The Community Security Trust, which monitors anti-Semitism, says that anti-Semitic attacks in the UK doubled in the first half of this year compared with the same period in 2008. The trust said it recorded 609 incidents between January and June – up from 276 last year – a “record rise”.
Hmm, I wonder what provoked this rise in anti-Semitic attacks? From the BBC website:
“The trust said the rise had been driven by anger over Israel’s military campaign against Hamas in Gaza.
“That conflict, between December 2008 and January 2009, was followed by an almost immediate rise in anti-Semitic incidents in the UK.”
In fact, a similar spike in anti-Semitic attacks occured in the latter half of 2006, in the wake of Israel’s bombardment, and invasion, of Lebanon over that summer, which killed over a thousand Lebanese civilians and displaced hundreds of thousands from their homes.
I personally echo and endorse the words of the Community Cohesion minister, Shahid Malik, who said today:
“This rise in anti-Semitism is not just concerning for the British Jewish communities but for all those who see themselves as decent human beings.
“The fight against anti-Semitism is a fight that should engage us all. This country will not tolerate those who seek to direct hatred towards any part of our community.
“It may be legitimate for individuals to criticise or be angry at the actions of the Israel government but we must never allow this anger to be used to justify anti-Semitism.”
Nothing justifies anti-Semitism – or any form of racism, racial discrimination or, I might add, Islamophobia. But I do find it both tragic and ironic that the state of Israel – created ostensibly to protect Jews from across the world from hatred, prejudice and violence – through its actions today, and through its self-proclaimed role as the leader and home of world Jewry, provokes such awful anti-Semitic attacks against diaspora Jews who have nothing to do with the actions of the IDF or the policies of Netanyahu, Olmert and Sharon.
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