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'Shameful' record number of anti-Semitic attacks in capital
Neil Millard24 Jul 2009
Israel's invasion of Gaza this year prompted a steep increase in anti-Semitic attacks and intimidation in London, according to Jewish groups.
The Community Security Trust recorded 303 anti-Semitic incidents in the capital in the first half of this year, a record.
There were 67 more attacks than in the same period last year and the total accounted for nearly half of all incidents in Britain.
Much of the surge took place in January when there were more than nine incidents every day.
Trust spokesman Mark Gardner said: "British Jews are facing ever-higher levels of racist attack and intimidation that threaten the well-being of our otherwise happy and successful Jewish community.
"There is no excuse for anti-Semitism, racism and bias, and it is totally unacceptable that overseas conflicts should be impacting here in this way.
"During the conflict, people were phoning up Jewish groups and screaming abuse down the phone or bombarding them with insulting emails. Most of those groups are in London and that accounts for some of it.
"But there was also graffiti with slogans like 'Kill the Jews', attacks on synagogues and a number of assaults."
Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said: "Britain is setting a shameful new record in anti-Semitic incidents this year, which are running at double the annual rate of the previous record.
"It is abhorrent that anyone should be intimidated on the grounds of their race, colour, gender, sexuality or creed."
Reader views (12)
You are an ignorant Des. Maybe you should visit West Bank instead of talking of what you don't know. Or stop getting information from BBC & Co. As just an example you will find there are Restaurants more expensive in West Bank than in Telaviv.
- Ll, Portugal, 24/07/2009 17:22
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Shameful is the word. As are most of the comments on here.
- Nolan, Londonist, 24/07/2009 16:16
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We know which religion of peace is behind these attacks and they are allowed to demonstrate in a disgusting display against our troops returning from action.
Nothing will be done by the pathetic pandering powers that be.
- Frank, Home Counties, England., 24/07/2009 15:04
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In response to Russell - there is a recent large immigration of Palestinians to my local area, I guess they are awaiting their refugee status to be assessed or are here illegally. I'm not saying that as a judgement, just pointing it out that there are huge numbers of Palestinians here in an area which also has a rapidly shrinking Jewish community. I live near a Jewish business which I will not endager by naming but which has been suffering more than one racial attack and direct intimidation per week for many years now and never more so than recently. However, the growing number of Somali / Turkish / Afghan muslim shops in the same street are not being attacked and there are countless informal prayer rooms in the local shops units which are not even being enquired upon by the council or harasses in any way at all despite being clearly in breach of planning regs. Not to mention the strange 'cafes' where men sit and smoke and watch TV all day despite not having food licences, entertainment licences, or complying with smoking legislation. I think that is what people mean by 'kid gloves' - I personally feel that is an accurate assessment. Any war in the name of religion should be intervened on by the UN peacekeeping force in my opinion. Blair and Bush have escalated this situation beyond all our wishes and many Jewish people have rejected their faith because of Gaza - how many muslims are rejecting theirs because of 9/11?
- Real, London, 24/07/2009 15:01
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Des
Valid point but thats not what is being discussed here.
If you want to go down that road that opens the way for tit-for-tat, and we have seen where that gets us-Northern Ireland etc etc.
Lets nip this in the bud, and sort our problems here then worry about what happens abroad.
P.S I wonder how many of those commiting these anti-semitic attacks here in London are actually Palestinian??
Very few if any I suspect.
- Russell, London, 24/07/2009 12:53
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of course all these attacks are wrong, but clearly not as bad as that suffered by others and (10's of thousands per year) and judging by some of the feedback on here, there are those who justify the racism towards other groups of people. How on earth can people suggest that other groups are treated with kid gloves when they suffer such great crimes against them in such numbers?
- Alan Rex, london, uk, 24/07/2009 12:46
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doesn't take much for the racists to rear their ugly heads does it!
like it or not, this is multi cultural society and will remain that way, just look at the US.
there's always going to be conflict between different cultures and the UK will suffer whenever it sides with one or the other abroad.
we should do what the Swiss do and stay neutral...but there's no money in that is there?
- Amir, London, 24/07/2009 12:30
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Think of the poor unfortunate Arabs in the occupied West Bank whose family homes are bulldozed on a daily basis by a racist state, Israel, of course it doesn't count if it is a Jew who is carrying out these crimes?
- Des Egan, london. UK, 24/07/2009 11:31
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Russell from London, the police won't treat it as seriously. We all know that there is one community in London that the police treat with kid gloves and they get away with everything ... the plight of the Jewish community will be ignored by the Met, I suspect.
- Anthony, London, 24/07/2009 11:00
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We all know who is behind this, and much of the heroin trade, people smuggling, money laundering etc. And no doubt it will continued to be ignored here on our streets whilst young men die fighting a useless war in Afghanistan. Why can't our troops fight the war that is here on our streets in London? Without the Afghan heroin trade from (nearly 100% of which makes its way to the UK funnily enough) certain fundamental terrorist wouldn't have any money! Strange how my whole town has turned into one great giant kebab shop / shisha bar during this time of recession. We need to stop this global holocaust that is about to rear its ugly head here in our country. Those people want to see us ALL dead not just Jewish people. I have been harassed by them several times but I'm white and atheist so there's nothing to tell the police. And we all know way over half of them aren't here legally. When is this stupid government going to wake up and get real?
- Real, London, 24/07/2009 10:48
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I don't mean to diminish these figures or dismiss the suffering caused to those who experienced attacks. As the article says there's no excuse or justification.
However all things need to be kept in perspective. 303 attacks on a population of population of around 250,000 (uk wide) is 0.12%.
I would hazard a guess that this is far lower than experienced by members of the black and Asian communities.
- Adam, Harrow, UK, 24/07/2009 10:24
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And for once the far-right cannot be blamed for this.
We all know who is behind this, I hope the authorities treat it as seriously as they would if the culprits were the far-right.
- Russell, London, 24/07/2009 10:05
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