke to the victim of this yesterday and completed a crime report for the incident.
‘If anyone has any information or witnessed this please contact us on 0800405040 or text 61016 quoting reference 677 28/02/2024.’
A spokeswoman for the Campaign Against Antisemitism told MailOnline: ‘It is shocking to see how this man was treated by this young lout for daring to be Jewish in public, but perhaps it is not that surprising.
‘Inaction against the marches through London has led to a feeling amongst many extremists and antisemites that they can get away with brazen acts of racism against Jews, and too often they are right.
‘Antisemitism has reached record-levels, but prosecutions are few and far between, and even when they do happen, the sentences handed down are often no deterrent at all. 69 per cent of British Jews now say that they are less likely to show visible signs of their Judaism in public, and this is why.
‘British Transport Police, who are investigating the matter, have a better track record than the Metropolitan Police as of late and so we are hopeful that the perpetrator will face justice.’
In a post on social media, the Campaign Against Antisemitism said: ‘We have been made aware that last night on the London Underground, an identifiably Jewish man noticed a fellow passenger staring aggressively at him.
‘The passenger then began blowing the vapour from his e-cigarette in his direction. After a few minutes, the man started recording the passenger, unsure of what may happen.
‘The passenger stood up and sat opposite the man. In the ensuing conversation, the passenger said: “Your religion kills Muslims”.’
‘He also proceeded to refer to the man’s skullcap in saying: “You’re wearing the hat.”
‘We believe it is possible that the passenger in question may be a minor, so we have blurred his face.
‘He is described as a Middle Eastern male with a black ponytail between the ages of sixteen to twenty years old.’
The incident comes after a report published two weeks ago showed the number of anti-Semitic incidents jumped 147 per cent last year to record levels, with a massive surge in the wake of the Hamas atrocities on October 7.
The Community Security Trust, a charity, recorded 4,103 instances of anti-Semitism, up from 1,662 in 2022. It included 266 violent assaults on Jews, up 96 per cent year-on-year and the highest figure since the CST started gathering data 40 years ago.
For the first time, it recorded at least one anti-Semitic incident for every police force in the UK, with the majority – more than 2,400 – in London, including some at vigils for Hamas’s Israeli hostages.
Home Secretary James Cleverly condemned the figures at the time as ‘utterly deplorable’. Ten of the violent incidents involved fake firearms and three involved knives. Victims were struck with metal bars or other objects in 13 cases, 53 were punched or kicked and 36 were spat upon.
Police forces across the country also noticed increasing rates of anti-Semitism since the October 7 attacks.
The Metropolitan Police recorded a total of 679 anti-Semitic offences from October 7 to November 7 2023, compared with 50 in the equivalent period in 2022 and 81 in 2021.
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Cameron Roy
