By GREG HEFFER, POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT and ANDY DOLAN, GENERAL REPORTER and SABRINA MILLER, NEWS REPORTER and SABRINA PENTY, FOREIGN NEWS REPORTER
A man who heckled David Lammy at a vigil on Friday afternoon to commemorate the two Jewish men murdered in the Manchester Yom Kippur terror attack has accused Labour of enabling terrorism.
Father-of-three Tony Levene, 50, told the Daily Mail: 'The Labour Government has been an enabler of terrorism.
'They have blood on their hands.'
The sales manager's remarks come as the Deputy Prime Minister had his address interrupted as he faced persistent shouts from the crowd of hundreds gathered on Middleton Road in Crumpsall.
As he was introduced at the vigil on Friday morning, Mr Lammy - who is also the Justice Secretary - was booed and faced shouts of 'shame on you', 'go to Palestine, leave us alone'.
Others in the crowd were heard saying: 'You've allowed it to grow on campuses', and 'you have blood on your hands'.
Mr Levene described being 'filled with disappointment and anger' when he saw MrLammy, adding that 'the Labour Government is responsible for what happened yesterday.
'They have allowed hatred on our streets. They allow hatred on campus. They let people chant 'intifada'. They have rewarded a terrorist regime.'
Tony Levene, who heckled David Lammy at a vigil today, has accused Labour of enabling terrorism and said it has blood on their hands following yesterday's terror attacks in Manchester.
David Lammy was booed and heckled today as he spoke at a vigil for the Manchester terror attack victims
He added: 'When you tell a terrorist group like Hamas that the reward for massacring Jewish people and for oppressing the Palestinian people is a state then you empower terrorists to commit more acts of terrorism.'
'When you give extremists a pass over and over again they just start to feel more empowered.'
When asked why he decided to shout at the Labour politician, Mr Levene said: 'I was just shouting my opinion at the MP and telling him what he needed to hear.'
Mr Levene said the attack is the 'root of Labour allowing this to happen and giving into fundamentalists in this country.'
'How many years have MPs said they will stop the scourge of antisemitism? These are empty words.'
'The joke always was that under Corbyn things couldn't get any worse for Jews in Britain.'
'But on Thursday, it tragically did.'
Heckler Geraldine Simon, a decades-long friend of slain Melvin Cravitz, said Mr Lammy was booed because the Labour government had 'let the Jewish community down'.
The 67-year-old semi-retired lawyer said: 'I don't know what he came here for.
'His opening words addressed the crowd as 'friends' and that was like a red rag to a bull.
'I shouted 'Platitudes! Platitudes!' and 'We don't need you' when he said he was here with us.
'I just couldn't help snorting with derision.
'This community has been here (in Manchester) for 150 years, but what sort of peace can you have if people don't feel safe?
'We can't rely on this government to protect us. Starmer says he will provide more resources and security but we don't want that.
'The police community response to this attack has been brilliant, but we don't want to have to have officers outside our synagogues and schools.
'We don't want extra money or resources, we just don't want attacks.'
Attendees of the vigil vocally aired their frustrations at the Deputy PM David Lammy
Mrs Simon, from Crumpsall, described Mr Cravitz, a retail worker, as 'kind and funny' and added: 'He didn't have a bad word to say about anybody.
'Melvin was a born and bread Mancunian, we both were. I have known him since we were teenagers. He was just a good person.'
She said Mr Cravitz, who she said married later in life and had no children of his own, was often late to services at the synagogue.
But she said that at a meeting with the congregation in a local village hall today Rabbi Daniel Walker had reflected on the fact that it was his misfortune to arrive at the synagogue punctually on Wednesday.
Later on during Mr Lammy's speech, which took place during the torrential rain, one person was heard to shout: 'Empty words, we want action.'
Uproar then resumed in the crowd as the Deputy PM said: 'That is why we stand in defiance of those terrorists who seek to divide us'.
This saw further shouts from attendees, and one man could be heard saying 'you enabled it, every Saturday'.
The Justice Secretary continued: 'We cannot, must not, let them divide us - we must show them who we really are, not what they want us to become or to believe.'
Joanne Lazarus, 61, from Whitefield, Bury, was among those who shouted 'shame on you' and 'you're embarrassing' at Mr Lammy as he spoke at the vigil.
She said she wanted the Government to stop pro-Palestine marches taking place.
‘I took the chance to make my voice heard. I can’t take these marches every single Saturday,’ Ms Lazarus said.
‘I’ve been into town on a Saturday and have been told I’m a baby killer and to ‘go home’.
‘That hatred is felt through the whole of the UK and through what happened here yesterday. I knew it would happen.’
Ms Lazarus, who attended the Heaton Park Shul when she was younger, said she didn’t think Mr Lammy would ‘care’ about the response he received at the vigil.
Joanne Sheldon, also 61, from Radcliffe, Bury, revealed how she turned her back when Mr Lammy began to speak.
‘We didn’t know he would be speaking here and when we found out we just thought ‘why is he here?’,’ she said. ‘Jewish people don’t feel it’s safe in Britain now.’
