UK Anti-Semitism At All-Time High In 2014 In Response To Israel-Gaza Conflict

The year 2014 saw the highest number of anti-semitic incidents on record in the U.K., according to a report by nonprofit Community Security Trust (CST), as people reacted to the renewed conflict between Israel and Gaza.

Last year, 1,168 incidents took place across the U.K., more than double the number in 2013, and the highest since records began in 1984, according to CST, which monitors anti-semitism incidents in Britain.

In the single incident of "extreme violence," a victim in London was called a “Jewish c***” and attacked with glass and a baseball bat. In total, there were 81 incidents of physical assault, with the majority involving hate mail, slander or verbal abuse. There were also 81 other incidents of damage and desecration of Jewish property, and 884 incidents of abusive behavior.

One of the incidents detailed in the report was a social media posting showing a picture of Hitler, with the words “Yes man, you were right....I could have killed all the Jews, but I left some of them to let you know why I was killing them.”

Another social media posting showed a dining table with nooses hanging over the chairs, along with the caption: “Preparing for dinner with some Jews.”

The CST said that increased tensions in the Gaza Strip seemed to be the single biggest factor behind the increasing number of incidents, with 48 percent of the incidents between July and August specifically mentioning the conflict. The conflict resulted in the deaths of 2,131 Palestinian and 71 Israelis, according to the United Nations.

However, CST reported that even before the conflict in Gaza began, the incidents had already reported a 38 percent spike in 2014, compared to the same period in 2013.

Seventy-five percent of the incidents took place in the U.K.’s two largest Jewish communities -- London, which saw a 137 percent increase in incidents, and Manchester, which had a 79 percent rise.

Descriptions of the offenders were known in 29 percent of the cases, which showed that nearly half (44 percent) were white, 8 percent were black, 37 percent were South Asian, and 10 percent were Arab or North African. During the months of the Gaza conflict, the proportion of South Asian offenders rose to 50 percent.

The Association of Chief Police Officers confirmed that the report was consistent with an increase in anti-semitic crimes, which comes one month after terror attacks in Paris when four people were killed at a Jewish supermarket, the Guardian reported.

A previous study by the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism showed that nearly half of the British population espoused one of four anti-semitic beliefs in a poll, and that over half of Britain’s Jews feared they had no future in the country, the Guardian reported.

U.K.'s Home Secretary Theresa May described the report as “deeply concerning,” The Press Association reported. “No one should live in fear because of their beliefs or who they are,” she said, adding that "Britain without its Jews would not be Britain."