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Last updated: May 20, 2026
A group of at least five assailants attacked a 22-year-old Israeli man in London’s Golders Green neighborhood early Monday morning, dragging him across the road, kicking him repeatedly, and demanding “Are you Jewish?” as they beat him near-unconscious.
London’s Metropolitan Police were treating the assault as an antisemitic hate crime.
The victim, Shalev Ben Yakar, had stepped outside his residence on Golders Green Road to take a phone call from friends in South America without disturbing his flatmates. When the group heard him speaking Hebrew, they ran after him, shouting in Arabic. Three or four formed a circle around him and kicked him as he tried to defend himself with his eyes closed.
“I had that feeling, like I thought I was going to die,” Ben Yakar said. The assault lasted around five minutes before the men stole one of his shoes and ran off. A neighbor heard the commotion and called police, who arrived after the attackers had already gone.
Ben Yakar was left with wounds across his forehead, nose, and cheeks, and bruising across his back and face.
🇬🇧 Golders Green, May 14, 2026: A 22-year-old Israeli man was violently attacked after being overheard speaking Hebrew outside his apartment in London.
5 masked men reportedly chased him, dragged him across the street, beat him near unconsciousness, & fled before police arrived. pic.twitter.com/wQERXPRfO6
— Combat Antisemitism Movement (@CombatASemitism) May 18, 2026
The attack is the latest in a series of antisemitic attacks in Golders Green. Weeks earlier, two Jewish men were stabbed there in what police designated a terrorist attack. The month before, attackers torched Jewish ambulances outside a Golders Green synagogue.
Minister of State for Courts and Legal Services Sarah Sackman, who represents Finchley and Golders Green, raised Monday’s case directly with Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley, calling the assault “intolerable” and pledging to push for more action.
“This was a violent and appalling attack in the heart of Golders Green,” the Community Security Trust (CST) said. “At a time of heightened antisemitism, incidents like this underline the very real dangers facing Jewish communities.”
Take Action
CAM has launched Report It, a secure app to report antisemitic incidents anonymously and in real time. Don’t stay silent. Download it today on the Apple App Store or Google Play. See it. Report it. Stop it.
