The Metropolitan Police has confirmed it is investigating an incident which took place outside a Jewish school in north west London on Tuesday, where a man appeared to try and gain access to the site before talking about Israel and chanting in Arabic.
Video footage appeared to show the individual telling a security guard at outside the school that he was from “the council”. Having been refused access and subsequently confronted by a passer-by, the man said: “I’m just asking a friend what’s going on in Israel”. Told to leave the area, the man then began chanting what appeared to be verses from the Koran. He subsequently referred to “Somaliland”, which Israel recently recognised, before saying that “Allah asks you for five prayers a day…fewer and he’ll be disappointed in you” and then shouting “Alhamdullilah [praise be to God] for Islam!”
Campaign Against Antisemitism shared the video footage on social media, with a spokesperson for the organisation saying: “Another day at the gate of a Jewish school in London. A man demands ‘answers’ on Israel from a guard and yells in Arabic at a passer by. What would have happened if the Jewish school didn’t have a guard?
“In the UK in 2026, Jewish children go to school behind guards and practice terrorism drills – it is a ridiculous, dystopian reality, and we should not become desensitised to it or allow the authorities to accept it as normal. Will the police take action against the instigator, or is that too much to hope for?”
A spokesperson for the Met police said: “At around 10:15hrs on Tuesday, 20 January, police received a call from a school in Barnet reporting that a man purporting to be a teacher and speaking in Arabic had approached the front gate, spoken with security staff and sought to enter the premises but was not allowed to do so.
