Anti-Jewish hate incidents hit record high in UK

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Anti-Jewish hate incidents have hit a record high in the UK, with reports of antisemitism in person and online rising above the previous 2019 peak after conflict erupted between Israel and Palestinians last May.

The Community Security Trust (CST), a charity that monitors antisemitism, recorded 2,255 incidents last year including a surge in people shouting abuse from passing cars as well as 173 violent assaults. It is the highest annual tally of antisemitic hatred CST has ever recorded and is a 34% increase from the 1,684 incidents recorded in 2020.

The biggest surge coincided with the bloody conflict in the Middle East in May. Incidents involving schools, pupils and teachers hit a new high, more than tripling the number in 2020. There was a similar rise in incidents among students and academics, with the highest volume of university-related hate ever recorded – and half of it happening in May 2021.

Jewish people in Manchester and London endured 155 antisemitic incidents involving people shouting abuse from passing vehicles, more than half of which happened in May and June. Hundreds of Palestinians and 13 people in Israel were killed as Israel carried out airstrikes in Gaza and Hamas fired rockets into Israel.

More than a third of all the UK incidents involved language, imagery or behaviour that referenced the conflict in the Middle East or demonstrated anti-Zionist motivation alongside antisemitism.

“These hatreds boil away, taking any excuse to publicly burst out against Jews. This is exactly what happened during and after the Israel-Gaza war of May 2021, from schools and universities, through to the carloads of people who repeatedly drove to Jewish areas and yelled vile abuse at anyone who looked Jewish.”

The report provides images of antisemitic graffiti in Tower Hamlets about “Zionist military police” and “mind control”, a candelabra to celebrate the festival of Hanukah smashed to the ground in Camden and graffiti on a pavement in Gateshead that read “f**k Jews”.

There was a decrease in online hate overall, possibly because of a fall in the number of incidents related to the Labour party. CST said it previously recorded surges in online antisemitic vitriol from people who felt allegations of antisemitism in the party were manufactured by the wider Jewish community to smear the former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

There was also evidence of Covid-related antisemitism with leaflets distributed to homes in South Yorkshire saying “Don’t trust the Jew jab” and other similar slurs. A total of 78 incidents were related to the pandemic – from conspiracy theories about Jewish involvement in creating and spreading Covid-19 or the “myth” of Covid-19, to wishing that Jewish people caught the virus and died from it. Some reports related to the misappropriation of Holocaust imagery such as the yellow Star of David as part of anti-lockdown or anti-vaccine campaigns.

Racists also found a new way to spread their hate. There were 16 reports of “Zoombombings” – video conferencing events being hijacked with antisemitic material during 2021.

I'm always skeptical of these reports when they come from groups who rely upon donations driven by the perception that they just so happen to be amplifying, bit of a conflict of interest.