By Anti-Semitic hate incidents at all time high warns charity
According to figures from a Jewish security charity, reports of anti-Semitic incidents reached a record high in the UK last year.
The Community Security Trust (CST) provides security for Britain’s Jewish community, and monitors anti-Semitism.
The charity says it recorded reports of 2,255 anti-Jewish hate incidents in 2021, up 34 per cent on 2020.
Its annual report says the rise was driven by reactions to violence in Israel and Gaza.
They stated that the loosening of Covid restrictions as well as the war in Israel and Gaza “provided people with a potential release from months of lockdown-induced frustration”.
Over half of the incidents recorded were in Greater London, with 1,254 cases, making it the worst year ever recorded in the city.
Across the UK, the number of violent attacks reported rose by 76 per cent from 100 in 2020 to 176 in 2021.
Incidents recorded in May and June 2021, when the conflict in the Middle East intensified, made up two-fifths of the year’s total.
In May 2021, when the violence peaked, the CST recorded its highest ever monthly total of 661 anti-Semitic incidents, with June seeing the fifth highest with 210 incidents.
More than a third of all anti-Semitic incidents in 2021 were linked to the conflict in the Middle East, or demonstrated anti-Zionist motivation alongside anti-Semitism.
The report cited a number of examples of people prosecuted for anti-Semitic hate crime in 2021, including:
- neo-Nazi Andrew Dymock, jailed in July after calling for Jewish people to be “exterminated”
- far-right video streamer Richard Hesketh, jailed for four years after pleading guilty to stirring up racial hatred by posting a series of viciously anti-Semitic home-made videos online.
The CST relies on victims or witnesses to report incidents of anti-Semitism, meaning the higher numbers could reflect an increased willingness to report incidents.
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