Rise of anti-semitism in Britain

Sir,

It’s sad that in 2018 I write to you and express my concerns about the rise in anti-semitism in our country.

Attacks on Jewish people in the UK have hit record levels. In the past year, the charity that monitors anti-semitic abuse recorded 1,382 hate crimes.

That’s a three per cent increase on 2016 figures and it is the highest figure since statistics were first recorded 34 years ago.

One of the reasons that it is rising is that extremists in taxpayer-funded universities can hold Israel Apartheid Week events. These events promote a message that Israel treats people differently because of their race. It is a lie.

In fact, it is the same type of lie that the Nazis spread in the 1930s that led to six million people being dehumanised and murdered.

The government has adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-semitism. That definition explains that describing Israel as a racist endeavour is anti-semitic.

Yet, in 2018, we are still having to fight what has been described as the world’s oldest hatred - anti-semitism.

It’s time for our government to act and finally fill the hole in our laws that allows this hatred to be publicly tolerated in our country.

I’d encourage all your readers to join the campaign to stamp out racism at www.israelbritain.org.uk/news. Susan Wallace,

Corpach, Fort William.