Jewish man is kicked in the head and ribs after confronting anti-Israel graffiti thugs on London by-election eve

From the Newshound archive · first published 8 October 2026.

Dan Levene, 52, suffered a suspected broken rib and head wounds after he challenged two men stencilling anti-Israel graffiti onto the cobblestones of Queen Square in Holborn on Tuesday evening. The attack came the night before the Holborn and St Pancras by-election, triggered by Sir Keir Starmer's resignation as an MP, and one day before the third anniversary of the Hamas October 7 attacks. The Met is now treating the incident as an antisemitic hate crime.

The graffiti targeted Labour candidate Sagal Abdi-Wali, branding her a 'puppet of genocidal Israel', and Levene told his attackers the message was 'the message of the Nazis'.

Levene blamed Green Party supporters, linking the stencil to the party's recent vote declaring Zionism to be racist, passed days before the by-election.

'It is a worrying and scary time to be Jewish at the moment,' Levene said, adding that two members of the public stepped in to help him during the 20-second assault.