The Jewish charity the Community Security Trust (CST) in its annual Antisemitic Incidents Report 2021 reports a record total of 2,255 antisemitic incidents reported to it last year. That’s driven by a spike in anti-Jewish hate reported during and after the escalation in violence in Israel and Gaza last year, CST reports.
The report coves the physical and online worlds – damage to property, assaults and threats; and ‘zoombombing’. As the report says: “The pandemic has not only given rise to new discourses through which perpetrators can communicate their prejudice, but also a new medium. In 2021, CST received 16 reports involving the hijacking of video conferencing events” – Zoom meetings interrupted with verbal abuse.
In May 2021, the month when the conflict in the region intensified, CST recorded a record 661 antisemitic incidents, and in June CST recorded the fifth-highest ever monthly total of 210. Together, May and June’s totals account for 39 per cent of the annual total. When there is a trigger event, it consistently affects the anti-Jewish hate directed at the diaspora Jewish community in the UK, CST says.
Some 182 anti-Jewish hate incidents involved schools, school students and teachers in 2021, the most reported in any year and more than triple the 54 incidents in that sector in 2020. About half, 99, of these incidents involved Jewish schoolchildren or staff at non-faith schools, a rise from the 14 incidents of this type reported in 2020. CST describes it as unusual for such a high proportion (54pc) of school-related incidents to take place at non-faith schools. CST supported schoolchildren and teachers who felt isolated and fearful about returning to their place of education and work. A spike in antisemitism in relation to events in Israel and Gaza was also observed in higher education, whether against students or academics.
CST recorded 1,254 antisemitic incidents in Greater London, an increase of 33pc from the 941 incidents in 2020; and the highest number ever recorded in the capital. In Greater Manchester, another centre for Jews in Britain, CST recorded 284 antisemitic incidents in 2021, an increase of 86pc from the 153 incidents recorded in that city in 2020. Elsewhere in the UK, CST recorded 105 antisemitic incidents in West Yorkshire, 86 in Northumbria, 62 in Hertfordshire, 45 in Devon & Cornwall, 31 in Scotland and 31 in Thames Valley. CST recorded an antisemitic incident in all but one police force area. For the full report visit the CST website.
Photo courtesy of CST.
