Sadiq Khan ‘really worried’ over legacy of Israel-Hamas conflict on young people

The Mayor of London said he was also concerned about a ‘rise of extremism’ resulting from the hostilities.
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan (Yui Mok/PA)
PA Wire
Sam Hall3 November 2023
WEST END FINAL

Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

The Mayor of London has said he is “really worried” about the legacy that the Israel-Hamas conflict will leave on young people.

Sadiq Khan said he was concerned about “another generation having animus in their heart” and the “potential for more people to be radicalised” amid the conflict in the Middle East.

He added that he was also worried about a “rise of extremism” resulting from the hostilities.

The mayor was speaking after he attended workshops at County Hall in the capital on Friday morning from community projects that work to tackle discrimination and extremism.

Mr Khan told the PA news agency: “I’m really worried about the legacy of the disturbances in the Middle East – not just another generation having animus in their heart against the other, but also the potential for more people to be radicalised and the rise of extremism.”

He added: “Unfortunately, we have seen since the disturbances in the Middle East with Hamas’s outrageous actions in Israel, but also subsequently the actions in Gaza – an increase in hate crime in London.

“We know from previous disturbances in the Middle East that it does lead to an increase in antisemitism in London.”

Mr Khan said there had also been a “massive increase” in Islamophobia.

The Mayor said that it was “incredibly important” for people to report hate crime, adding that City Hall was investing “time, effort and resources in tackling hate and intolerance”.

Andy Fearn, co-executive director at Protection Approaches – which works to train Londoners to challenge prejudice and extremism, said: “What we’re seeing at the moment is not only an increase in Islamophobia and antisemitism – there’s also fear that comes with that across Jewish and Muslim communities.”

He added that Protection Approaches, which is a grantee of the Mayor’s Shared Endeavour Fund, was working to help young people challenge hateful behaviour in “safe and meaningful ways” by becoming “active bystanders”.

The Shared Endeavour Fund offers grants for organisations that support initiatives in London challenging racism, intolerance, hate, extremism and terrorism.

Other organisations that attended the workshops included Future Leaders, Stand Up! Education Against Discrimination, and Shout Out UK.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in