Antisemitic incidents – 27 October update

In the 21 days inclusive between the Hamas terror attack on Israel (Saturday 7 October) and Friday 27 October, CST recorded at least 805 antisemitic incidents across the UK. This is the highest ever total reported to CST across a twenty-one-day period. CST has been recording antisemitic incidents since 1984. In three weeks, CST has recorded more antisemitic incidents than the 803 reported in the first six months in this year.

This is also a provisional total that is almost certain to increase further as we receive more delayed reports of incidents covering this period, and while we continue to verify and log all the reports that we have currently received.

For comparison, CST recorded 102 antisemitic incidents over the same 21 days in 2022. This means that we have seen an increase in anti-Jewish hate acts of 689% this year compared to the same period last year.

These are all instances of anti-Jewish racism, wherein offenders are targeting Jewish people, communities and institutions for their Jewishness. In many cases, these hateful comments, threats to life and physical attacks are laced with the rhetoric and iconography of pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel politics.

Even compared to periods of previous conflicts involving Israel, these statistics are unprecedentedly high. The last time a significant spike in antisemitism related to events in the Middle East was recorded occurred in May 2021. During the first 21 days of that escalation in violence, 590 antisemitic incidents were reported to CST. Over the entire month of that conflict, from 8 May-7 June, 691 instances of anti-Jewish hate were recorded; a total now surpassed by reports from the last 21 days.

Across the first 21 days of the conflict in July 2014, we recorded 219. Bear in mind, when comparing these to the 805 anti-Jewish hate incidents recorded since Saturday 7 October, that the figures for 2021 and 2014 are final totals including all late-reported incidents, whereas the current total of 805 incidents is only provisional and will almost certainly increase further.

In addition to the 805 anti-Jewish hate incidents recorded so far, CST also logged at least 451 incidents that have not been classified as antisemitic. These include criminal acts affecting Jewish people and property, suspicious behaviour near to Jewish locations, and anti-Israel activity that is not directed at the Jewish community or does not use antisemitic language. Many of these potential incidents involve suspicious activity or possible hostile reconnaissance at Jewish locations, and they play an important role in informing CST’s provision of protection to the Jewish community.

The 805 antisemitic incidents recorded over this twenty-one-day period fall into the following categories:

• 35 Assaults

• 44 Damage & Desecration to Jewish property

• 75 direct Threats

• 649 Abusive Behaviour, including verbal abuse, graffiti on non-Jewish property, hate mail and online abuse

• 2 instances of mass-produced antisemitic Literature

CST has recorded 467 antisemitic incidents in Greater London; 131 in Greater Manchester; 31 in West Yorkshire; 19 in Hertfordshire; 16 in the West Midlands; 16 in Scotland; 11 in Merseyside; ten in Nottinghamshire; ten Thames Valley; and the remaining 125 incidents were spread across 29 different police regions around the UK.

Five hundred and fifty-five of the 805 antisemitic incidents occurred offline and 250 were online. Many of the online incidents were ‘pile-ons’ involving multiple antisemitic posts and comments all in the same thread or conversation; CST records these as a single incident.

Sixty-four antisemitic incidents were related to universities across the UK. In the first six months of 2023, CST recorded just 17 incidents of this kind, and 56 in the whole of 2022. Meanwhile, 53 incidents were related to the school sector. Twenty-five of these affected students and teachers at non-Jewish schools; 20 involved Jewish schoolchildren abused on their way to or from school; five targeted Jewish schools; and three involved offenders from non-Jewish schools abusing adult members of the public or Jewish locations. Between January and June 2023, 67 incidents in the school sector were reported to CST.

Whenever Israel is at war, CST records an increase in anti-Jewish hate across the country, and an acute rise is usually reported specifically in and related to places of education.

Examples of antisemitic incidents recorded by CST since Saturday 7 October include:

• Posters of Jewish hostages have been removed or defaced in London, Manchester and Leeds

• On the London underground, a visibly Jewish man was taunted with threats of "kill him"

• In Essex, a swastika was etched into a school desk

• In London, graffiti was painted on a wall depicting a Star of David hanging from a noose next to the word "Yids"

• A visibly Jewish man was in a London shop when a woman shouted at him, "Yahud" (meaning "Jew")

• A group of Jewish children were at a soft-play birthday party, when other children shouted, "Dirty Jew"

• Graffiti was written on a London bus saying, "Jew f*ck Jews"

• Graffiti in London was reported, saying, ""Hitler kill the Jew f*ckers. F*ck the Tories c*nt. Kill all Jews. Destroy Jewest hole Israel. Hamas is rising. Jew lover Tories." [sic]

• An email was sent to a synagogue, reading, "***** and ******* will double EVERY DONATION TO HAMAS FOR every pound you give to Israel. Kill the Jewish children in a holocaust like you have never seen will now be concrete evidence for the eradication of the Jewish faith." [sic]

CST will not stand for this anti-Jewish hatred and nor should anybody else. We urge everyone who experiences or witnesses antisemitism to report it to police and to CST so that those who are trying to intimidate and threaten our community can be investigated, arrested and prosecuted.

To report an antisemitic incident to CST, please use our online form or for urgent or out-of-hours reports please call our 24-hour National Emergency Number 0800 032 3263.