Antisemitic Incidents in UK ‘Increase by 300%’ Following Hamas Attack Against Israel

Reports of antisemitic incidents have surged in the UK in the wake of Hamas’s attack on Israel, according to a charity dedicated to the security of British Jews.

The Community Security Trust (CST) said it had recorded 89 "anti-Jewish hate" incidents in the four days between Saturday morning, when Hamas launched its attack, until midnight on Tuesday, as the unprecedented assault by Hamas fighters, and Israel’s military response on Gaza, whipped up renewed tensions over the decades-long conflict.

The charity said that, by comparison, 21 antisemitic incidents had been recorded over the same period in 2022, with the recent figures representing a more than 300 percent increase.

According to CST, the recent incidents included 6 assaults and 14 direct threats. They included an Orthodox Jewish man on a London bus being hit in the face by a man who tried to take his religious hat, and a Jewish person walking to synagogue being called a “dirty Jew” by a stranger, who said “no wonder you’re all getting raped.”

In three other incidents in London, abuse and death threats were shouted out at Jewish people from passing vehicles. And in the City of London, graffiti of a smiling Adolf Hitler giving a Nazi salute was daubed on a building, alongside the word “Jews.”

The hostile climate has led Jewish schools in London and Manchester to boost their security, with some pupils advised they can opt out of wearing elements of their uniform in public to avoid being targeted.

The spike in antisemitism has led to UK government ministers urging a crackdown on expressions of anti-Jewish hate, and the Metropolitan Police in London, where most of the recorded incidents took place, pledging its support and promising to protect the city’s Jewish communities.

In an open letter to London’s Jewish communities published Thursday, Deputy Commissioner Dame Lynne Owens said the force was increasing its presence in schools, synagogues and communities.

“We stand firmly with you and we will do all that we can to make sure you feel safe and protected here at home,” she said.

“Nobody should be concerned about their child’s journey to school, their safety on a bus or a train, their visit to the shops, or to a place of worship.”

Owens also acknowledged the intimidation and moral outrage the community have felt at the spectacle of a pro-Palestinian rally outside the the Israeli embassy in London on Monday night, which she said would “be interpreted by many of you as a direct statement of support for what took place on Saturday in Israel.”

Owen said that the law guiding how police would approach such situations was clear: Hamas and Hezbollah were proscribed terrorist organisations, and anyone who directly expressed support for them, waved their flag or held a placard supporting them was committing a crime.

“What we cannot do is interpret support for the Palestinian cause more broadly as automatically being support for Hamas or any other proscribed group, even when it follows so soon after an attack carried out by that group and when to many the link seems indisputable,” she said.

“An expression of support for the Palestinian people more broadly, including flying the Palestinian flag, does not, alone, constitute a criminal offence.”

Those comments appeared to fly in the face of an appeal from Britain’s hardline Home Secretary Suella Braverman on Tuesday for police to consider whether waving a Palestinian flag or singing a pro-Palestinian chant could constitute a crime in certain contexts.

In a letter to the heads of police forces across England and Wales, Braverman urged them to consider whether, besides overt displays of support for Hamas, otherwise legal demonstrations of Palestinian solidarity – such as chants or displaying the Palestinian flag – could be considered illegal in contexts where there was evidence they were intended to harass Jews or glorify acts of terror.

While acknowledging that decisions on arrests were an operational matter for the police, Braverman said she “would encourage police to consider whether chants such as: ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ should be understood as an expression of a violent desire to see Israel erased from the world, and whether its use in certain contexts may amount to a racially aggravated section 5 public order offence.”

“Nor is it acceptable to drive through Jewish neighbourhoods, or single out Jewish members of the public, to aggressively chant or wave pro-Palestinian symbols at. Where harassment is identified, I would encourage the police to take swift and appropriate enforcement action.”

The letter drew alarm from rights groups and Muslim organisations. “We are concerned that Suella Braverman’s letter represents political interference into policing, which could have consequences for the freedom of expression of people in the UK,” said Jim Killock, director of free speech campaigners Open Rights Group.

In a potential indication of the challenges faced in policing the issue, Greater Manchester Police said that four people had been arrested on suspicion of breaching the peace at a vigil for Israeli victims of the Hamas attack in the city on Wednesday evening, later updating that one person had “since been de-arrested following further investigation.”

In a social media post that was later deleted, the force specified that the arrests were "not for supporting Palestine", acknowledging that people had a "right to express their support for both Israel and Palestine.”

“The force draws a clear distinction between support for Palestine and support for the proscribed terrorist organisation Hamas,” read the post.

British Jewish groups have also expressed their alarm at social media posts, including from left-wing academics and journalists, which condoned or even celebrated the Hamas attack which killed at least 1,300 people. The Union of Jewish Students told The Times that the statements had contributed to a “hostile” environment for Jewish students on campuses in the UK.

Rivkah Brown, commissioning editor at Novara Media, caused outrage with a post on Twitter/X on Saturday that read: “Today should be a day of celebration for supporters of democracy and human rights worldwide, as Gazans break out of their open-air prison and Hamas fighters cross into their colonisers' territory. The struggle for freedom is rarely bloodless and we shouldn't apologise for it.” 

On Wednesday she deleted the tweet and apologised, saying she had “responded too quickly and in a moment of heightened emotion.”

More than 1,300 people have been killed in Gaza by Israeli air strikes launched after the Hamas attack, while 6,000 people have been injured. An already dire humanitarian situation in Gaza is being worsened by Israel’s “total siege” of the densely-populated coastal strip, governed by Hamas since 2007.