Another shocking case of attack in Europe: A 13-year-old boy was verbally assaulted severely on the anniversary of the October 7 events at his school in Scotland and received explicit death threats on his life.
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"I don't want to have to make this video, but I do," Scottish journalist and political commentator Leah Benoz began the story she shared on Tuesday with thousands of her Instagram followers, telling about the severe antisemitic attack her 13-year-old son experienced at the school where he studies in Scotland, all because of his Judaism.
"I'm going to ask you all to watch it and to share it as widely and as loudly as you are able," she urged her followers, then recounted the sequence of events, whose timing was, of course, not coincidental – October 7. "This morning, the anniversary of the October 7th attacks and days after two Jewish men were murdered in Manchester."
Pro-Palestinian protesters in Edinburgh Waverley break through police barriers. Comes after Scots on the Global Sumud Flotilla were detained by Israel. pic.twitter.com/q9YMlqXHnz
— Andrew Learmonth (@andrewlearmonth) October 2, 2025
Later, she added about the incident: "My child called me from his high school in Edinburgh to tell me that another child had threatened to stab him in the classroom. Yesterday, my child had come home upset saying that this other kid had demanded that he give a position on the Israel-Palestine conflict, that he explain his position on the conflict and with as much nuance and compassion that a frightened 13 year old was able to, he explained that the war is awful and he wants it to end but that he does feel a deep connection to Israel because he's Jewish."
"This child then harassed my son for hours, told him that all Israelis are terrorists, that Israelis shoot babies in the head, that he is a terrorist, that he told other children that my son believes that all Palestinians should die," she shared. "That is what it means to be Jewish in Scotland right now, and simultaneously, right at the same time, students at Edinburgh University are calling for an intifada. What does that mean? They are chanting right now in support of the kind of beliefs that think that a 13-year-old Jewish boy should die because of a war 3,000 miles away. This child that attacked my son, he's been radicalised at home, he is a product of an ecosystem of hate that has been allowed to fester. We cannot allow this to continue."
She ended by conveying "a final note for anti-Zionists, I'm going to take my exceptional child and I'm going to move to Israel and we are going to spend the rest of our lives committed to our homeland."
The video gained more than 42,000 views within hours and thousands of likes and comments expressing shock and anger at the story she shared, calling for her to file a police complaint, including American Emmy-winning actress and voice actor Tara Strong, who herself went viral about two years ago when she shared that she was fired from a series she voiced because of her Judaism and the fact that she expressed support for Israel. "What does the school intend to do? This is a death threat. What will the police do? I'm so sorry you're going through this," she wrote in response.
Benoz updated that a complaint was indeed filed with police, and she is waiting for a response from law enforcement officials. Other followers wrote in despair that it's likely that not only will they not handle her complaint, but there's a chance that she will find herself on the investigated side, since they will claim her words are Islamophobic, and that schools don't really act to handle death threats of this type.
"They enable and forgive displays of racism and violence against Jews and incite them. This is the spirit. This is global and systematic." Others encouraged her to stand behind her words and indeed make aliyah, while Benoz, who for now doesn't want to reveal the school's name in order not to expose her son to additional displays of violence and hatred, asked to clarify that she won't let the matter rest until it's handled and wrote: "They messed with the wrong mother."
