Labour crisis ‘fuels crimes against Jews’
‘Happening across society’
‘Utterly despicable’
VIRULENT anti- Semitism within Labour has been blamed for fuelling a record number of attacks on Jewish people.
A charity said the increase in such incidents came after ‘particularly intense’ debate on a spate of controversies involving Jeremy Corbyn’s party.
Coverage of high-profile claims of anti-Semitism within Labour was ‘likely to have emboldened’ offenders, as well as encouraging victims to report verbal and physical assaults.
The Community Security Trust, which monitors anti-Semitic abuse, recorded 1,652 hate crimes in Britain last year – 16 per cent more than in 2017. Around one in 11 incidents – or 148 – related to rows over anti-Semitism in Labour.
For the first time, the charity recorded more than 100 Jewhating incidents in every month of a calendar year.
A report by the charity said attacks also included antiSemitic beatings, verbal abuse in public, and damage and desecration of Jewish property such as daubing swastikas on synagogues. The CST said there was ‘no sudden trigger’ for the record high. But it said: ‘The highest single monthly totals came when the problem of antiSemitism in the Labour Party was the subject of intense discussion and activity.’
CST chief executive David Delew said: ‘Three years of rising anti- Semitic incidents shows the scale of the problem facing the Jewish community.
‘This is happening across society and across the country and it reflects deepening divides in our country and our politics.’
Labour MP John Mann, chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group Against AntiSemitism, said: ‘Sadly, these figures are not surprising, indeed they are predictable.
‘It is now time for everyone in Parliament to stand up, be counted and to stand alongside CST in the fight against anti-Semitism.’
Home Secretary Sajid Javid said: ‘All acts of anti-Semitism are utterly despicable and have no place in society. The Jewish community should not have to tolerate these attacks and we are doing all we can to rid society of these poisonous views.’
The most common type of incident – comprising 483 cases – involved verbal abuse directed at Jewish people ‘while going about their daily business in public places’.
In 224 instances the victims wore ‘religious or traditional clothing, school uniform or jewellery bearing Jewish symbols’.
But Jewish people are also being targeted on social media, with 384 recorded incidents – up 23 per cent. However, the problem is likely to be worse because the CST only collated cases where the offender was based in the UK. Mr Corbyn and Labour have been engulfed in claims of anti-Semitism under his leadership, with Jewish Labour MPs targeted for abuse.
The CST report told of a letter from those who described themselves as ‘Corbyn supporters’ calling Luciana Berger a ‘nasty, stinking, lying, Zionist Jewb*tch’. Mr Corbyn has also faced questions about his links to figures from militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah.
During a 2014 visit to Tunis, he was pictured at a wreath-laying ceremony in a cemetery where members of Black September – the terror group behind the 1972 Munich Olympics atrocity – are buried.
Earlier this week, Labour’s general secretary Jenny Formby – a key ally of Mr Corbyn – provoked fury by claiming it was impossible to stamp out antiSemitism in the party.
Mr Corbyn insists that he does not tolerate anti-Semitism.