Report to show UK anti-Semitic attacks at record level

A report due to be published next month on anti-Semitic violence in the UK will show that such attacks rose to record levels in 2004. The annual report from the Community Security Trust (CST), which records attacks on Britain's 350,000 Jews, is expected to show that the total number of anti-Semitic incidents in the country has almost doubled in nine years. In 2003, there were 609 incidents, ranging from assault to desecration of property, compared with 369 in 1996. Jewish groups blame the rise in anti-Semitic incidents on tensions in the Middle East and a spokesman for the CST said that, "When tensions spill over there, we get a spate of incidents here. It's not necessarily Arabs or Muslims who are behind the incidents, but it is clear that it is the situation abroad that is the driving force".