Community fearful as hate incidents increase sixfold
THE COMMUNITY Security Trust has revealed a sixfold increase in reports of antisemitic incidents since fighting between Israel and terrorists in Gaza erupted.
The charity said that between May 8 and 18 it recorded 116 incidents, compared to just 19 in the previous 11 days.
Almost all involved language, imagery or behaviour linked to the conflict in Israel and Gaza.
Four of the 116 incidents reported were violent, of which the most serious was the assault on a Rabbi in Chigwell, Essex, on Sunday. Two people were charged over the attack, which left the rabbi hospitalised.
Dave Rich, Head of Policy at the CST, said: “It is a depressingly familiar pattern that antisemitism rises whenever Israel is at war.
“But this does not make it any less disgraceful that British Jews are being threatened, harassed and abused.
“The level of anger and hate that is directed at Israel always spills over into antisemitism at times like this and yet the people stoking this anger, online and on the streets, never take responsibility for this particular consequence.”
Reported incidents included a convoy of cars draped in Palestinian flags seen driving through Jewish areas of north London on Sunday, with one car caught on film appearing to blare out antisemitic abuse at passers-by.
The footage appeared to show a passenger shouting “F**k the Jews, rape their daughters” through a megaphone. Four men were arrested in connection with the footage.
On campus, University College London’s JSoc reported that its Instagram account had received a number of death threats and calls for violence.
To widespread horror, a 97-yearold Holocaust survivor was inundated with antisemitic abuse on social media.
And in Borehamwood, police investigated after mezuzot were vandalised.
Pro-Palestinian protests across the UK also featured violence and antisemitic language, including the rally in London on Saturday, at which a group of protesters were filmed chanting: “Jews, remember the battle of Khaybar, the army of Muhammad is returning.”
A 97-year-old Shoah survivor was inundated with abuse’
V THE JEWISH community was left shaken after convoys of cars draped in Palestinian flags were seen driving slowly through Jewish areas of north London on Sunday, blaring out antisemitic abuse at passers-by.
A video of the incident, which went viral on social media, appears to show one of the passengers shouting “F**k the Jews, rape their daughters” through a megaphone.
The person who filmed the video did not wish to be identified but told the JC: “They happened to stop at a set of traffic lights and I was able to capture what happened. I cried. How is this the world we live in today?”
The person added: “I felt immediately frightened and appalled that this is happening in this country. What if I was walking alone wearing something that identified me as Jewish? What might have happened? I don’t feel safe in my own home, and that’s what terrifies me.”
Police arrested four men in connection with the incident. They were bailed on Tuesday.
In a statement, the police said it deployed one of its helicopters to help trace the vehicle and officers stopped a car at around 6.30pm on Sunday. Convoys of up to six or seven cars in each group are understood to have come from Bradford and Oldham and to have driven down to London on Sunday morning.
The Community Security Trust (CST) said that it had been “deluged” with reports from St John’s Wood, Hendon, Hampstead, Golders Green, and Finchley Road in Swiss Cottage.
The CST spokesman said: “We understand that this may have been very alarming to view. People should be vigilant, calm, but if they experience anything aggressive, then please report it.”
In response to the convoy, the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, tweeted: “Ahead of Shavuot, I stand with Britain’s Jews who should not have to endure the type of shameful racism we have seen today.”
Meanwhile, pro-Palestinian protests across the UK featured violence and antisemitic language. A viral video thought to have been recorded in Tower Hamlets showed a Muslim man openly demanding holy war as what appeared to be the black flag of jihad flew behind him.
Thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched through the streets of London on Saturday. The Metropolitan Police said that nine officers were injured during the rally as they dispersed crowds outside the Israeli Embassy in Kensington.
At the same demonstration, a group of protesters were filmed chanting about the seventh century battle of Khaybar, when local Jewish residents were killed and expelled.
“Jews, remember the battle of Khaybar, the army of Muhammad is returning,” they said according to a translation by the group Campaign Against Antisemitism.
CAA volunteers also reported seeing a Hamas scarf and several banners comparing Israel to Nazi Germany, including a sign with a swastika juxtaposed against a Star of David.
CAA said its volunteers also spotted with signs invoking the blood libel, with one banner marked: “Israel murders babies, UK says OK.”
