by Jules Gomes
Expert: False Flag Scenario Ludicrous
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Golders Green, a historic center of London’s Jewish community, became the site of a targeted arson attack on emergency medical vehicles—part of what appears to be a broader wave Iran-linked operations aimed at intimidating Jewish populations across Europe.(Shutterstock) |
Israeli officials have named a new Iran-linked terrorist organization for a “coordinated sequence” of attacks on Jewish institutions across Europe in one week, including an antisemitic arson attack on a Jewish ambulance service in London.
The suspects’ alleged links to Iran underscore failures to understand the domestic threats that the Islamic Republic poses to British Jews and the wider British public.
On March 24, Israel’s Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism published a special report in English identifying Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islam (HAYI)—The Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right—as the terror group behind recent attacks on Jews in Europe. The Israeli report noted that analysts view the attacks and HAYI’s claims as intended to achieve psychological impact, intimidate Jewish communities, and disseminate propaganda.
HAYI claimed responsibility for explosions and arson attacks targeting Jewish institutions in Belgium, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Greece between March 9 and 14, and the March 23 arson attack on four Hatzola ambulances in the Jewish area of Golders Green in London, the report said. Two days after the Golders Green attack, the Metropolitan Police announced that they arrested two men—aged 45 and 47—described as “British nationals” on “suspicion of arson with intent to endanger life.”
“The arson attack on Hatzolah ambulances in London is the latest link in the terror chain by Harakat Ashab al-Yamin, an Iranian-backed proxy,” Amichai Chikli, Minister for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism, posted on X.
The report based its allegations that HAYI is linked to Iran on videos documenting the attacks, which were circulated on Telegram channels linked to Iran-aligned Shiite militant networks, including Hezbollah and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The group’s logo, depicting a raised arm holding a rifle pointed to the right with a globe behind, resembles the symbols used by Iranian-aligned militant groups such as Hezbollah, Kataib Hezbollah, and the IRGC.
HAYI’s Name Based on Verse from Qur’an
The movement’s name stems from Qur’anic terminology describing the righteous who receive their record in their right hand on Judgment Day. Sura 56:38 from the Qur’an refers to the “people of the right” and contrasts them with the “people of the left” (Sura 56:41), who will be “miserable.”
Experts believe the name was chosen for its inclusive theology, referring to righteous believers (in the Sunni interpretation) or to the followers of Imam Ali (in the Shiite interpretation). As per the report, the “dual interpretation allows the group to present a universal Islamic narrative while simultaneously signaling ideological alignment with Shiite militant networks.”
The Attacks
The previously unknown terror [group] appeared when it claimed responsibility for an explosion at a synagogue in Liège, Belgium, on March 9. Four days later, HAYI said it had set a synagogue on fire in Rotterdam. Police arrested four teenagers (17-19) on suspicion of setting off the bomb. Belgian authorities said they were analyzing a potentially jihadist video claiming responsibility.
On March 14, an explosive device was placed against a wall and detonated at the Cheider school in the Buitenveldert district of Amsterdam, the only school specifically for Orthodox Jews in the Netherlands. Surveillance footage caught a person placing an object—believed to be an explosive device—against the school wall before fleeing, likely on a motor scooter.
On March 23, the day on which Jewish ambulances were torched in London, Dutch police foiled a terrorist attack on a synagogue in Heemstede after finding explosives outside the building.
Police arrested two minors hours after a car was torched in Antwerp on March 24 near a kosher restaurant. Belgian authorities, who are treating the attack as antisemitic, confirmed that a video on social media, which appeared to be authentic, purportedly showed the arson attack.
HAYI Statement Singles Out “Zionists”
In a statement following the Antwerp attack, HAYI said that it was targeting the city distinguished by its “strategic location” and “significant economic role, particularly in the diamond trade,” because of its “large Zionist community,” which gave it the title of the “Jerusalem of the North.”
“Operations will continue to escalate and intensify until the liberation of our occupied lands in beloved Palestine and revenge for the blood of the Palestinians, Lebanese, and all Muslims,” the terror group’s statement, published on the website of Israel’s Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism, warned.
Belgium has deployed soldiers in its largest cities to beef up security at Jewish institutions, including synagogues and schools.
Minister Chikli told The Times of Israel that the recent attacks are not isolated but “part of a disturbing pattern of action” as “terrorist networks affiliated with the Iranian axis are trying to expand their arena of operation into the cities and Jewish communities of Europe.”
Golders Green a ‘False Flag’ Attack?
Numerous commentators in the U.K. have suggested that the Golders Green attack was a “false flag” operation. Bharat Pankhania, a councilor representing the Combe Down ward in the city of Bath, located three-hour drive from Golders Green, apologized after suggesting the March 23 attack was “insurance fraud and an ‘Israeli false flag operation.’” Lowkey, a U.K. rapper, suggested in post on X (amplified by British Iranian pundit Aaron Bastani) that a message posted by HAYI after the attack “had Zionist connotations.”
Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi, a Milstein Writing Fellow for the Middle East Forum who has written about HAYI, told Focus on Western Islamism (FWI) that he is astounded at efforts to promote the “false flag” narrative in reference to the Golders Green attack.
“A clear indication that the attacks claimed by HAYI are unlikely to be ‘false flag’ operations is that HAYI’s attack claims and statements are consistently circulated first on pro-Iranian and pro-'resistance’ social media channels,” he told FWI. “To suppose a ‘false flag’ would mean the Israelis were somehow duping these channels into publishing this content. In fact, a much more likely scenario is the Iranians or allied clients paying amateurs or criminals to conduct attacks and then generating the attack claims and propaganda on this basis.”
While officials in the U.K. have released no information regarding the ideological or religious background of the suspects arrested in the aftermath of the Golders Green attack, the attack itself has generated great concern over the threat of jihadist attacks against “soft” targets in the West.
“This horrific act truly plumbs new depths. Burning Jewish community ambulances—which cater to Jews and non-Jews alike—is a truly repulsive act of antisemitic hatred in a Britain where Jews now have to keep everything from schools to synagogues under constant guard,” a spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism told FWI.
“The suspects’ alleged links to Iran underscore failures to understand the domestic threats that the Islamic Republic poses to British Jews and the wider British public. The Government has been warned repeatedly but failed to act, and the police and regulators, tolerating everything from hate marches to hate preachers, have in effect created a welcoming environment for Iranian networks in our country,” the spokesperson noted.
Jules Gomes is a biblical scholar and journalist based in Rome.
Source: https://www.meforum.org/fwi/fwi-news/israel-warns-of-an-iranian-backed-jihadist-group-targeting-jews
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