Dan Levene, a 52-year-old Jewish communications consultant, was violently assaulted in central London this week after attempting to stop two men from spray-painting anti-Israel graffiti targeting a Labour Party candidate. London's Metropolitan Police confirmed receiving a report of the incident and said it was investigating the attack as an antisemitic hate crime.
Levene, who describes himself as "proudly Jewish," said he was walking home from an event Tuesday evening when he noticed two men in Queen Square, in the Holborn area of central London, spray-painting the words: "Don't Vote Sagal Abdi-Wali A Puppet Of The Genocidal Israeli Regime."
According to Levene, he attempted to stop the vandalism and told the men that their behavior resembled that of neo-Nazis. He said they immediately turned on him. One attacker repeatedly kicked his legs, knocking him to the ground as he attempted to take out his mobile phone to photograph the pair.
"They were kicking the side of my head," Levene recalled, describing how one of the men pinned him down while the attackers also kicked and punched him in the ribs.
He said the assault ended only after a woman and another passerby emerged from a nearby establishment and intervened. Both attackers fled the scene.
Levene suffered bruises and what he described as a cracked rib. He later posted a photograph on X showing his face covered in blood.
The Metropolitan Police said the victim had reported minor injuries that did not require hospital treatment. Officers have spoken to Levene and are working to establish the circumstances of the incident, which is being treated as an antisemitic hate crime.
The graffiti targeted Sagal Abdi-Wali, the Labour Party candidate in the Holborn and St Pancras parliamentary by-election.
Abdi-Wali, who is Muslim, has recently been the subject of an anti-Israel campaign seeking to portray her as being under the influence of Zionist interests. Similar messages have appeared in other locations across the constituency.
Levene said he is not politically active but believes the attackers may have been supporters of the Green Party, whose leader, Zack Polanski, is contesting the same election.
He accused the Greens' increasingly hard-line anti-Zionist stance of encouraging hostility toward Jews, arguing that it had increased tolerance for both anti-Zionism and antisemitism and emboldened people to attack Jewish individuals.
Green Party leader Zack Polanski
(Photo: Alishia Abodunde/Getty Images)
However, there is no evidence that the Green Party or Polanski officially authorized the graffiti campaign, and it remains unclear whether the attackers had any connection to the party or its election campaign.
The assault comes amid a heated parliamentary by-election in which Israel has become a prominent subject of local political debate, alongside sharp disagreements over the war in Gaza and attitudes toward Zionism. Police are continuing their investigation into the attack.