Footage circulating online also showed the former model Michèle Renouf, a supporter of Shoah denier David Irving, among the crowd.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “I am deeply concerned about reports of hateful, intimidating and racist language being used on marches and social media this weekend. It is unacceptable to incite anti-Jewish or anti-Muslim hatred.
“This must stop now. Let me be clear—racial hatred and persecution in all its forms are abhorrent and have no place in our city. The police have my full backing for a zero-tolerance approach to tackling it. We must stop these vile attacks.”
Meanwhile, two Leicester City footballers, Hamza Choudhury and Wesley Fofana, unfurled a Palestinian flag at the FA Cup Final.
The JC also revealed on Friday that sponsors of Arsenal were holding urgent talks with the club after midfielder Mohamed Elneny controversially posted his support for Palestine.
As tensions escalated between Israel and militant groups in Gaza, the Egypt-born player, who has more than 4.8 million followers on Twitter, had posted: “My heart my soul, my support for you Palestine.” The post provoked anger from Arsenal’s Jewish fans because it included an image called ‘Palestine Lives Matter’ which featured an outline of Israel filled with pro-Palestine images.
On Monday Mezuzot affixed to two Jewish homes in Borehamwood were allegedly targeted on Monday in suspected “racially motivated crimes”, local police said.
Hertfordshire Constabulary said it was investigating the two incidents.
On Tuesday, it was reported that a 97-year-old Holocaust survivor had been inundated with antisemitic abuse on social media.
Lily Ebert was still a teenager when she was deported from her home in Hungary to Auschwitz. She was liberated two years later while on a death march to a munitions factory, having been forced to walk for days without shoes, food or water.
Her teenage great-grandson, Dov Forman, said her pages on social media had been swamped with “messages of hate”, including posts praising Hitler and celebrating the murder of six million Jews.
On Wednesday, the CST revealed that there had been a six-fold rise in reports of antisemitic incidents since fighting broke out between Israel and Hamas.
“This increase in antisemitism in response to events in Israel is depressingly familiar and completely inexcusable,” the CST said.
“British Jews have the right to go about our lives free from abuse or threats. We strongly urge anyone who experiences or witnesses any antisemitism to report it to CST and the police.”
In Golders Green, Hannah Rose, 24, from north London, said that she and a friend had been sitting outside a kosher restaurant in the area when a motorist shouted: “Free Palestine.”
“Although I know that tensions are high and when there’s increased tensions in the Middle East, it always has consequences for the diaspora population, I don’t expect to be harassed in public, just going about my daily life as a British Jew,” the former UJS president told the JC.
“We were both discussing how we had friends and family in and out of bomb shelters the whole night and then for us to be blamed for that situation when we have nothing to do with it, it’s difficult,” she said.
Ms Rose said she had seen “so many” antisemitic tropes being shared on social media.
“I don’t expect everyone to know everything about antisemitism, but I expect everyone to learn and want to correct themselves when they slip up,” she said.
We fear a recurrence of 2014’s recordbreaking spike in Jew-hate’
The increase in antisemitism is depressingly familiar and inexcusable ’
Meanwhile, Jewish students at University College London (UCL) said they had been targeted with death threats.
In response, on Monday UCL’s provost Dr Michael Spence announced plans to increase police presence around the Bloomsbury campus.
Abusive messages included threats to remove students’ kippot and greet them on campus “Arab style”, according to screenshots shared by the UCL JSoc on Instagram.
Another predicted its recipient would “burn in this life and the life after” and said it wished the online user death and a “curse for life.” It contained several Palestinian flag emojis.
The JSoc condemned the “horrific abuse and antisemitism online” suffered by Jewish students and societies since the onset of the violence in a statement with the UCL Israel Society.
Hashtags such as HitlerWasRight, HitlerThegreat, and Holocaust_was_ right were also trending on Twitter over the past week.
CAA appealed for volunteers to help with the “influx and to help monitor online antisemitism” and support victims. “We fear we may see a recurrence of the record-breaking spike in antisemitism that we witnessed in 2014, when we first established CAA due to the failure of the criminal justice system to enforce the law against antiJewish racists,” said its chief executive Gideon Falter.