Demonstrators in Southend targeted a partly Jewish district after deliberately avoiding compulsory consultations with local police as part of organising the protest. Their action passed outside a synagogue, and ran close to several others in the area.
This meant that families walking home from synagogue after Sabbath prayers during Passover were exposed to chants of “Stop killing children,” according to the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA).
Alongside this notorious blood libel, marchers displayed support for proscribed organisations, primarily Hamas. The choice of a residential area, away from Southend city centre and housing a small Jewish community, suggested an antisemitic motive. Essex police also adopted a ‘light-touch’ approach to violence:
A volunteer from [the CAA’s] Demonstration and Event Monitoring Unit was assaulted for filming the march, yet police failed to intervene. The few arrests made were far too little, too late, as another Jewish community in the UK was intimidated into staying indoors while police stood by inertly.
Like the ongoing events in London since October 7th, 2023, this local demonstration has shown British Jews being “abandoned by authorities who appear increasingly unwilling to protect their Jewish citizens, allowing extremist mobs to act with impunity,” in the words of the CAA.
Previously, Southend lost its member of parliament, Sir David Amess, to an Islamist murderer.
