Anti-Jewish hate incidents have hit a record high in the UK, with reports of antisemitism in person and online rising above the previous 2019 peak after conflict erupted between Israel and Palestinians last May.
The Community Security Trust (CST), a charity that monitors antisemitism, recorded 2,255 incidents last year including a surge in people shouting abuse from passing cars as well as 173 violent assaults. It is the highest annual tally of antisemitic hatred CST has ever recorded and is a 34% increase from the 1,684 incidents recorded in 2020.
The biggest surge coincided with the bloody conflict in the Middle East in May. Incidents involving schools, pupils and teachers hit a new high, more than tripling the number in 2020. There was a similar rise in incidents among students and academics, with the highest volume of university-related hate ever recorded – and half of it happening in May 2021.
Jewish people in Manchester and London endured 155 antisemitic incidents involving people shouting abuse from passing vehicles, more than half of which happened in May and June. Hundreds of Palestinians and 13 people in Israel were killed as Israel carried out airstrikes in Gaza and Hamas fired rockets into Israel.
More than a third of all the UK incidents involved language, imagery or behaviour that referenced the conflict in the Middle East or demonstrated anti-Zionist motivation alongside antisemitism.
The home secretary, Priti Patel, described the figures as “shocking”, while the shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, said the new record was “truly appalling”. The government’s independent adviser on antisemitism, the peer John Mann, said it was time to “reconsider our efforts to tackle antisemitism”.
“These record levels of anti-Jewish racism, reported by our Jewish community to CST and police, show how difficult last year was for Jews across Britain,” said Mark Gardner, the chief executive of CST, which also provides security for Jewish people and properties.
“These hatreds boil away, taking any excuse to publicly burst out against Jews. This is exactly what happened during and after the Israel-Gaza war of May 2021, from schools and universities, through to the carloads of people who repeatedly drove to Jewish areas and yelled vile abuse at anyone who looked Jewish.”
The report provides images of antisemitic graffiti in Tower Hamlets about “Zionist military police” and “mind control”, a candelabra to celebrate the festival of Hanukah smashed to the ground in Camden and graffiti on a pavement in Gateshead that read “Fuck Jews”.
There was a decrease in online hate overall, possibly because of a fall in the number of incidents related to the Labour party. CST said it previously recorded surges in online antisemitic vitriol from people who felt allegations of antisemitism in the party were manufactured by the wider Jewish community to smear the former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
There was also evidence of Covid-related antisemitism with leaflets distributed to homes in South Yorkshire saying “Don’t trust the Jew jab” and other similar slurs. A total of 78 incidents were related to the pandemic – from conspiracy theories about Jewish involvement in creating and spreading Covid-19 or the “myth” of Covid-19, to wishing that Jewish people caught the virus and died from it. Some reports related to the misappropriation of Holocaust imagery such as the yellow Star of David as part of anti-lockdown or anti-vaccine campaigns.
Racists also found a new way to spread their hate. There were 16 reports of “Zoombombings” – video conferencing events being hijacked with antisemitic material during 2021.
The conflict in the Middle East coincided with the easing of Covid-19 restrictions in the UK, which CST said may have fuelled the spike in hate incidents. In May businesses were allowed to reopen, most legal controls on outdoor socialising were lifted and two households were able to meet indoors.
“It is possible that the relaxing of regulations, coinciding with a trigger event as emotive as renewed war between Israel and Hamas, provided the opportunity and impetus for a mass release of lockdown-induced frustrations,” the report said. “These factors may have played a part in the extent of the rise in antisemitic incident reports during and in the aftermath of this period.”
Patel said: “Our Jewish community has been subject to appalling hatred … In addition to supporting the work of CST, I continue to support the police to ensure they have the resources to tackle these despicable incidents so that perpetrators can then be punished with the full force of the law.”
Cooper said the increasing number of incidents “shows just how far we have to go to remove the stain of antisemitism from our society”.
“We need urgent action to tackle these vile incidents wherever they arise, be it in schools, on our streets or online,” she said. “Hatred is unacceptable in all its forms, and it is our responsibility to stamp it out once and for all.”
