Record number of anti-Semitic incidents logged in Britain, again

Thenumberofanti-SemiticincidentsloggedinBritainlast year hitrecordlevels yetagainamid accusations the opposition Labour Party had failed to tackle the issue within its ranks, a Jewish advisory body said on Thursday.

The Community Security Trust (CST), which advisesBritain's estimated 280,000 Jews on security matters, said there had been 1,805incidentsin 2019, a rise of 7 per centand the fourth consecutive year the figure had reached a new high.

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CST chief executive David Delew said therecordcame as no surprise and the organisation believed the realnumberwas likely to be far higher.

"It is clear that both social media and mainstream politics are places whereanti-Semitism and racism need to be driven out, if things are to improve in the future," he said.

World leaders warned last month of a growing tide ofanti-Jewish sentiment, driven both by far-right white supremacists and those from the far-left, as they commemorated victims of the Holocaust in World War Two.

InBritain, the CST said there was an increase inincidentsin months when Labour's problems withanti-Semitism were in the news.

Ever since veteran socialist Jeremy Corbyn, an ardent supporter of Palestinian rights, became leader in 2015, the party has faced accusations that it has failed to stemanti-Semitism among some members.

Corbyn, who is stepping down as leader in April, has saidanti-Semitism is "vile and wrong" but the party is now under investigation byBritain's Equality and Human Rights Commission.

Last February, anumberof Labour lawmakers left the party citing the issue as a reason, while ahead of December's national election,Britain's chief rabbi said Corbyn was unfit to be prime minister.

Of the totalnumberofincidents, 224 were connected to Labour, said the CST, which has collated such data since 1984.

"It is hard to precisely disaggregate the impact of the continuing Labouranti-Semitism controversy upon CST’s statistics, but it clearly has an important bearing," the report said.

The charity said the main reason for the overall increase inincidentswas a sharp rise in onlineanti-Semitism.

But there were also 157 assaultsa 27 per centincrease on 2018 with almost 50 per centof these occurring in just three areas of the country Barnet and Hackney in London and Salford in northern England which are home to some of the largest Jewish communities.

A rise of intolerance after Britons voted in the 2016 referendum to leave the European Union and the Brexit discourse since, which brought nationalism and immigration to the fore, had also led an atmosphere where people might have felt able to express their "hatred of otherness", the report said.