Case Studies

New high in anti-semitic incidents

by Mark Rowe

The last three years have seen a sustained pattern of historically high anti-semitic incidents, reports the Community Security Trust (CST) in its 2018 report on such incidents.

CST recorded 1,652 anti-semitic incidents in the UK in 2018, the highest total that CST has recorded in a single calendar year and an increase of 16 per cent from the 1,420 incidents recorded by CST in 2017, which was itself a record total. CST also recorded a then-record annual high of 1,375 antisemitic incidents in 2016, making 2018 the third year in a row to see a record total. The CST makes the point that it’s likely that there is significant underreporting, to CST and the police, and that the true number of incidents is significantly higher. Incidents can be physical attack against Jewish-owned property, hate mail and email, and graffiti.

Almost three-quarters of the 1,652 took place in Greater London and Greater Manchester, the two cities with the largest Jewish communities in the UK. Most common was verbal abuse, whether or not the victims wore religious or traditional clothing, school uniform or jewellery bearing Jewish symbols. The 1652 includes 384 that used social media; CST does not proactively ‘trawl’ social media platforms.

The report aired whether more incidents might be reported because of more publicity about the crime. It is also possible that an increased security presence at Jewish buildings since the middle of 2015 has contributed to the higher levels of antisemitic incidents recorded by CST. This increased security presence is partly a result of high Jewish communal concern about terrorism, and partly due to government funding for security guards at Jewish communal buildings that was made available from April 2015.”

Since 2015 CST has a national information sharing agreement with the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) that allows for the exchange of anonymised anti-semitic incident reports between CST and police forces.

CST’s Director of Communications, Mark Gardner said that there is very little violence. “Mainly, we are experiencing verbal abuse. It is as if people are saying hateful things that may have been in their heads, but they felt unable to say. Now, they feel they can say it.” For more visit the CST website.

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