Teenager denies hate crime over ‘behead Jews’ social media video

A teenager accused of saying Jewish people would be beheaded in a video posted to social media has denied committing a hate crime.

Muhammed Rachid, 18, is accused of racially aggravated harassment with comments made to the camera outside the East London Mosque in Whitechapel.

Thames Magistrates’ Court heard Rachid is accused of aiming a string of comments at Israel and Jewish people, shouting “free Palestine” and the words: “From the river to the sea.”

Rachid is accused of “playing to the camera”, saying: “You Jews, you are gonna get beheaded one by one, you dirty Jews.”

Prosecutor Deborah Kol told the court the video had come to police attention after it went viral on X on Friday, 15 May.

“The footage shows the defendant playing to the camera, shouting very hateful comments,” she said.

Rachid, a sports college student and part-time warehouse worker from Limehouse, east London, was arrested on Monday and held in custody for 28 hours.

He pleaded not guilty on Tuesday afternoon to a charge of causing racially aggravated harassment, alarm or distress with threatening or abusive words or behaviour, and elected to stand trial in front of a jury.

Rachid was set free on bail until a hearing at Snaresbrook Crown Court on 16 June.

Under the terms of his bail, he must sleep each night at his home address, he is banned from posting on social media, and he must not go to the Stamford Hill area of north London.

Rachid has also been banned from being within 100 yards of any synagogue, and he is also not allowed to attend his own mosque in Whitechapel.

The Metropolitan Police have boosted patrols protecting London’s Jewish communities after a series of arson attacks at Jewish sites in the past two months, with a dedicated team of 100 officers.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley previously said 300 extra police officers were needed across London as he warned of a growing “pandemic” of antisemitism in the UK.