Surge in anti-Semitic incidents in UK over past year: Charity

More than 5,500 cases of abusive behaviour recorded since war broke out on October 7, the highest-ever yearly tally.

The number of anti-Semitic incidents in the United Kingdom has soared since Israel launched its assault on Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, according to a Jewish charity.

The Community Security Trust (CST), which monitors anti-Semitism in the UK, released its latest figures on Wednesday, reporting 5,583 anti-Semitic incidents across the country between October 7, 2023 and September 30, 2024 – the highest tally recorded in any 12-month period since it began its count in 1984.

In the month of October 2023 alone, following Hamas’s attack on Israel – in which at least 1,139 people were killed and around 250 were taken as captives, sparking Israel’s retaliatory war on Gaza – the charity logged 1,400 anti-Semitic incidents.

CST said that anti-Semitism had gone up 204 percent compared to the previous year, stating in a report focused on the months between January and June that the “unprecedented” spike in abusive behaviour was caused by people directing “their anger over this geopolitical conflict towards British Jews”.

“When conflict rages in Israel, anti-Jewish hate rises in the UK,” the charity said on X, alongside a breakdown of its figures, adding that reports of anti-Semitism had been “flooding in” even before Israel’s military retaliation.

In its breakdown of anti-Semitic incidents in Britain over the last year, CST categorised 4,583 as “abusive behaviour” and 302 as “assault”, with 266 incidents involving “damage and desecration” and 30 relating to anti-Semitic “literature”.

Over the past year, there had been one incident of “extreme violence”.

The largest number of abusive incidents – 3,167 – was recorded in London. A high incidence of anti-Semitism was also recorded in Manchester and West Yorkshire, with cases totalling 729 and 642, respectively.

Britain has also seen a spike in Islamophobia and hate crimes against Muslims, dating back several years, other advocacy groups have previously said.

Towns and cities across England and in Northern Ireland were rocked over the summer months by anti-immigrant riots, with hotels housing asylum seekers torched by far-right agitators.

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Al Jazeera and news agencies