As reported by the BBC’s Daniel Sandford, London’s Metropolitan Police clarified that the damage to the restaurant had been caused by a burglary, not by anti-Semitic vandalism. “It was reported that a cash register had been stolen,” the police statement read. “Officers have attended the scene and examined CCTV … At this stage, the incident is not being treated as a hate crime.”

The false claim of an anti-Semitic attack on a kosher restaurant seems to have been first posted by Jake Wallis Simons, the right-wing editor of anti-Palestinian newspaper The Jewish Chronicle. […] Soon after BBC journalist Sandford had undermined his false claims, Simons grudgingly admitted on Twitter that “the vandalism may have been a burglary.” But he refused to correct himself or withdraw his false post.