Over at The Spectator, British journalist James Somper commented on a worrying trend for British Jews:
Growing up as a Jew in England, I’ve always felt proud of my heritage. The ugly spectre of anti-Semitism seemed a thing of the past – and it felt safe to share my faith and ancestry with the world. But not any longer.
It’s not difficult to see why. In the first half of 2016, there was an 11 per cent spike in the number of anti-Semitic incidents. Britain might still be one of the safest places in the world to be a Jew, but Jews here are increasingly becoming a target. Last year saw the third-highest annual total of anti-Semitic hate incidents in the UK ever recorded. The same organisation that reported that rise, the Community Security Trust, has demonstrated that this worrying jump isn’t a one-off. Back in 2004, it said there had been 532 anti-Semitic incidents. That was the highest annual total they’d reported since the eighties. Yet by 2014, that figure had shot up 220 per cent, to 1,168.
Even our university campuses – supposedly hubs of free speech and freedom of thought – aren’t immune to the rise of anti-Semitism that is permeating Europe. Last month, students from the pro-Israel ‘StandWithUS’ society at University College London met to hear an address from Israeli writer Hen Mazzig, who also happens to be a former solider in the Israeli Defence Forces. As the talk began, pro-Palestinian protesters yelled ‘free, free Palestine’ and ‘murderers’. Police were called and Jewish students had to barricade themselves in the room.
Read the rest of the post here.
