How my confrontation with woman cutting down yellow ribbons in support of hostages left me angry and afraid

On Monday morning, I went out for a coffee at Muswell Hill, the region of North London, where I live. It was a bright, cloudless day, and my heart jumped to see the yellow strip rows fluttering in the railing around a small park.

Yellow ribbons have been a sign of support for people who have been hostage or captivated for a long time, and now the 48 Israeli hostages, which are currently organized under terrible conditions in the tunnels under Gaza – 20 are still alive – a way to remember. Yesterday, October 7, two years have passed since they were kidnapped.

We do not really see the yellow strip very often – in the Urban UK’s red, black and green of the Palestinian case. And rarely ribbons emerge, they continue for minutes before they are uncertain by people who cannot bear to think that there are people on both sides of the conflict.

On Monday, I caught one of these strips-Rippers in the action. Otherwise, I should say strip-Snippers, because the young woman in front of me mechanically cut the ribbons with a pair of Dressmaking scissors. It was clearly prepared that morning. Snip, snip, snip, went, then filled the hanging pieces into his bag.

Later, he was called Nadia Yahlom, a ‘Palestinian-Jewish artist’ to this woman-I’m not sure what it means-living in the local area.

‘What are you doing?’ I asked. My knee -shaking reaction was a cold, angry need to challenge him: even a sociopath using a pair of scissors would not stop me. ‘What are you doing? What’s your name? If you are proud of yourself, please tell us your name. ‘I took my phone to film him because I knew that even in that divided seconds, the world had to see it.

“If you think it is illegal, you can call the police,” he said. A man who joined me on the street added his voice. “ You are disgusting, ” he said. The woman answered the household in an predictable way: ‘I think it is disgusting to do genocide.’ Here we’re starting, I thought.

There is a terrible war in Gaza with a terrible loss of life, but how to put the ‘supportive genocide’ of yellow ribbons? The strips are still in captivity to remember the poor young men.

Nadia Yahlom, who lives in North London, used scissors to break the monumental groups that the Jewish community attached to the railings in honor of 251 people who were hostage by Hamas terrorists on 7 October 2023.

Finally the woman exploded. A group of North London Jews have always sent awake justice with our tendency: with words. Later, I saw my great joy and the ribbons withdrew.

After this discussion, while sitting in the coffee shop, my anger turned to sadness, then a small fear pop.

What if the woman is waiting on my way back? What if he held a mafia to attack or attack me?

My concern wasn’t just the paranoia: She had actually tried to open another Jewish lady who had reduced a boyfriend into tears in the crowd.

None of this is in the void. The fear among the British Jews has been rising since October 7, 2023. On October 9, before the first bomb fell into Gaza, they held a demonstration in pro -Palestinian London.

Humor: Let’s call it a celebration, because it was. ‘Globalize Intifada!’ They shouted with drums, cartridges and hatred.

As we all know, Intifada found a global path of a synagogue in which a knife attack in Manchester in Yom Kippur last week led to the loss of two Jewish life. I don’t know why the BBC, politicians, commentators are so surprised. When the news began to break, every British Jew thought: ‘We told you that this would happen.’

I am not particularly an observer Jew. I’m not an activist. Especially I did not grow up to deal with Israel: there is no family or friends there. Until a few years ago, being Jewish was a secondary part of my identity.

Ms. Yahlom declared that the ribbons on the eve of the second anniversary of the attacks were ‘genocide’.

The inhabitants kept the ribbons on Tuesday morning after being cut

Muswell Hill residents came together to replace the yellow strips cut by Mrs. Yahlom

Unlike the others I know, I had never experienced anti-Semitism and I never agreed with the synagogue. However, the genetic memory of the persecution passes through us like a pink text in a rock bar.

Our ancestors survived the attacks by the medieval Christians, the Kazakhs and the Nazis. My family came here to escape from the Eastern European Pogroms at the beginning of the 20th century, but my aunt’s husband was survived a few Nazi concentration camps – this story is never far.

For years, I told friends that they were paranoid when they said that Britain ‘is no longer a place for Jews’. However, in the last few years, I started to think it has a meaning. Especially since last Thursday. Although I said I was scared on a daily basis, I took some measures.

Last year I took my surname out of my Uber account, because I know the Jewish friends who were exposed to the tirad by drivers. I look at an increase in concern when a delivery driver presses the stairs to my apartments in my Mesuzah (Jewish prayer shift in the door frame). Is this paranoia or just makes sense?

Now we are told that a wave of anti-semitic and racist interpretation is not controlled among doctors in NHS, some clearly celebrates the ‘Palestinian resistance’ and says ‘all England Jews should be able to account for’ (for what is happening in Gaza).

Last month, a doctor was not considered a ‘danger for patients’ and on social media, although he claimed to be a ‘Jewish superiority termination’, which was not far from my incident with ribbon-Snipper, he was not allowed to continue his license.

On social media, I got a wicked use both from the right and the left. Babykiller was called AC *** and a rats. There was a swastika cross and horns on my profile picture.

Yes, there are Neo-Nazis, but I’m afraid that the majority of Islamists and the left wing anti-Semites. A beautiful man told me last night to ‘return to the Jewish land’ and refused Israel’s right to exist. I want to know where the ‘Jewish lands’.

An Israeli supporter, pro -Palestinian students protesting outside the University of London on October 7, 2025

Demonstrators at the School of London School of Economics participate in a Palestinian student march in London, UK, 7 October 2025

Then, of course, there are constant walks. While the center of London has become a still region for Jews at the weekend, I will definitely not enter Trafalgar Square in the afternoon afternoon.

I am sure yesterday morning, Charmer who used scissors is not a stranger in March Saturday; He sees himself with the angels. But please can all weeks rest this week? Does he have a heart?

Muswell Hill ribbons were flying in the afternoon on Monday, restored to his former glory after the sniper. But yesterday, they were removed again on October 7. Thus, a call for a meeting was called through a local WhatsApp group.

At 11:00, a group of Jewish residents went to the yellow silk weapon, more determined than before. And so the small park in the corner of the road shines in a brighter way again – with optimism, hope and love.