Key Facts
- The first half of 2016 saw an 11% rise in antisemitic incidents reported to Community Security Trust (CST), compared with the same period during the previous year.1
- CST-recorded antisemitic incidents in London rose by 62% between the first six months of 2015 and 2016. In stark contrast, in Greater Manchester, the number of reported antisemitic incidents fell by 54%.2
- There was a 29% increase in police-recorded antisemitic hate crime in England and some parts of Wales between 2010 and 2015, compared with a 9% increase across all hate crime categories.3 Between 2013–14 and 2014–15, police-recorded antisemitic crime increased by 97%, compared with 26% across all hate crime categories.4
- A survey of British Jewish people by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research found that a fifth of respondents had experienced at least one incident of antisemitic harassment during the previous 12 months. In 68% of cases, comments had been encountered on the internet.5
- At one point during 2014, police informed the Labour MP Luciana Berger that she had received over 2,500 abusive tweets in just three days, all using the hashtag “filthyjewbitch”.6 Since walking out of the launch of the Chakrabarti report in June, the Jewish Labour MP Ruth Smeeth has reportedly experienced more than 25,000 incidents of abuse.7
- Research published in 2015 by City University found that 90% of British Jewish people support Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state and 93% say that it forms some part of their identity as Jewish people, but only 59% consider themselves to be Zionists.8
- A recent survey found that one in ten voters believe that Jewish people have too much influence in the UK; 6% disagree that “A British Jew would make an equally acceptable Prime Minister as a member of any other faith”; and 7% would be less likely to vote for a political party if its leader was Jewish.9
- A survey of Labour Party members who joined after the 2015 General Election found that 55% agreed with the notion that antisemitism is “not a serious problem at all, and is being hyped up to undermine Labour and Jeremy Corbyn, or to stifle legitimate criticism of Israel”.10
- A self-selecting survey of British Jewish people found that 87% believed that the Labour Party is too tolerant of antisemitism among its MPs, members and supporters. Almost half thought the same of the Green Party, along with 43% for UKIP, 40% for the SNP, 37% for the Liberal Democrats and 13% for the Conservative Party.11
1 CST, Antisemitic Incidents: January–June 2016, August 2016
2 Ibid
3 ACPO, Total of recorded hate crime from regional forces in England, Wales and Northern Ireland during the calendar year 2010 and NPCC, Recorded Hate Crime Data for 2014/15 for England, Wales and Northern Ireland
4 ACPO, Total of recorded hate crime in England, Wales and Northern Ireland by police force area, 2013/14 and NPCC, Recorded Hate Crime Data for 2014/15 for England, Wales and Northern Ireland
5 Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR), The Exceptional Case? Perceptions and experiences of antisemitism among Jews in the United Kingdom, July 2014, Chapter 5, page 19
6 Jewish Chronicle, Abused MP Luciana Berger urges Twitter to act on racism, 19 December 2014
7 Evening Standard, Ruth Smeeth: ‘I’ve never seen anti-Semitism in Labour like this, it’s normal now’, 21 September 2016
8 Miller et al., The Attitudes of British Jews Towards Israel, November 2015
9 YouGov/Tim Bale Survey Results, May 2016
10 Professor Tim Bale, Dr Monica Poletti and Professor Paul Webb, Submission to the Chakrabarti Inquiry on behalf of the ESRC Party Members Project, 3 June 2016
11 Campaign Against Antisemitism website, CAA launches manifesto for fighting antisemitism as poll reveals extent of antisemitism crisis, 27 September 2016
© Parliamentary copyright 2015
14 October 2016