‘Genocide supporters’ – UK woman vandalizes Oct. 7 memorial

A London artist and PhD student was filmed cutting down yellow ribbons honoring Israelis kidnapped by Hamas.

By World Israel News Staff

Footage of a British woman vandalizing a memorial to those kidnapped on October 7 has sparked outrage among the UK Jewish community. Police said they are investigating whether the incident constitutes a hate crime.

The woman, identified by the Daily Mail as artist and Ph.D. student Nadia Yahlom, was seen cutting yellow ribbons that symbolized the 251 Israelis and foreign nationals kidnapped by terrorists to Gaza two years ago. The ribbons had been tied to a fence near a synagogue in Muswell Hill, north London.

Yahlom’s disrespect of the memorial felt “personal,” said Miranda Levy, a resident of the neighborhood, in an interview with the Daily Mail. She stressed that the display was not political in nature.

“These ribbons are to remember all the people who were kidnapped and those who are still there,” Levy said.

She noted that since October 7, there has been a sharp rise in antisemitism and anti-Israel hostility across the UK, with an explosion of antisemitic acts apparently condoned by a disturbingly large part of British society.

“There is a climate that it’s acceptable — you can get away with it, and even more than that, that people applaud it,” Levy added. “People think they are on the side of the good, the side of the righteous, by standing against Israel and the Jewish people.”

Levy said that what Yahlom did was “anti-Jewish, anti-Israel, and anti-humanity.”

She told the Mail she confronted Yahlom about her actions. Yahlom reportedly replied that she was not committing a crime by cutting down the ribbons.

Another man at the scene told Yahlom she was “disgusting.”

Yahlom replied, “Condoning genocide is disgusting,” insisting that she believed the memorial ribbons constituted an endorsement of ethnic cleansing.

“This is what lies lead to,” Heidi Bachram told LBC News. “To dehumanize innocent hostages who are being starved and tortured in terror tunnels,” she said, adding that the terror attack on the Manchester synagogue during Yom Kippur, in which two people were murdered and three seriously wounded, “didn’t make them pause at all.”

Hours after Yahlom vandalized the site, members of the Jewish community and their supporters tied additional ribbons at the memorial.

The Metropolitan Police said in a media statement that they were investigating the incident.

“Officers attended the location and are reviewing the footage to determine whether any offences, including hate crime or criminal damage, have been committed,” the police said.