Her friend Hayley Lawson, 49, said hatred was being ‘stirred up’ by pro-Palestine marches.
She said: ‘It is not our fault what is going on between Israel and Gaza. Nobody wants war.
‘There were marches at the beginning with Ukraine and Russia but those marches have all gone and what about all the other things happening in the world? People aren’t marching for them.
‘That says to me these marches are against Jewish people, pure and simple, because if they weren’t they’d be marching about other things going on in the world.’
Karl Jacobs, 34, said: ‘This Government’s weak leadership and failure to take a stand are to blame for the murders.
‘They need to be tough before these murders become the norm. Nothing will charge with [Sir Keir] Starmer in charge.
‘I’m glad that he was booed. The Government needs to know that we are not happy.’
Posting on social media after Friday’s event, Mr Lammy said he had ‘heard the pain, anger and grief at today’s vigil’.
Adrian Daulby, 53, and Melvin Cravitz, 66, both died and three others remain in hospital with serious injuries following Thursday’s attack, which took place on Yom Kippur, Judaism’s holiest day.
Killer Jihad Al-Shamie was shot dead by police seven minutes after officers were called about the attacker ramming into people with a car and stabbing a man outside the synagogue.
One worshipper died and another was injured after they were accidentally shot by armed police while attempting to prevent the knife-wielding terrorist from entering the synagogue.
Mr Lammy told Friday afternoon’s vigil near the site of the synagogue attack that ‘we must stand in grief, in solidarity and in defiance’.
He said ‘we must stand together’ in ‘grief for the innocent lives that were taken so cruelly - senseless murders carried out on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish year, grief that causes so much pain and so much suffering’.
‘Today our hearts, our thoughts, our prayers must be with the families of those who were killed,’ Mr Lammy added.
‘And of course, with this community, this Jewish community, both here in Manchester and in Heaton Park synagogue.’
The Deputy PM continued: ‘Right across our nation, and as the MP for Tottenham, I know the suffering in Crumpsall is all the same as the pain, the worry and the frightened faces in my own constituency and in the area of Stamford Hill – one of the historic homes of the Jewish community in this country.
‘In that sense, London and Manchester are twin communities grieving as one, and the whole nation is with them.’
The Deputy PM told the crowd ‘we stand in solidarity with the Jewish people, because an attack like this is never felt alone’.
He added: ‘Wherever you are in our country, Jewish people, our friends, our neighbours, our loved ones are terrified by the events of yesterday – of becoming targets, victims of antisemitic hate, simply for who they are.’
‘But I know this about Britain’s Jewish community; a community I have known all of my life.
You are strong; you are resilient; you will never be cowed; that’s what I want you to know today – that our country; those of all colours; all faiths; none; stand with you.’
Mr Lammy said ‘we all feel terrorism’ and used the example of his ‘best childhood friend’ who was ‘blown to smithereens’ in the July 7, 2005 London bombings.
‘We stand with you against those who think bombs and blasts will break us; we stand against all states who would minimise or coddle or obfuscate on anti-Jewish hate,’ he said.
‘We know terrorism in this country. We know it, of course, in this city – we saw it at the arena; we have seen it in Heaton Park.
‘We all know terrorism; we all feel terrorism – my best friend from childhood; James Adams; was blown to smithereens in the 7/7 bombings.
‘And I vow to you; every Christian; every Muslim; every Jew; every Mancunian; every Brit: We will never stop fighting it.’
In his own speech at the vigil, Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham said: ‘We care about you; we love you; we value what you have given to Greater Manchester over the years.
‘An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us.
‘That is the permanent principle; the firm foundation on which this city region has been built; by you by us; by everyone here over centuries; that is who we are; and we will not let this break us in any way; shape; or form.
‘I salute the strength of our Jewish community.’
Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, Sir Stephen Watson, told the vigil: ‘I can pledge to you that GMP are with you as one in continuing relentlessly, professionally, ruthlessly, all of those who would harm our Jewish community and other communities across Greater Manchester where hate is the originator of their intent.’
He praised the Community Security Trust, saying they are ‘the embodiment of our mutual determination to keep our communities safe and for you to have your absolute God-given right to live your Jewish lives as you're entitled to do in our country’.
Closing the vigil, Rabbi Daniel Walker, from the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue,
said:
‘I want to say thank you again to those special and heroic men who stopped that terrorist getting into my shul and stopped much worse things happening.
‘I want to say thank you to emergency services,
first of all,
to the police,
who came to our aid at the time of our greatest need,
who were there for us.
‘The fire service,
the ambulance service,
those who tended to the wounded.to all those who have helped us and supported us through this most terrible and darkest time.
‘Adrian and Melvin died as Jews for being Jews.
The only way to defeat darkness,
the only way to defeat unholiness,
is with goodness.’
Earlier on Friday,
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood condemned pro-Palestine marches that took place in the wake of Thursday’s attack as ‘dishonourable’ and ‘fundamentally un-British’.
She also called for demonstrators to ‘step back’ from plans to hold marches in coming days,
claiming this would show ‘some love and some solidarity’ with Britain’s Jewish community following the attack.