Labour candidate Stella Creasy’s London campaign office was vandalised by anti-Israel activists, an anonymous source within the party confirmed on Saturday.
Last Saturday night, a man smashed the windows of Creecy’s Walthamstow office with a hammer and spray-painted graffiti on them. The Labour candidate did not give a clear reason for the attack, although he hinted at a motive. The Metropolitan police said on Thursday Jerusalem Post Police would not speculate on a motive but confirmed the incident is not being treated as a hate crime.
A message to those who attacked my office last night: You do not threaten me and you do not belong in the political process, any more than those who distribute malicious and fake leaflets. The police are already working to find you and will demand the harshest penalties for such anti-government activists. pic.twitter.com/QfLjcohbzA
— Stella Creacy (@stellacreasy) June 23, 2024
Waltham Forest Police released still surveillance camera images of the suspect on Sunday and urged the public to come forward with any information.
“It is completely unacceptable that a London candidate’s office should be targeted in this way,” Detective Superintendent Dion Brown, of Waltham Forest Detective Division, said in a statement.
Creasy said he had always sought to debate controversial issues such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with his constituents, but that his attacker refused to take part in those discussions.
“What I will never do is make one dent in those who don’t care about the democratic process and seek to express themselves through violence, intimidation and harassment, and make it unsafe for anyone to participate in our politics,” Creasy said in a social media video message.
Creasey said people who were distributing “malicious and false flyers” about her political positions also “have no place in the political process.”
Walthamstow, it’s election day 32. I ask you to not only help find the thugs who attacked my office, but to stand with me in rejecting all those who use violence, lies and harassment, rather than debate and the ballot box, to express the views of us all. pic.twitter.com/qH33575mHW
— Stella Creacy (@stellacreasy) June 23, 2024
The Labour politician said in the video that she has voted for a ceasefire in Gaza “at every opportunity” and has challenged the British government on arms sales to Israel and upholding international law. She also noted that she defends both the families of hostages held by Hamas and Palestinians in Gaza seeking visas to enter the UK.
Creecy touted his record of supporting a two-state solution, saying he voted in 2014 in favor of recognising a Palestinian state.
Anti-Israel vandalism
Since the October 7 massacre, there have been repeated incidents of vandalism at the offices of British politicians by anti-Israel activists.
Jewish Chronicles On 1 June, it reported that Labour Party offices in Chingford and Woodford Green had been defaced with anti-Israel graffiti.
The offices of Mike Freer, the Conservative MP for Golders Green and Finchley, were set ablaze in an arson attack in December after he received threats over his support for Israel.
