New figures from antisemitism watchdog Community Security Trust (CST), reveal that the number of antisemitic hate incidents in the UK reached a new high in 2017.
CST, a charity that monitors antisemitism and provides security for the Jewish community in Britain, recorded 1,382 antisemitic incidents nationwide in 2017 – a 3% increase on 2016.
In 2017, the most common occurrence recorded by CST involved verbal abuse haphazardly directed against in public who looked “visibly Jewish, due to their religious or traditional clothing”. There were 356 such incidents recorded.
CST recorded a 34% increase in the number of violent antisemitic assaults, from 108 in 2016 to 145 in 2017. The remarkable total is almost twice the average number of assaults recorded in the four years from 2012 to 2015.
CST said that more than 100 occurrences have been logged every month since April 2016, described as “an unprecedented pattern,” with monthly totals “roughly double what they were five years ago”.
CST noted that 18% of the overall total of antisemitic incidents involved social media.
Click here to read the report in full.
CST Chief Executive David Delew: “Hatred is rising and Jewish people are suffering as a result. This should concern everybody because it shows anger and division that threaten all of society. We have the support of Government and Police, but prosecutions need to be more visible and more frequent; while too many others act in ways that encourage antisemites and isolate Jews”.
Reacting to the report, Home Secretary Amber Rudd said: “Antisemitism is a despicable form of abuse that seeks to undermine our values of diversity and openness and which has absolutely no place in British society. I welcome this report’s findings that the rise in reported incidents partly reflects the improving response to these horrendous attacks and better information sharing between the CST and police forces around the UK. But even one incident is one too many, and any rise in incidents is clearly concerning, which is why this Government will continue its work protecting the Jewish community and other groups from antisemitism and hate crime. In addition to the £13.4m funding the Government provides to protect Jewish sites, this year we will be refreshing our 2016 Hate Crime Action Plan, which sets out our strategy for tackling this scourge”.
Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Sajid Javid, vowed to work with the police and CST to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Last year, in September CST published another report into antisemitic discourse in the UK, with a focus on antisemitism in the Labour Party, most notably Ken Livingstone’s remarks in April 2016.
The report stated that “there has been no comparable situation in recent years, where antisemitic discourse has been an issue of such national attention and importance, in both Parliament and the media”.
As well as stating in a radio interview that Hitler “was supporting Zionism” before he “went mad and ended up killing six million Jews”, the former Mayor of London suggested that “there has been a very well-orchestrated campaign by the Israel lobby to smear anybody who criticises Israeli policy as antisemitic”.
