UK calls for action against rising anti-Semitism

(AFP) – Britain should step up action to combat a rise in anti-Semitism so Jews feel safe living in the country, Home Secretary Theresa May said.

The country would lose its identity without its Jews, Muslims and other minorities, May said at an event in London today to commemorate the four Jewish people killed in an Islamist extremist attack on a kosher supermarket in Paris on January 9.

“I know that many Jewish people in this country are feeling vulnerable and fearful,” May said in a televised speech. “I never thought I would see the day when members of the Jewish community in the United Kingdom would say they were fearful of remaining here in the United Kingdom, and that means we must all redouble our efforts to wipe out anti-Semitism here in the United Kingdom.”

May was speaking two days after police patrols were stepped up in Jewish areas and around synagogues and other Jewish centers the UK in response to the attacks in Paris.

“This is based on what has happened in France, on the whole picture that we see,” Prime Minister David Cameron said in a press conference in Washington alongside President Barack Obama. “It is a sensible, precautionary measure to make sure we do what we can to reassure those communities.”