Four men have been arrested after footage was shared on social media showing a convoy of cars with passengers yelling antisemitic abuse.
One of them could be seen with a megaphone shouting ‘F*** the Jews, rape their daughters’ claiming that he had had to ‘send a message’.
The Metropolitan Police said they traced a vehicle to the A40 in Hillingdon, and stopped it at 6.30pm.
Four men were arrested on suspicion of racially aggravated public order offences and taken into custody, where they remain.
Superintendent Jo Edwards said: ‘This behaviour was utterly shocking and will not be tolerated.
‘I understand that this would have caused considerable concern within the community and we have arranged extra patrols in the St John’s Wood and Golders Green areas this evening.’
The footage sparked widespread condemnation, with Boris Johnson saying there is ‘no place for anti-Semitism in our society’.
He said: ‘Ahead of Shavuot, I stand with Britain’s Jews who should not have to endure the type of shameful racism we have seen today.’
The cars, covered with Palestinian flags, were filmed passing down Finchley Road, in St John’s Wood, north London and are understood to have come from elsewhere in the country.
Labour leader Keir Starmer condemned the rally as ‘disgusting’ while Mike Freer, MP for Finchley and Golders Green, said: ‘The scenes I’ve witnessed in my constituency today have left me sick to my stomach.
‘The blatant and open antisemitism on display today, deliberately targeting areas with large Jewish populations is nothing short of incitement and I have urgently raised the matter with the Home Secretary, Commissioner and Mayor.’
Rabbi Herschel Gluck said: ‘People are very concerned and very afraid about where this will lead.
‘There is always the fear that threats could turn into actions.’
He added: ‘It is very important to emphasise in London that the Muslim and Jewish communities stand shoulder to shoulder and in a great spirit of solidarity.
‘There aren’t tensions locally, all these tensions are coming from people who have never seen a Jew and they are coming from outside London.’
Elsewhere, in Chigwell in Essex, a rabbi was attacked a short distance from his synagogue, suffering blows to the head and face this morning, though there is no suggestion the two incidents are connected.
The incidents come after thousands of people marched through London to the gates of the Israeli embassy yesterday, while protests took place in other cities across the UK and Ireland in solidarity with the people of Palestine.
Thousands of Palestinians have been forced to flee their homes as Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 181 people in Gaza, including 52 children and 31 women this week.
Israel has reported 10 dead from rockets fired into the country by Palestinian militant group Hamas, including two children, one of whom was five years old.
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