Young people are Britain's biggest anti-Semites - we must tackle the extremism behind this rise

It marks yet another increase, another near-record total, and a continuing tale of ordinary British people being randomly threatened, attacked and abused in our country simply because they are Jewish.

Anti-Semitism is as old as the hills but this latest story began on 7 October 2023, when Hamas stormed into Israel, killed 1,200 people, took 251 hostages and triggered a regional war that is still rumbling today.

It also sparked a wave of anti-Jewish hatred around the world that has not abated. The worst examples are shocking: two declared terrorist stabbings of Jewish people in the past ten months, having not had any anti-Jewish terror attacks for decades.

We have also seen fire bombings of synagogues and other Jewish premises.

And behind the headlines, the daily drumbeat of verbal anti-Jewish invective, whether ignorant insult or calculated swipe, leaving many British Jews feeling like they don’t belong, they aren’t wanted, and they won’t be supported.

It seems that a growing number of people in our country have got the idea that British Jews are legitimate targets for their fury over what they believe Israel is doing to the Palestinians.

Anti-Semitism is far from the only type of prejudice still alive in our society. But the number of attacks compared to the tiny size of the Jewish community – there are only around 300,000 Jews in Britain, all told – means that Jews are much more likely to be victims of hate crime than other religious minorities.

Nor do other overseas conflicts blow back onto British streets in the same way. Nobody protests against their local Chinese restaurant because of alleged genocide in Xinjiang. Russian Orthodox churches do not require high fences and gates to keep out violent racists angered about Ukraine. But when it comes to Israel and Jews, different rules apply.

Britain is not alone in this. Australia, the United States, Canada and several other countries have suffered a similar prolonged outburst of this familiar, if depressing, form of racism. This is not a problem that Britain, or Jews, can run away from: we have to find the solutions from within.

Some of that is already happening. The immediate and urgent need for physical protection will be significantly enhanced by an extra £251m of Home Office funding for policing in Jewish communities.

Addressing the extremism that lies behind this rise is essential. A new strategy for building cohesion and tackling extremism, called Protecting What Matters, was delivered by Government earlier this year. It needs resourcing and long-term commitment to tackle the extremist movements and influencers that never miss an opportunity to incite hatred of Jews.

Much of the violent Anti-Semitism faced by Jewish communities comes from Islamist extremists, as was seen most tragically at Heaton Park Synagogue in Manchester last October. But the broader spread of anti-Jewish conspiracies and libels goes much further than that. This is becoming a societal problem, and Britain as a whole needs to join the effort to find the answers.

New educational initiatives are being developed, and not a moment too soon: CST’s report found that Anti-Semitic incidents in the school sector hit record levels in the first half of this year, rising by 59% from last year’s six-monthly total. In a way, that’s the most worrying statistic of all, and reinforces what polling and other data tells us. Young people today are more antisemitic than older age groups, even though they are less racist in other ways. That alone should focus minds on what needs to be done to tackle this rising hatred.

____________________

Dave Rich is Director of Policy at The Community Security Trust (CST).

LBC Opinion provides a platform for diverse opinions on current affairs and matters of public interest.

The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official LBC position.

To contact us email opinion@lbc.co.uk