14 arrested as anti-Israel protesters picket London synagogue

Police in London arrested 14 people on Sunday at a real estate fair for properties in Israel, where about 1,000 people had gathered to protest outside the synagogue hosting the event.

The demonstration took place outside Edgware United Synagogue in northwest London, which hosted the fair. The Board of Deputies of British Jews condemned the protest and called on police to prevent it from taking place.

At least one of the people arrested was protesting the anti-Israel protesters, who said they were confronted at the rally, according to news agencies.

Police ultimately allowed the demonstration to proceed but arrested individuals accused of violence or public-order offenses, according to The Guardian.

“We are deeply disturbed at the wholly unjustified protest called for this morning outside a North-West London synagogue,” said Adrian Cohen, acting president of the Board of Deputies.

“The event organizers have publicly refuted claims that the event is marketing real estate over the Green Line. It is very disappointing that MPs and other public figures have not acknowledged this and instead inflamed tensions through partial and misleading commentary,” the statement continued.

Protesting at a synagogue “based on false pretenses seems to be little more than an excuse to harass and intimidate members of the Jewish community,” Cohen added.

Anti-Israel groups that organized the protest, which, according to The Guardian, were led by the Palestinian Youth Movement, said they were demonstrating against the sale of properties in Judea and Samaria.

The protest followed a similar controversy last year, when London police moved an anti-Israel rally away from St. John’s Wood Synagogue in central London. The demonstrators were later relocated nearby while “their ‘protest’ continued around the corner,” the Campaign Against Antisemitism said at the time.

The latest demonstration comes amid growing concern over antisemitism in Britain.

Last week, the Campaign Against Antisemitism described antisemitism as “a national emergency” after figures showed 255 antisemitic incidents recorded in May, up from 148 in April.

According to the Community Security Trust (CST), the average monthly number of recorded antisemitic incidents in Britain in 2025 was 308.

The United Kingdom recorded the highest per-capita rate of real-world antisemitic assaults among countries with large Jewish communities in 2025, according to a report by Israel’s Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism.

The report documented 121 assaults in a Jewish population of roughly 300,000.

The total number of antisemitic incidents recorded in the United Kingdom—including threats, vandalism, and intimidation—reached 3,700 in 2025, CST said earlier this year.

That figure represented a 4 percent increase from the 3,556 incidents recorded in 2024. However, it remained 14 percent below the record-high total of 4,298 antisemitic incidents documented in 2023.