Race Crime on the rise - This report hidden
fight the fash | 15.02.2007 11:14
Attacks on British Jews soared to record levels last year in according to a report published yesterday.
There were 594 anti-semitic incidents in 2006. The attacks ranged from the stabbing of a Jewish man in London to malicious phone calls to synagogues. In one case teenager Jasmine Kranat was robbed and beaten after passengers on a bus asked her if she was Jewish.
The report by the Community Security Trust, which has been collating anti-semitic incidents since 1984, said: "Trigger events such as the war in Lebanon do not create anti-semitic incidents out of a vacuum. They act as a spark for people whose capacity for perpetrating incidents already exists."
The type of attack prompted by the war was different from those that took place in the rest of the year, the report said. The war in Lebanon, which cost the lives of up to 1,000 civilians and pulverised the country's infrastructure, triggered attacks against symbols of the Jewish community such as synagogues and national bodies rather than individuals in the street.
Other less powerful trigger events were the suspension of the London mayor, Ken Livingstone, for comments made to a Jewish reporter, which was mentioned by perpetrators in 11 incidents, and the jailing of historian David Irving for Holocaust denial, which was mentioned on five occasions. The use of far-right references is no longer the preserve of neo-Nazis, the report said. In one case a Jewish man walking to a synagogue in London was abused by a group of Asian men who shouted: "Jewish scumbag, go back to the camps," and gave Nazi salutes.
Four of last year's incidents were classified as extreme violence, including one in which a Jewish man in Manchester was struck over the head with a metal bar.
Jewish schools or children were targeted in 59 incidents, and Jewish cemeteries were desecrated nine times. A poster saying: "The Nazis are here again, get your tanks out of Palestine," was stuck on a synagogue door in Gloucestershire.
The CST also recorded 20 cases of mass produced anti-semitic literature. One mass mailing bearing the name of the far right group Combat 18 and containing a razor blade included the warning: "We fully intend to complete the final solution. Slit the throats of your kinder [children] now. Save us the effort."
A CST spokesman, Mark Gardner, said: "Anti-semitic hate crime levels have doubled in the last 10 years. This is unacceptable racism that many Jews had hoped and believed was a thing of the past."
There were 594 anti-semitic incidents in 2006. The attacks ranged from the stabbing of a Jewish man in London to malicious phone calls to synagogues. In one case teenager Jasmine Kranat was robbed and beaten after passengers on a bus asked her if she was Jewish.
The report by the Community Security Trust, which has been collating anti-semitic incidents since 1984, said: "Trigger events such as the war in Lebanon do not create anti-semitic incidents out of a vacuum. They act as a spark for people whose capacity for perpetrating incidents already exists."
The type of attack prompted by the war was different from those that took place in the rest of the year, the report said. The war in Lebanon, which cost the lives of up to 1,000 civilians and pulverised the country's infrastructure, triggered attacks against symbols of the Jewish community such as synagogues and national bodies rather than individuals in the street.
Other less powerful trigger events were the suspension of the London mayor, Ken Livingstone, for comments made to a Jewish reporter, which was mentioned by perpetrators in 11 incidents, and the jailing of historian David Irving for Holocaust denial, which was mentioned on five occasions. The use of far-right references is no longer the preserve of neo-Nazis, the report said. In one case a Jewish man walking to a synagogue in London was abused by a group of Asian men who shouted: "Jewish scumbag, go back to the camps," and gave Nazi salutes.
Four of last year's incidents were classified as extreme violence, including one in which a Jewish man in Manchester was struck over the head with a metal bar.
Jewish schools or children were targeted in 59 incidents, and Jewish cemeteries were desecrated nine times. A poster saying: "The Nazis are here again, get your tanks out of Palestine," was stuck on a synagogue door in Gloucestershire.
The CST also recorded 20 cases of mass produced anti-semitic literature. One mass mailing bearing the name of the far right group Combat 18 and containing a razor blade included the warning: "We fully intend to complete the final solution. Slit the throats of your kinder [children] now. Save us the effort."
A CST spokesman, Mark Gardner, said: "Anti-semitic hate crime levels have doubled in the last 10 years. This is unacceptable racism that many Jews had hoped and believed was a thing of the past."
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