Police set one hour response time to call about man threatening to 'kill his first Jew'

The victim of a violent antisemitic attack in North London says that the police response was ‘disgraceful’.

Daniel, not his real name, was told the police response time would be an hour after he rang 999 to report a man threatening to “kill his first Jew”.

During that time, the unidentified man attacked Daniel, punching him multiple times and allegedly attempted to pull out a knife.

“He looked straight in my eyes and said I’m not going to leave until you are dead”, Daniel told ITV News London in an exclusive interview.

The man fled after repeatedly failing to knock Daniel to the floor.

The attack took place during the festival of Chanukah in December in a busy street in West Hampstead. 

The man accused of the attack was also seen smashing a Jewish Chanukiah, a type of candelabra, which had been put up next to West Hampstead underground station as part of the festival celebrations.

Daniel has also criticised the Police for failing to check CCTV on local buses to see where the attacker went and whether he had any accomplices.

“The man was shouting in Arabic, he said it was his duty to kill a Jew”, Daniel said, “the police have no idea if he’s part of an extremist organisation or whether he was driven off by other people”.

In response to the criticism, the Metropolitan Police said that “as there were no buses passing at the time of the offence it would not be feasible or relevant to the investigation to request CCTV recordings from all buses in the area”.

The decision to give the 999 call a low priority status was due to Daniel not being able to see the location of the attacker at the moment he contacted the police. 

The police case has been closed, however the Campaign Against Antisemitism are offering a £10,000 reward for information that leads to a conviction.