Anti-Semitism became an important issue in Britain’s national discourse in 2016, the Community Security Trust, a community watchdog, has asserted in a new report.q
"Explicit prejudice or hostility towards or about Jews, simply for being Jewish, is rarely voiced in British public life; but antisemitism became a national political issue in 2016, while media discussion of the subject was more prominent than it had been for many years,” the CST said in a statement introducing its findings.
Much of this is due to a controversy over anti-Semitism in the Labour Party, "which peaked in April 2016 with the suspensions of Naz Shah MP and Ken Livingstone for alleged antisemitic comments,” the group stated.
The party has been wracked with anti-Semitic scandals over the past two years and is in the midst of conducting an internal investigation into anti-Semitic comments made by Livingstone, the former mayor of London.
According to the Jewish Chronicle, Labour sources have confirmed that another probe “is under way” due to the former London mayor's lack of remorse for his comments. Livingstone’s suspension came after he stated that "when Hitler won his election in 1932, his policy then was that Jews should be moved to Israel. He was supporting Zionism – this before he went mad and ended up killing six million Jews.”
This language, the CST stated, "was rooted in old Soviet anti-Zionist propaganda effectively equating Nazis and Zionists, and brought this ex-Soviet propaganda into the centre of contemporary antisemitic, anti-Zionist, and anti-Israel discourse within and around the Labour Party.”
While the primary focus in the public discussion -which was carried out in various forums, including the media- was Labour, the CST noted that “other political parties, including the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and the UK Independence Party, also had to address allegations of antisemitic comments made by members or office holders.”
Looking at several opinion surveys from 2016, the CST stated that "antisemitic attitudes are more prevalent amongst British Muslims than in the general population. This was particularly the case in relation to conspiracy theories about alleged Jewish power and influence in politics, media and finance.”
Last month British Jews welcomed an announcement by the country’s public prosecutor that it would launch a a crackdown on online hate speech.
The United Kingdom saw a record number of anti-Semitic incidents in the first half of 2017, the CST announced in July, citing a 30 percent rise in incidents over the same period last year, with more than 100 incidents occurring every month.
