The police are investigating after a man was seen wearing a t-shirt marking a 7th century attack on Jews in a supermarket close to a Charedi area of London.
The garment, photographed by a Jewish man who had been shopping at the Haringey supermarket with his family, bore the Arabic “Khaybar Khaybar ya Yahud”.
The words are part of the well-known Arabic chant, “Khaybar, Khaybar ya Yahud, Jaish Mohammed Sauf Ya’ud”, which means “Watch out Jews, remember Khaybar, the Army of Mohammed is returning”.
"Khaybar” refers to a battle that took place in the 600s when over 1,000 Muslim soldiers invaded a Jewish fortress in what is now modern-day Saudi Arabia.
Many of the Jews at the fortress had been deported from Medina by Muhammed but, as the then-century old Islamic state expanded, Khaybar was invaded.
The chant is widely considered to invoke a threat against Jews and is seen as antisemitic.
The Sainsbury’s supermarket on Williamson Road, Haringey, where the man was photographed, is only around 2km from Stamford Hill, the heavily Orthodox area of north London.
The Jewish shopper reported the incident to the police on August 14.
A Metropolitan Police spokesperson told the JC: “On Friday, August 14, officers received a report that a man had been seen in a supermarket in Williamson Road, Haringey, wearing a t-shirt with an alleged antisemitic wording on.
“The wording was not in English and while officers who initially spoke to the complainant a short time later were able to obtain a translation, they were understandably not aware of its meaning and historical context.
“Following subsequent discussions with officers with expertise in this area, the report has been recorded as a potential racially aggravated public order offence. Officers have been in contact with the victim and enquiries to identify the person involved are ongoing. No arrests have been made at this stage.”
Anti-racism group the Campaign Against antisemitism said: “This abhorrent intimidation must be met with the full force of the law, adding that antisemitism has reach a point where “it is now being displayed casually in everyday public spaces”.
Around 10,000 Jews live in Haringey, accounting for approximately 3.5 per cent of the total UK population.
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