‘Worst year on record’ for anti-Semitism, claims grassroots survey
A grassroots group has challenged community leaders’ interpretation of falling anti-Semitism, saying incidents surged by almost 18 percent in the past year.
Activists from Campaign Against Anti-Semitism said they collated data from “every police force in the UK” and that found that 2015 was “the worst year on record”.
It flatly contradicts the message given by the Community Security Trust (CST), which said this week that incidents of anti-Semitism had fallen by more than 20 percent since 2014, making it only the third worst year on record.
MORE: Latest CST report shows anti-Semitism has fallen 22 percent
The CAA says it submitted 50 Freedom of Information requests and that it will release its full audit later this month, but that anti-Semitic crime had “surged” while violent anti-Semitic crime had “soared” by more than 20 percent.
“Not all police forces are measuring anti-Jewish hate crime uniformly,” said a CAA spokesman. “At least 10 police forces appear not to be flagging anti-Semitic crimes separately and while relatively few Jews live in the areas they cover, it is extremely worrying that they have fallen short of data-gathering agreements.”
The CST has close working relationships with police forces in Greater London and Greater Manchester, home to the country’s two biggest Jewish communities.
Responding to the CST report, issued on Thursday, Metropolitan Police Commander Mak Chishty said: “The Met is committed to tackling hate crime in all its forms and we have long since recognised the impact of hate crime on communities. Victims of hate crime must be assured that they will be taken seriously by the police.
“We are acutely aware that all areas of hate crime are still under reported and we are encouraged that more people feel confident to report racial and religious hate crimes, regardless if this is direct to police or via a third party or online.”
He added: “We will not tolerate hate crime and no one should suffer in silence. We urge people to report hate crime to us as soon as possible so we can act. We have more than 900 specialist officers across London working in our dedicated Community Safety Units (one in each of London’s 32 boroughs) which are dedicated to investigating hate crime.”
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