Jewish man abused twice in an hour on London transport network

The incidents happened on Oxford Street and Oxford Circus Underground station

A Jewish man who was abused twice in one hour in central London was threatened because of his appearance, his brother said.

Yochai was "verbally assaulted" while on a bus into Oxford Street and then while at an underground station.

His brother said Yochai was targeted because he looked "obviously Jewish" and that the offenders "were not concerned about the repercussions".

The Met Police and British Transport Police are investigating.

Yochai was first abused while sitting on a bus at 23:40 BST on Saturday by a black man wearing a red, white and navy blue T-shirt and shorts and red trainers. He shouted "free Palestine" as he got off the bus.

Once Yochai left the bus and was walking down an escalator at Oxford Circus Tube station, the Met Police said he was subjected to a "torrent" of anti-Semitic abuse by a white man, who was wearing jeans, a black T-shirt and a grey jumper tied around his shoulders.

According to his brother, Yochai had on a kippah - the skullcap worn by some Jewish men - that evening. His brother, who asked not to be named, said Yochai had been left "very shaken".

'Vicious'

"The bus incident happened when the suspect noticed my brother. There was no prior communication before they lashed out [at him]," he told the Press Association news agency.

"It wasn't just a mere verbal assault. He was very close to being physically attacked by this vicious assailant."

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Yochai's brother said the passenger leaned in close to his face and tried to punch him but Yochai stopped him.

"He was shouting angrily: 'I'll give you an uppercut, I'll give you an uppercut'," he said.

Yochai then managed to "de-escalate" the situation by talking to the passenger, but still was faced with "ugly racist remarks and death threats", the brother added.

The incident ended after the bus driver called the police, he said.

'Not concerned about repercussions'

Describing how he felt when Yochai told him what he had experienced, his brother said: "I was upset since this is an experience I've myself had many times as a kid. Not necessarily death threats like this but lots of verbal assaults, things thrown from cars.

"I'm not religious like my brother so I don't look obviously Jewish to be a target this way.

"It's the fact that anti-Semites are willing to do this when knowing there is CCTV means we've reached the level where they're not concerned about repercussions."

No arrests have been made and inquiries are continuing.

Siwan Hayward, director of compliance, policing operations and security at TfL, said: "We are appalled by the shocking incidents. All our customers have the right to travel without fear of abuse or intimidation, and hate crime has absolutely no place on our network."

Correction 5 July: An earlier version of this story stated incorrectly that a group of males abused the man on the London Underground; there was only a single assailant at Oxford Circus Tube station. It has also emerged that the same man was the victim in both incidents.