A charity which monitors anti-semitic attacks and which conducts security to protect Jews from anti-semitic attacks, has reported 270 anti-semitic attacks in the past four weeks. According to the Community Security Trust (CST), these attacks include violent assaults, graffiti, hate e-mails and a report that a synagogue was set on fire in NW London. The same period last year saw just 27 incidents, according to the trust. According to the CST, these attacks are a direct result of the Israeli attack against Gaza.
These attacks have been centred in predominately Jewish communities in North London, Golders Green, Temple Fortune and Stamford Hill, and Salford and Bury in Greater Manchester. Attacks have also occurred in Brondsbury ((NW London, where a synagogue was set on fire), Redbrige (in East London) and in Birmingham.
Types of Incidents
As reported by the Independent (http://www.independent.co.uk/...), the figures discussed by the CST included 88 violent assaults, including the fatal stabbing of a Jewish man in Manchester at the hands of a mentally-ill attacker. The murder was the first anti-Semitic killing in Britain since the CST began recording incidents in 1984. There were 74 reports of damage and desecration to Jewish property, 28 direct threats and 314 incidents of abusive behaviour, including hate mail and graffiti. A further 347 potential incidents were reported to the CST but were not included in the total because of a lack of evidence.
According to the Observer (http://www.guardian.co.uk/...):
Incidents recorded by the CST include violent assaults in the street, hate emails and graffiti threatening "jihad" against British Jews. One disturbing aspect involves the targeting of Jewish children. A Birmingham school is investigating reports that 20 children chased a 12-year-old girl, its only Jewish pupil, chanting "Kill all Jews" and "Death to Jews". In another incident a Jewish schoolgirl reported being bullied at a non-Jewish school because of the Gaza conflict.
To provide a basis of comparison, we can compare the situation to normal periods and to other periods of extreme activity in the middle east. According to the Observer, attacks recorded during the first Palestinian intifida of the late 1980s averaged 16 a month. According to the CST, the overall number of anti-Semitic attacks in 2008 was slightly lower than the previous year, falling from 561 to 541. This week the CST will publish its annual report on antisemitic incidents for 2008, which will reveal that around 550 were recorded in the UK last year, slightly less than the record of 594 in 2006, when Israel and Lebanon waged a brief but bloody war.
Responses to the Attacks
Clearly we are seeing something that should be of great concern to everyone. The Observer is reporting that jews are actually fleeing the UK. The Police have stepped up patrols in predominately Jewish areas.
The Communities Minister Sadiq Khan said:
The Government strongly condemns the increase in anti-Semitic incidents. British Jews, like all communities, must be able to live their lives free from fear of verbal or physical attack. In recent weeks a steady, worrying and deplorable rise in the type and the number of incidents has demonstrated how events overseas can impact here and further underlines the importance of work to tackle anti-Semitism.
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Chris Hulne of the Liberals Democrats argued "The Home Secretary and the police need to stamp on anti-Semitic crime quickly and firmly. It is totally unacceptable that any minority should find their lives disrupted because of events in another part of the world, for which they cannot be held responsible." (http://news.bbc.co.uk/...)
According to the BBC: Last month, prominent British Muslim scholars and progressive thinkers denounced the attacks, saying British Jews "should not be held responsible" for Israel's actions in Gaza.
In a letter to the editor of the Ilford Recorder: progressive Jews living in Redbridge argued
"We wish to protest in the strongest possible terms at the death threats and anti-Semitic graffiti that have sprung up in parts of Redbridge as a consequence of Israel’s war on Gaza. These acts do not progress the cause of justice for Palestinians, rather they divide communities that have lived peaceably together for many years. [...] We write as such Jews, appalled that there are those who would use this time not to address the issue of Palestine by criticising the Israeli government through the many available outlets, or by protesting to Her Majesty’s Government at its complicity with Israel’s actions, but by descending to crude anti-Semitism. This upsurge of racism is no way to advance any cause."
The CST cannot be accused of being an anti-Semitic organisation inflating the rise of anti-Semitic attacks against Jews living in Britain. This is clear evidence that Jews in the diaspora are facing severe problems due to the actions of the Israeli government and military. Engaging in denials of reality and "I told you so behaviour" does not change the reality of the situation. Once again, I ask what is Israel's responsibility towards Jews in the diaspora?