UK anti-Semitic attacks up 50 percent

Anti-Semitism in Great Britain skyrocketed last year, with almost twice as many anti-Jewish incidents taking place in 2004 as in 2003 and a near 50 percent spike in violent attacks, according to data released by the government Sunday.

The UK, still reeling from international condemnation provoked by Prince Harry’s dressing up as a Nazi at a costume party, well outpaced France in the number of anti-Semitic incidents (304 to 277), despite having a Jewish population less than one half the size.

France, with 96, continued to lead in violent attacks, but the number was the same as 2003’s, as opposed to Britain, where violent attacks increased from 55 to a preliminary total of 77.

Minister-without-Portfolio Natan Sharansky, responsible for Diaspora affairs, credited the French government with good enforcement in holding the numbers constant, and reprimanded the British media for the anti-Israel climate they have created.

In the words of the report, authored by Sharansky’s and the Jewish Agency’s Global Forum Against Anti-Semitism, “Years of hostile reporting and commentary about Israel in the UK press now is spilling over into the street.”

The study holds “Islamic elements” responsible for most of the attacks in Britain and elsewhere in Europe, though not in the Ukraine or Russia, which also experienced dramatic increases in the number of violent incidents.

Russia soared from four in 2003 to 55 in 2004, while Ukraine leaped from 15 to 44.

In the latter cases, Tehila Nahalon, Sharansky’s adviser on combatting anti-Semitism, pointed to right-wing activity and the growth of nationalism: “They are looking for those who are different.”

While Russia and Ukraine were faulted for a “woeful” lack of government action, Nahalon offered no such indictment of the British authorities. It is the media there that she held responsible.

“You can’t brainwash people for four years that Israel is an illegitimate country and that Israelis are like the Nazis and that Israelis are monsters and expect that nothing will happen to Jews,” she said.

A British embassy spokeswoman said the government can’t take responsibility for the press when it comes to anti-Israel content.

Noting that she hadn’t seen the details of the forum’s report, she added, “The British government takes anti-Semitism very seriously and works very closely with the Jewish community to fight against incidents of anti-Semitism in the UK.”

In a Sunday interview with the The Observer, however, Trevor Phillips, chairman of Britain’s Commission for Racial Equality, warned of a growing hatred of Jews throughout the country. He also declared that Britain’s powerful elite remains infected with a “deep strain of anti-Semitism.”

“I think we ought not to kid ourselves that this is all about conflict between people who have a beef about Palestine and Israel. This is also about old-fashioned hatred of Jews and people who believe Jews are an international conspiracy,” he said.

“Let’s not make any mistake about this. As well as on the streets, there is still within the British establishment a deep strain of anti-Semitism, that somehow regards Jews as not quite pukka, not quite ‘our kind of people.’ We tend to think that, because there are many successful businesspeople, Jews have somehow overcome the prejudice.”

Jason Pearlman, a spokesman for the Board of Deputies of British Jews, which represents the Jewish community, said that since the violence started in Israel four years ago, there has been a noticeable shift in British sentiment toward Jews, especially on college campuses.

“We’re in a climate of heightened tension and insecurity for the Jewish community, which is connected with events in Israel and the Middle East,” he said.

The Anti-Defamation League suggested that last year’s sharp rise in attacks in Britain was connected to growing anti-Iraq War sentiment, a conflict that has increasingly been portrayed as carried out at the behest of Israel.

“What we see everywhere is a rise in violent incidents, and that’s across the board, except in the US,” added Laura Kam Issacharoff of the ADL’s Israel office.

The report noted an overall increase from 234 to 282 violent attacks this year, the most severe of them in Europe.

Douglas Davis contributed to this report.

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