LONDON — Simon Lester logged on for his shift as an on-call paramedic for Jewish rescue service Hatzola at 7 a.m. on Monday morning.

Minutes earlier, he’d heard the devastating news — that four ambulances from a neighboring branch of the Jewish volunteer group were destroyed in an arson attack in Golders Green, a northwest London suburb with a large Jewish population.

“I’m speechless that people could stoop so low as to attack an ambulance that saves the lives of everybody,” Lester told The Times of Israel.

The feeling among his co-workers, who donate their time and life-saving skills to respond to medical emergencies, is similar.

“There’s a lot of anger,” said Lester. “There will inevitably be some fear, but I think there’s also a degree of stubbornness that people are just going to carry on doing what they’re doing, and they’re not going to be put off by a bunch of thugs. Our mission is to save lives and we’re not going to be put off doing that.”

The Metropolitan Police’s counter-terrorism officers are investigating the arson, and two men were arrested and released on bail. Responsibility has been claimed by Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya (HAYI), which roughly translates to The Islamic Movement of the People of the Right Hand.

Prior to this and other recent antisemitic attacks on mainland Europe, HAYI was virtually unknown. As such, it is thought to be linked to the Iranian regime, which could be using it to target Jewish interests globally as the United States and Israel continue with the campaign of airstrikes against the Islamic Republic that began on February 28.

Although deeply shaken, Britain’s Jewish community is not surprised. Only last week, two Iranian men appeared in court on charges of hostile surveillance of a range of Jewish targets, including the Israeli embassy, the country’s oldest synagogue and popular arts center JW3. Meanwhile, less than six months have passed since a terrorist rammed his car into Manchester’s Heaton synagogue on Yom Kippur before going on a stabbing rampage that left two people dead.

That was the deadliest of 3,700 antisemitic incidents recorded by the Community Security Trust last year — the second highest number on record, after 2023.

Michael Wegier, chief executive of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, describes the mood among British Jews as “anxious but resilient.”

“There’s no doubt the levels of anxiety are up,” he said, attributing that not only to the arson attack and suspected spy case, but also a recent report in the left-leaning Guardian newspaper that appeared to defend anti-Israel vandalism directed at Gail’s, a popular bakery chain named for its Israeli co-founder.

People are concerned by the........

© The Times of Israel