A man has been arrested after antisemitic abuse was directed towards Jewish children on the London Underground.

The suspect, whose name and age has not been released by police, was held in Birmingham on Saturday night on suspicion of committing a racially aggravated public order offence and he remains in custody.

His arrest came after he was filmed hurling anti-Semitic abuse to two young boys in Yarmulkas while they were travelling with their family on the Northern line.

Wearing a cap and hoody, the man is seen in the video threatening a man off-camera after he tries to intervene before a woman in a hijab – Asma Shuweikh – confronts him.

The father of the young boys released a detailed statement of the incident to Shomrim and was sent to YWN for publication:

On the morning of Friday 22nd November, my wife and I were sitting on the Tube travelling from Hendon Central to Covent Gardens minding our own business, discussing with our children our plans for the day. A man boarded the train after I did.

As soon as he got on he came over and asked me if we were Jews. He shouted at me that the Jews started the slave trade and threatened that I, my wife and children were going to be his slaves and suffer various other ailments. He said the Jews were from the synagogue of Satan, and continued with vile anti-Semitic abuse which was very unsuitable for any child or adult to hear.

I was confused. I was ready for the anti-Semitic comments after the Jewish question, but I was not prepared for the hail of anti-Semitic abuse which followed. The video only shows a short clip of 15-20 minute ordeal. The only thing I could think about was the safety of my children and the best thing to do at that time was to restrain myself and try to get my children to ignore the situation. My wife and I tried to constantly reassure the children and distract them so they would not sense how anxious we actually were. We tried to remain calm and ignore the abuse, hoping this would keep our 3 young children calm.

A man with a baseball cap bravely tried to intervene and he himself was subject to threats of violence. We are extremely grateful for the muslim lady wearing the headscarf, who we now know as Asma, who stepped in.

We are certain that without her intervention and distraction, he would have continued his abuse which could have escalated to physical violence. I would like to meet Asma in person to thank her.

One cannot see on the short video that I politely asked him multiple times to step back and to stop directing abuse to my children. Afterwards, the gentleman filming very kindly switched seats with my son, and the lady who sat down next to me also helped distract our children by talking to them.

The experience made me more vigilant on the journey home. My children were deeply worried and confused , but we are thankful that this incident only entailed verbal abuse and not worse. It is clear that anti-Semitism is still rife, it just happens that a small two minute snippet of this long episode was caught on camera.

Shomrim NW London have been supporting me and encouraged me to report this to Police, and to them I am very grateful.

This Tube journey has left me with mixed feelings about society. On the one hand my wife, my children and I were subject to vile abuse in a full Tube carriage, however I am grateful for those who stood up for me.

A Spokesperson for Shomrim North West London said: It is incidents like these which bring the issue of anti-Semitism into sharp focus. Shomrim are committed to supporting victims of racial hate crimes and anti-Semitic abuse. We urge any victims to come forward and we will support you in reporting these incidents to police, and providing you with the necessary support. We are very thankful to British Transport Police for taking swift action and a strong stance on investigating all forms of hate crime. Shomrim NW London applauds Asma and the gentleman who courageously confronted the abusive man and defended the Jewish family.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)