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Swastika posters 'terrify our children'

Parents describe fear as antisemitic graffiti blights peaceful neighbourhood

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Sarah's youngest son is too frightened to go outside with his brothers and sisters after swastika posters were plastered in a playground on the estate where they live.

The Nazi symbols were put up across five days this week in Amhurst Park, Stamford Hill, in what security group Shomrim described as "the first co-ordinated and repetitive act of antisemitism the area has ever seen".

Standing by her back gate, which was daubed with a swastika, mother-of-five Sarah watched cautiously as her older children played with their friends in the sunshine on Tuesday afternoon.

"At first it is just posters, but who knows what will be next," she said. "My son is five years old and he feels the tension from all of us.

"It is the first time that we feel uncomfortable in our own surroundings and he won't come out to play."

The 31-year-old has lived on the estate - at the heart of Stamford Hill's Charedi community - for eight years and said she feels personally targeted after her car and gate were marked with the antisemitic graffiti.

She said: "It makes you feel very apprehensive. In this day and age you don't expect to see such things. This is a mixed area, where Jews and non-Jews live together and we have always got on.

"My children know what this symbol means and they are frightened."

The playground is used by more than 50 children from the housing estate and backs on to Ajex House, a home for Jewish ex-service personnel, some of whom are Holocaust survivors.

Shulem Stern, spokesman for Stamford Hill Shomrim, said: "There is a sense of anxiety and fear amongst parents. This is the first targeted and repetitive act we have had to deal with. Normally it is isolated incidents, but this is no longer isolated. It is really unpleasant."

Another parent, Miriam, watched as her five children aged two to 14 played outside.

The 31-year-old said: "Normally there are a lot more children out here. Now when my children want to go outside they say, 'Mummy will you come and play with me?'."

Miriam was "horrified" when she found one of the hand-drawn swastika posters stuck to the entrance of the estate.

She said: "I jumped out of the car and took it down. I didn't want anyone to see it, especially not my children or the survivors."

Miriam noticed "a group of youths who loiter in the playground" who she claimed had previously made antisemitic comments as the Jewish children played in the area.

"I was walking past them the other day and one or two of them said 'oh it is Jew-cy around here', and another said to the children, 'I hope you break your neck'.

"It is horrible. I don't know if it is kids leaving the posters, but it doesn't feel nice to be around."

The Metropolitan Police said it was "aware of the religiously aggravated material that has been appearing" in the area and had increased patrols while carrying out investigations.

Rabbi Avraham Pinter, a senior figure from London's strictly Orthodox community, said Catherine Edginton, Hackney Police's detective chief inspector, had reassured him the matter was "being taken seriously at the highest level".

Rabbi Pinter said: "She wrote to me to say they were doing a full review of the CCTin the area and following forensic lines of enquiry."

But estate resident Yossi, 31, said police should be doing more to catch the perpetrators: "It is happening on a daily basis. For the first time since it has happened I saw the police today. But we need to see them walking around more.

"They should be giving leaflets out to all the neighbours and warning people to be vigilant. We have felt very upset about it. One of my children found the posters in the playground.

"They are educated about these things in school and they know what it is and it upsets them. When they brought it to me I reported it straight away."

He added: "We have asked for more cameras and we are even trying to fundraise between the neighbours to install them. People are very concerned and we want to catch whoever is doing it."

Rabbi Herschel Gluck, president of North and East London Shomrim, said he believed it was not a coincidence that the swastikas had appeared close to the Ajex home.

He said: "I think sadly this is the rise of right-wing extremism. There are elderly people who served in the British army and fought in the Second World War living nearby and I think that is particularly poignant. I think it's an attempt to intimidate and instil fear."

Diane Abbott, MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, said she was "dismayed" to hear about the posters.

She said: "I have arranged a meeting with the Borough Commander and will discuss what additional measures can be taken to keep the community safe. I hope the perpetrators of this outrage will be caught and brought to justice."

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