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Anti-semitic attacks in Britain rose to record levels last year, according to one of the most exhaustive analyses of abuse of Jewish people.
With fears rising following a spate of attacks against Orthodox Jews in north London, the Community Security Trust (CST), which records attacks on Britain’s 350,000 Jews, is completing its annual report and warns that figures will reveal an increase on 2003.
Next month’s report is expected to show that the total number of anti-semitic incidents in Britain has almost doubled in nine years. In 2003, there were 609 incidents, ranging from assault to desecration of property, compared with 369 in 1996.
‘The indications are that the figures for 2004 will be higher,’ said Michael Whine, spokesman for the CST, which is a sister organisation to the Board of Deputies of British Jews. ‘We can’t give a total number until the second week of February, when we have finished checking the figures,’ Whine said.
The situation has become so bad that Barnet council in north London, home to some 50,000 Jews, has started keeping a record of anti-semitic attacks. Several synagogues now employ security guards.
Jewish groups blame the rise in anti-semitic incidents on tensions in the Middle East, which they say are being reflected on the streets of Britain. ‘When tensions spill over there, we get a spate of incidents here. It’s not necessarily Arabs or Muslims who are behind the incidents, but it is clear that it is the situation abroad that is the driving force,’ Whine said.
Matthew Collins, a former chairman of the National Front’s South London branch and an ex-British National Party (BNP) activist who now works for the anti-fascist magazine Searchlight, said the rise in attacks could not be separated from the political process.
‘Leading members of the BNP are on record denying the Holocaust, while its leader, Nick Griffin, has accused the BBC of being influenced by Jews. The BNP is obsessed with the idea that there is a Jewish conspiracy to run the world. They’ve got 23 elected councillors. It’s inevitable that people will come into contact with them and in turn be influenced by them,’ Collins said.
Concerns about anti-semitism have come to the fore with the events surrounding the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1401659,00.html
With fears rising following a spate of attacks against Orthodox Jews in north London, the Community Security Trust (CST), which records attacks on Britain’s 350,000 Jews, is completing its annual report and warns that figures will reveal an increase on 2003.
Next month’s report is expected to show that the total number of anti-semitic incidents in Britain has almost doubled in nine years. In 2003, there were 609 incidents, ranging from assault to desecration of property, compared with 369 in 1996.
‘The indications are that the figures for 2004 will be higher,’ said Michael Whine, spokesman for the CST, which is a sister organisation to the Board of Deputies of British Jews. ‘We can’t give a total number until the second week of February, when we have finished checking the figures,’ Whine said.
The situation has become so bad that Barnet council in north London, home to some 50,000 Jews, has started keeping a record of anti-semitic attacks. Several synagogues now employ security guards.
Jewish groups blame the rise in anti-semitic incidents on tensions in the Middle East, which they say are being reflected on the streets of Britain. ‘When tensions spill over there, we get a spate of incidents here. It’s not necessarily Arabs or Muslims who are behind the incidents, but it is clear that it is the situation abroad that is the driving force,’ Whine said.
Matthew Collins, a former chairman of the National Front’s South London branch and an ex-British National Party (BNP) activist who now works for the anti-fascist magazine Searchlight, said the rise in attacks could not be separated from the political process.
‘Leading members of the BNP are on record denying the Holocaust, while its leader, Nick Griffin, has accused the BBC of being influenced by Jews. The BNP is obsessed with the idea that there is a Jewish conspiracy to run the world. They’ve got 23 elected councillors. It’s inevitable that people will come into contact with them and in turn be influenced by them,’ Collins said.
Concerns about anti-semitism have come to the fore with the events surrounding the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1401659,00.html