Police are looking for a man in connection with what is being described as “a completely unprovoked violent” antisemitic attack.
The victim, in his early 30s, was waiting at a bus stop in Finsbury Park, north London, on busy Blackstock Rd near the Centre for Lifelong Learning shortly before 6pm on Monday evening.
Asking the JC to use only his first name, Ari said: “I was chatting on my phone, so I wasn’t aware of what was going on around me, when I felt someone beating me on my shoulders and head and saying: ‘I’m going to kill you. Kill the Jew’.”
Ari, who is Israeli and was wearing a kippa, said that he “started running away” from the attacker “but he kept running after me for 30 to 50 metres. I ran onto a bus and got back home.”
He added: “I’m physically totally fine, but today, I’m wondering if I should go to the same area. When the attack was going on, I didn’t have enough time to feel fear, but afterwards I felt shaky.”
Ari said that no passers-by had intervened to help him.
A spokesperson from CST said: “This was a completely unprovoked violent assault, and the antisemitic threats made by the attacker leave no doubt that the victim was targeted because he was Jewish.
“It is sadly predictable that the amount of anti-Jewish vitriol circulating online and on our streets would fuel an attack of this nature and we are only thankful that it did not lead to more serious injuries. This incident took place on a busy road, and we appeal to any witnesses to contact CST or the police to help with the investigation.”
The spokesperson added: “Our understanding is that the attacker was a man of Arab appearance in his early 40s, who shouted that he would ‘kill the Jew’ during the assault.”
A Met police spokesperson said: “Police were called at around 18:00hrs on Monday, 18 December to a report of an assault on Blackstock Road, Islington.
“A man reported that he had been approached by another male who punched him in the shoulder several times and shouted antisemitic abuse at him.”
They said that enquiries remained ongoing.
