‘Synagogue attack not about politics, it's about being allowed to go to a place of worship’

Read time: 5 mins

In brief…

• A man has been shot dead outside a Manchester synagogue, after killing two people and seriously injuring three, on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.
• The News Agents say this is a direct attack on people going to worship – and should be discussed separately from the war in Gaza.
• Former editor of The Sun newspaper, David Yelland, who lived close to the synagogue, says he believes the attacker will fail to divide communities in Manchester, but that the situation will be exploited.

What’s the story?

Two people have been killed during a synagogue terror attack in Manchester on Yom Kippur, with police shooting the perpetrator dead at the scene.

Three others are in a serious condition after a man attacked in a car, and with a knife, on the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, with large crowds of people attending the synagogue in worship.

The News Agents say this attack comes in a culture of growing antisemitism in the UK, and around the world – with some claiming this has been caused by the ongoing war in Gaza.

“There are many British Jews, and many Jews around the world, who have felt an increasing sense of the temperature,” says Emily Maitlis.

“I want to divide that very firmly from any of the politics, anything that is going on in Israel, anything that is going on within the Israeli government and its actions.

“This is not about politics. This is about being allowed to go to a place of worship on a day that's very important to people.”

Jon Sopel says he wishes the actions of countries abroad could be separated from attacks on home soil.

“Likewise, Muslims who go to the mosque to pray on Friday prayers are not responsible for what some crazy jihadist might do anywhere else in the world,” he says.

Keir Starmer flew to the UK from Denmark, describing the attack as “shocking”, promising additional police officers would support and protect synagogues across the country and insisted the UK government would do “everything” to keep its Jewish community safe.

What we know about the attack

The incident took place at Manchester’s Heaton Park synagogue, with the attacker being shot dead by police after reportedly ignoring warnings from officers.

Some have suggested he may have been wearing an explosive device, but this has not been confirmed.

The crude method of the attack – with a vehicle and knife – has been used across Europe and in other parts of the world in terror attacks in recent years.

“This has been the methodology since the mid 2010s and the emergence of ISIS,” Andy Hughes, LBC crime correspondent, tells The News Agents.

“It told people in foreign countries to do whatever they could to attack in any way possible, changing from massively sophisticated suicide bombers to knives and cars.

“This is also an absolute nightmare for the security services, because every kitchen has knives and everyone has a car.”

Hughes says the most important job for Manchester police will be to determine whether the attacker was acting alone, or was part of a coordinated group.

‘Dividing Manchester didn’t work before, and it won’t work now’

Journalist David Yelland, journalist, author and former editor of The Sun newspaper, tells The News Agents that Manchester has a history of rallying together when terrorists attempt to divide it.

“Manchester is a city where terrorists have tried to divide it before – on two infamous occasions,” Yelland tells Emily and Jon.

“It didn't work then, and it won't work this time.”

An IRA bomb injured 212 people on Corporation Road in 1996, and an islamic extremist suicide bomber killed 22 and injured 1,017 at an Ariana Grande concert in 2017.

Yelland says he lived close to the Heaton Park synagogue when he lived in Manchester, early in his journalism career.

“A funny thing about Manchester is that people don't talk about race relations in the way they do in London – they just get on with it,” he says.

Division in the city, he adds, is only between supporters of Man United and Man City.

“I know in my heart of hearts that if this person was trying to divide Manchester and the country, that he won't succeed,” Yelland says.

“But I also know, very sadly, there are many people in journalism, on the right – and probably on the left as well – who will try to use this, and are already using it, to divide.”

He singles out coverage on the day of the attack from GB News, which focused on asylum seekers and how the UK government had “lost control” of the UK’s Muslim community.

‘Division will be seen in the the media’

Yelland tells The News Agents he’s an optimist and believes in a “tolerant heart of the British soul”.

When asked about growing antisemitism and islamophobia in the UK, he points the finger at the media, and individuals who exploit division to further their career.

“What has changed is that large parts of our political class, particularly on the right of the media, have attached themselves to near-extremism, because it's a commercial thing,” he says.

“It is sad to me that so many of my generation of newspaper people that I grew up with, have become radicalised.

“They put stuff on social media, which is not true, but they don't seem to care anymore, because it drives their user numbers, and therefore they become more successful.”

This has already been seen in the hours since the attack, and Yelland warns of more to come, saying some parts of the press and broadcast media will seek to “exploit the situation”.

“It’s partly trying to raise the temperature, and partly for commercial reasons,” he says.

“They're already entrenched.”

Listen to the latest episode of The News Agents.