Police question woman who cut down yellow ribbons commemorating the hostages

“[She] attended a police station on Tuesday, 7 October, for a voluntary interview in connection with the incident, which is being treated as racially aggravated criminal damage and a racially aggravated Section 5 public order offence.”

The ribbons were tied to the railings outside a small Muswell Hill park by local resident Ben Paul.

It is not the first time that Paul has put up ribbons only for them to be removed soon afterwards. “The ribbons are always cut down within 48 hours,” said Paul. “We try to explain that these are apolitical and to think about what these ribbons represent. These ribbons are an international symbol to draw attention to the plight of the hostages who were abducted from a music festival and their homes on October 7, 2023.”

Paul added that he put the ribbons up specifically to commemorate two years since the hostages’ abduction from the Nova festival, including Guy Gilboa-Dalal, a family friend.

He said: “Our kids are bullied and intimidated at university. People are scared to wear their Stars of David. The narrative has been skewed unfairly against us. Are we not allowed one day?”

Paul was among a group of residents who replaced the ribbons, and the park has since been showered with yellow flowers by passers-by showing their support. Yellow roses and sunflowers have been tied to the railings alongside the ribbons in tribute to the hostages, leading the area to be newly dubbed the “Peace Park”. There has also been talk of planting yellow flowers in the park.

“This week, we highlighted the plight of the hostages. Our little corner of Muswell Hill has become the focal point for hostages in our borough,” said Paul. “And ironically, I don't know if it all coincides with a day when they could come home.

“It's full of flowers because people want to turn this into a positive thing. We want it to be a symbol at a very dark time that people can agree and disagree at the same time, but talk about it.

“This is about the hostages. This is about morality and humanity. When nobody's mourning for our side, we mourn for our side, and we do it visually, but don't think for a moment we haven't thought about the loss of lives of innocent people in that region. We mourn for every innocent human being. But just let us have this day.

“I've never seen so many people stand there and discuss from an apolitical humanitarian perspective. On a very dark day it brought a little bit of sunshine. It showed the Jewish community that people do have the capacity to empathise with us at a time when we believed that nobody does.”