Watchdog: Record high antisemitism in UK recorded for first six months of 2019
During the first six months of 2019, the highest number of antisemitic incidents to date was recorded in the United Kingdom in comparison to the same period in previous years, according to a new report published on Thursday by the Community Security Trust (CST).
Thousands gather outside of Parliament in London to protest antisemitism in the British Labour Party on Sept. 3, 2018. Credit: Labour Against Anti-Semitism via Twitter
The CST recorded 892 anti-Jewish incidents between January and June 2019—a rise of 10 percent from the first six months of 2018—with social-media attacks accounting for 384 of the incidents.
The total number included 710 abusive acts, such as verbal abuse and antisemitic graffiti, and 85 incidents classified as “assaults,” an increase of 37 percent of the same type of incidents recorded in the first half of 2018.
During the first six months of 2019, 225 antisemitic incidents targeted random Jewish individuals, at least 110 incidents were aimed at victims who were visibly Jewish, 22 antisemitic incidents targeted synagogues, and 16 incidents had synagogue congregants or rabbis targeted on their way to or from prayer services.
CST reported that almost two-thirds of the 892 antisemitic incidents were recorded in Greater London and Greater Manchester, the two largest Jewish communities in the United Kingdom.
Of the rise in antisemitic incidents, CST’s chief executive David Delew said “the problem is spreading across the country and online. It reflects deepening divisions in our society, and it is causing increasing anxiety in the Jewish community. It will take people of all communities and backgrounds standing together to turn this tide of hate around.”
JNS
