Antisemitic incidents – 31 October update

In the 25 days inclusive between the Hamas terror attack on Israel (Saturday 7 October) and Tuesday 31 October, CST recorded at least 893 antisemitic incidents across the UK. This is the highest ever total reported to CST across a twenty-five-day period. CST has been recording antisemitic incidents since 1984.

In just over 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 126 antisemitic incidents over the same 25 days in 2022. This means that we have seen an increase in anti-Jewish hate acts of 609% 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 language and symbols 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 25 days of that escalation in violence, 639 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 25 days.

Across the first 25 days of the conflict in July 2014, we recorded 319. Bear in mind, when comparing these to the 893 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 893 incidents is only provisional and will almost certainly increase further.

In addition to the 893 anti-Jewish hate incidents recorded so far, CST also logged at least 511 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 893 antisemitic incidents recorded over this twenty-five-day period fall into the following categories:

• 40 Assaults

• 60 Damage & Desecration to Jewish property

• 94 direct Threats

• 697 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 513 antisemitic incidents in Greater London; 155 in Greater Manchester; 34 in West Yorkshire; 23 in Hertfordshire; 17 in Scotland; 16 in the West Midlands; 11 in Nottinghamshire; 11 Thames Valley; ten in Merseyside; and the remaining 103 incidents were spread across 31 different police regions around the UK.

Six hundred and twenty-eight of the 893 antisemitic incidents occurred offline and 265 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, 55 incidents were related to the school sector. Twenty-five of these affected students and teachers at non-Jewish schools; 21 involved Jewish schoolchildren abused on their way to or from school; six 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

• A sticker of a Palestinian flag was seen in London with “Jews are the scum of the earth” written on it 

• “Yid army” was shouted at Jewish schoolgirls on a London bus

• A couple were spending the weekend in Wales. A car slowed down next to them and the passenger said, “What's that? Oh I know, you're a Jew!”

• “Dirty f*cking Jews” was shouted by a young girl in passing car

• A Jewish boy was at a bus stop, when a group of youths shouted, “Let's see you run Jew Boy.” They then chased him

• At a London train station, a man approached a Jewish girl and said, “I hope you and all your people die in the war,” and, “Allah will do the right thing and end you.”

• A Jewish organisation that works in Holocaust education received a message via their website saying, “Nazi Israel, which has nuclear weapons, must all surrender and be arrested to stand trial. White-hat hackers blast these Nazis.”

• In Manchester, two men were walking towards a woman wearing a Star of David, shouting, “Gas gas!”

• An Uber driver in Leeds started ranting to a Jewish passenger about Israel and Jews, talking about how Jews hate Palestinians, are all settlers, and deserve everything they get

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.