CST Antisemitic Incidents Report 2012

CST's Antisemitic Incidents Report 2012, published today, shows a 5% rise in recorded antisemitic incidents due to enhanced CST/Police cooperation in sharing recorded antisemitic incidents in London.

CST recorded 640 antisemitic incidents across the country in 2012, compared to 608 incidents in 2011. A further 547 reports were received by CST, but were not deemed to be antisemitic and are not included in this total.

The 2012 total of 640 incidents is the third-highest annual total since CST began recording antisemitic incident statistics in 1984.

The 640 incidents recorded by CST in 2012 included 100 incidents reported under a new incident exchange programme with the Metropolitan Police Service, whereby CST and MPS exchange all antisemitic incident reports received by either agency, fully anonymised to comply with data protection requirements. This contributed to a 55 per cent rise in antisemitic incidents recorded by CST in the capital, alongside the 5 per cent national rise. Without these 100 ‘extra’ recorded incidents, a like-for-like comparison with the 2011 figures would suggest an 11 per cent fall in real terms in the UK-wide antisemitic incident total for 2012.

While CST and police forces around the country have always shared information about antisemitic incidents on an ad hoc basis, this systematic, comprehensive sharing of every antisemitic incident reported to either body is a new development that began in Manchester in 2011 and was extended to London in 2012.

In Greater Manchester, where CST and Greater Manchester Police have run an incident exchange programme since 2011, CST recorded a 34 per cent fall in incidents. This may indicate that the trend of rising antisemitic incidents in the city over recent years is beginning to change.

The breakdown of the incident types shows that there were 69 violent antisemitic assaults in 2012, including 2 classified as ‘Extreme Violence’; 53 incidents of Damage & Desecration of Jewish property; 467 incidents of Abusive Behaviour, including verbal abuse, antisemitic graffiti and one-off cases of hate mail; 39 direct antisemitic threats; and 12 cases of mass-mailed antisemitic leaflets or emails.

The 69 violent antisemitic assaults recorded in 2012 represents a 27 per cent fall from the 96 incidents of this type in 2011, and the lowest number of violent antisemitic incidents recorded since 2003.

The Antisemitic Incidents Report 2012 can be read in full here (pdf) and the Executive Summary can be read here (pdf).