A Jewish man says he was assaulted after confronting activists who were allegedly painting antisemitic graffiti in north London.
The Metropolitan Police has opened an investigation after Dan Levene, 52, sustained a head injury and a suspected broken rib.
The alleged attack took place shortly before Thursday’s by-election in Holborn and St Pancras, the parliamentary seat vacated by former Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.
Sagal Abdi-Wali, the leader of Camden Council, is considered the frontrunner, despite a challenge from Green Party leader Zack Polanski.
Mr Levene, a former football journalist and communications consultant, said online that he confronted two people who were allegedly attempting to spray-paint a stencil describing Ms Abdi-Wali as a “puppet of genocidal Israel”.
He later posted a photograph of his head wound, writing: “Jewish man physically attacked just now, by neo-Nazis on the streets of Holborn & St Pancras.”
In subsequent updates on X, he said he may have suffered a cracked rib and had “bruises as you’d expect after being kicked around the pavement”.
Mr Levene also praised “two amazing members of the British public” who stepped in to help. However, he said he was “very angry this has happened” and attributed the alleged attack to people he described as Green Party supporters.
The Metropolitan Police is investigating after Dan Levene (pictured), 52, suffered head injuries and a suspected broken rib in Holborn, London
The incident occurred a day before the third anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 terror attacks on Israel, in which almost 1,200 people were killed. The attacks were followed by an Israeli military response that has been linked to an estimated 77,000 deaths in Gaza.
Mr Levene said the confrontation lasted around 20 seconds, beginning when he challenged the pair over the graffiti before they allegedly punched and kicked him.
He said one of the men knocked him to the ground after he took out his mobile phone to photograph the vandalism in Queen Square, Holborn, close to Great Ormond Street Hospital.
Speaking to the Times, he said: “It was a thoroughly unpleasant experience and, sadly, it really does reflect what I think a lot of Jewish people see as a massively rising tide of antisemitism in the country at the moment.”
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Mr Levene said he used his foot to move aside an A4 cardboard stencil that the masked individuals were using to apply their message.
“I frankly did not want to see antisemitic graffiti in London squares that I have quite an emotional connection with,” he said.
He recalled telling the pair, “No, you’re not doing that,” while describing their message as “neo-Nazi”.
Mr Levene said the claims about genocide and Israelis controlling others through “puppetry” echoed “the message of the Nazis that Jewish people escaped in the middle of the last century”.
A Scotland Yard spokesperson said: “Police received an online report at around 11.50pm on Tuesday, October 6, that a man in his fifties had been assaulted after challenging two men who were reported to be spraying graffiti in Queen Square, Holborn.
“The man reported minor injuries but did not require medical treatment.
“Officers have spoken to the victim and are working to establish the circumstances surrounding the incident, which at this time is being treated as an antisemitic hate crime. No arrests have been made at this time.”
The Green Party has faced criticism including from Sir Tony Blair in the wake of last Sunday’s vote at their party conference in Brighton declaring that ‘Zionism is racism’.
They have been dubbed ‘an extremist party’ and the motion branded an ‘attack’ on British Jews, with the Greens reported to both the police and the UK’s equalities watchdog over events at their South Coast conference.
In a statement issued on Monday night, Mr Polanski, who is Jewish, said his party would ‘not accept any exclusion’ of people based on religion.
He added: ‘As leader I will not accept any exclusion, or refusal to engage with anyone, because of the religious or communal body they are part of.
‘I take seriously my responsibility to make sure everyone feels safe and welcome in our party.
‘Under my leadership, no one will be made unwelcome because of their background, their faith or where they worship.’
