Rabbi who lost family in West Bank shooting ‘feels safer in Israel than the UK’

Rabbi Leo Dee said the sight of people ‘marching in support of Hamas’ evoked images of Hitler and the Hitler Youth on the streets of Berlin.

Rabbi Leo Dee’s wife Lucy, 48, died three days after their daughters, Rina, 15, and Maia, 20, who were shot in the West Bank (Jordan Pettitt/ PA) (PA Wire)

A British-Israeli rabbi whose daughters and wife were shot dead in a Hamas terrorist attack has said he feels safer in Israel than the UK due to the current climate of antisemitism.

Rabbi Leo Dee said seeing people in the UK “marching in support of Hamas” reminded him of Hitler supporters marching in Berlin, and he feels safer in Israel where residents are “more prepared”.

His wife Lucy, 48, and daughters, Rina, 15, and Maia, 20, were fatally wounded in a shooting in the West Bank on April 7.

How bad will it be if and when Israel starts to retaliate seriously?

Rabbi Leo Dee

The family of seven, who moved to Israel from the UK in 2014, had been travelling in separate cars en route to a Passover holiday.

Speaking at Kinloss synagogue in Finchley, north London, on Friday, he said: “I feel safer in Israel than I feel in England at this point. In Israel, everybody knows what the risk is.

“Schools have had to close here in Britain because of the panic, and my family here are very frightened about the security implications.

“The fact that some people started marching on the streets immediately after this atrocity in support of Hamas shone a light on some elements of society.

“It brings back memories of Hitler and the Hitler Youth marching down the streets of Berlin and Vienna.

“If, after a Hamas genocide against the Jewish people, people can come out in support of Hamas and march through the streets, how bad will it be if and when Israel starts to retaliate seriously?”

On Friday, the Metropolitan Police said antisemitic offences in London have increased by over 1,000% this month compared to last year.

Some 218 antisemitic offences were committed between October 1 and 18, compared to 15 in the same period last year – an increase of 1,353%, police said.

They added that Islamophobia offences during the same period had increased from 42 last year to 101 this year – a rise of 140%.

Mr Dee said recent events in Israel have “awakened memories” of what happened to his own family.

He said: “Friday night is one of the hardest experiences for bereaved Jewish families.

“It can often take years to come to terms with people not being there.

“Recent events have also brought back memories of previous atrocities against the Jewish people.”

Mr Dee, who has flown to the UK from Israel to talk to British-Israeli families, described how life has changed in the country that he now calls home.

He said: “Everybody has to be within a minute of a safe room. Far less people are traveling on the roads.

“A lot of the schools are not operating because they don’t want to have too many people in one particular building.

“The kids are working remotely, very much like they did during Covid.

“300,000 fathers are on the battlefield so many households have become one-parent families and it’s become very difficult for people to run their day-to-day lives. Life has changed dramatically.”

The rabbi believes Hamas has no intention of making peace, and urged Israel and the western world to “wipe out” the threat of terrorism.

He said the conflict is a battle of “good vs evil”, adding: “This might be the moment to confront it, because every year we leave this simmering in the background terrorists get more sophisticated.”