Antisemitic incidents – 3 November update

In the 28 days inclusive between the Hamas terror attack on Israel (Saturday 7 October) and Friday 3 November, CST recorded at least 1019 antisemitic incidents across the UK. This is the highest ever total reported to CST across a twenty-eight-day period. CST has been recording antisemitic incidents since 1984.

In just four 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 160 antisemitic incidents over the same 28 days in 2022. This means that we have seen an increase in anti-Jewish hate acts of 537% 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 28 days of that escalation in violence, 671 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 surpassed by reports from the last 28 days.

Across the first 28 days of the conflict in July 2014, we recorded 365. Bear in mind, when comparing these to the 1019 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 1019 incidents is only provisional and will almost certainly increase further.

In addition to the 1019 anti-Jewish hate incidents recorded so far, CST also logged at least 585 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 1019 antisemitic incidents recorded over this twenty-eight-day period fall into the following categories:

• 47 Assaults

• 67 Damage & Desecration to Jewish property

• 102 direct Threats

• 801 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 578 antisemitic incidents in Greater London; 188 in Greater Manchester; 37 in West Yorkshire; 31 in Hertfordshire; 18 in the West Midlands; 17 in Scotland; 12 in Thames Valley; 11 in Nottinghamshire; ten in Merseyside; and the remaining 117 incidents were spread across 31 different police regions around the UK.

Seven hundred and two of the 1019 antisemitic incidents occurred offline and 317 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-six 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, 65 incidents were related to the school sector. Thirty of these affected students and teachers at non-Jewish schools; 24 involved Jewish schoolchildren abused on their way to or from school; eight 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, Hertfordshire and Leeds

• "Gaza" was daubed on the wall of a Holocaust museum and library in London

• An X (formerly Twitter) user in Manchester posted, "Jews are not english, deport them all." [sic]

• A Jewish teacher in London found her whiteboard daubed with, "Free Palestine! Open air prison --> concentration camp. Antisemitic anti-zionist. Genocide. One Holocaust does not justify another." [sic]

• In Thames Valley, a child was overheard leaving school saying, "It would be great if someone kidnapped a Jewish family"

• An academic in Manchester posted on an online platform, "There was a fundraiser for Gaza inside the campus and it was a joy to pass by and donate £5. One dry punch to f*ck the kikes." 

• A kosher grocery shop in London received a call asking about the conflict, followed by threats to blow the shop up

• Bacon was thrown over the gate of a Jewish school in London, with a note saying, "Die U Jewish" [sic]

• A Jewish university student in Bristol was told, "You and your family are money grabbing c*nts murdering Muslim people"

• As a vehicle drove past a Jewish school in London, an occupant shouted, "F*ck the Jews!"

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.