A woman who cut down ribbons commemorating the victims of October 7 Hamas attack has claimed she took a stance “against genocide”. The taxpayer-funded PhD researcher Nadia Yahlom added that she was ignorant of the date of when she did this – just one day before the anniversary of the attack. The 36-year-old was filmed in Muswell Hill, north London, using scissors to remove the yellow ribbons tied to railings near a synagogue.
After voluntarily attending a police station where she was interviewed for racially-aggrevated criminal damage, she told the BBC: “To me, it’s astonishing that there can be moral repugnance about a handful of ribbons being cut and not generations and generations of bloodlines [in Gaza] being cut.”
“I actually wasn’t aware that it was close to the anniversary. In what universe do we think that the focus now should be on me cutting down some ribbons and not on liberation for the Palestinian people?
“I am a Palestinian-Jewish woman living in that community who has every right to take a stance against genocide — a genocide that is being conducted in my name,” she said.
Asked if her actions were antisemitic, she said: “I think it’s antisemitic to imply that a Jewish person who is standing in principled opposition to a genocide is driven by hatred.”
She allegedly saw members of her community removing Palestinian stickers and her Palestinian husband claimed that since the incident, he and his wife have been attacked by people in north London who are “probably working for Mossad”.
According to Yahlom, her local community in Muswell Hill had been “whipped up into a frenzy by the irresponsible and sensationalist media reporting” on the incident, The Times has reported.
“It is astonishing to me, to see what it means to speak out about genocide,” she added.
The Metropolitan Police has said it is investigating threats against individuals and reports of a hate crime.