The United Kingdom saw a record number of anti-Semitic incidents in the first half of 2017, the Community Security Trust announced on Thursday, eliciting strong reactions from the British Jewish community.
In its report, the British watchdog group cited a 30 percent rise in incidents over the same period last year, with more than 100 incidents monthly, continuing "an unprecedented pattern of monthly totals higher than 100 incidents for every month since April 2016." All told, there were 767 incidents between January and June.
Responding to the new figures, Board of Deputies President Jonathan Arkush said that the new statistics "will be of deep concern to all Jews, particularly as there have been no specific events to provoke the upsurge. Although the UK is overwhelmingly a safe home for the Jewish community and has been for many years, the Government, police and other authorities must read the warning signals and take whatever action is needed to secure the continued safety of the community.”
"In these uncertain times, the UK should be a beacon for tolerance and one that champions and secures cohesion and mutual respect in our society,” Arkush said.
According to the CST, the dramatic rise in incidents may be partly attributed to an increase in cooperation with law enforcement, better record keeping and a greater willingness for victims to report incidents but "these factors do not, alone, explain the scale and breadth of the increase: rather, it is likely that the incident totals recorded by CST reflect a general, sustained rise in the baseline number of anti-Semitic incidents in an average month.”
The most common incident was verbal abuse, followed by anti-Semitic assaults, of which there were 80. Nearly three-quarters of the incidents were recorded in Greater London and Greater Manchester, the two largest Jewish communities in the UK, the CST stated.
“CST has again recorded an unprecedented number of anti-Semitic incidents, with figures now almost twice as bad as five years ago,” said CST Chief Executive David Delew.
Some of this may be down to improved reporting, but it is sadly clear that the overall situation has deteriorated. Antisemitism is having an increasing impact on the lives of British Jews and the hatred and anger that lies behind it is spreading.”
