Esse Suleiman, 45, a Somali immigrant granted British citizenship in the 1990s recently released from a psychiatric unit, made international headlines after he was arrested on Wednesday following an unprovoked stabbing of two British Jews in Golders Green, London. An earlier knife attack that morning in Southwark, also attributed to Suleiman, has largely gone unreported. This has caused speculation online as to the identity of this third victim and the motive behind Suleiman’s rampage.
The two Jewish men stabbed in the attack have been named as Shloime Rand, 34, and Moshe Shine, 76. They were treated at the scene and taken to hospital. Rand was discharged from hospital after receiving treatment. No motive has yet been identified for the attack. The third victim, stabbed in a Southwark residence two hours earlier, has yet to be identified.
Suleiman, who migrated to Britain legally as a child, had previously been arrested in 2008 for the stabbing of a police officer and police dog and had a history of violent and psychiatric issues, leading to his referral to British counter-terrorism agents in 2020.
Suleiman has allegedly attended Pro-Palestinian marches in the past and, following other recent high-profile incidents where British Jews were targeted, anti-Semitism has widely been cited as the motive for this attack. The identity of the Southwark victim and circumstances surrounding that earlier atttack may confirm or completely derail that narrative. If Suleiman engaged in random attacks, the Jewish community will want to know why this was branded an anti-semitic terrorist attack causing unecessary panic to peaceful British citizens.
The Government and opposition political leaders have condemned the incident publicly but despite this, an increasingly unpopular and underfire Prime Minister, Keir Starmer was met with boos and prepared placards announcing ‘Starmer the Harmer’ during a visit to Golders Green on Thursday.
The investigation is ongoing.
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