British streets have been turned into “theaters of intimidation” by anti-Israel demonstrators, Kemi Badenoch has claimed
The leader of the British Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, has lashed out at activists protesting against Israel’s actions in Gaza, calling their gatherings “carnivals of hatred” and claiming that they promote violence against the Jewish population.
Badenoch made the comments during her speech at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester on Sunday, just days after an attack on a synagogue in the city left two Jewish worshipers dead.
The Tory leader described “the horrific and despicable” incident as “an attack on all of us… on our humanity and our values of freedom, compassion, and respect.”
However, the attack “did not come as a surprise” for the UK’s Jewish community because “extremism has gone unchecked” in the country for a long time, she said.
“You see it manifest in the shameful behavior on the streets of our cities. Protests which are in fact carnivals of hatred directed at the Jewish homeland,” Badenoch insisted.
Almost 500 people were detained on Sunday at another major pro-Palestinian rally in central London, despite calls by police and Prime Minister Keir Starmer to postpone the event due to the synagogue attack.
The “asinine slogans” chanted at such demonstrations mean “nothing at all, if it does not mean targeting Jewish people for violence,” Badenoch argued.
The Tory party, which according to YouGov is currently polling at just 16%, “must now draw a line and say that in Britain… you have no right to turn our streets into the theaters of intimidation and we will not let you do so any more,” Badenoch said.
Israeli attacks on Gaza have killed more than 67,000 people and wounded almost 170,000 others, according to the local health authorities. The Jewish state began its military campaign in the Palestinian enclave in response to an incursion into Israel by the Hamas armed group on October 7, 2023, in which around 1,200 people lost their lives and 250 others were taken hostage.
Israeli forces have continued their bombardment of Gaza despite an agreement with Hamas on a prisoner swap proposed last week by US President Donald Trump.
