According to a report issued Thursday by the Community Security Trust, a British charity whose purpose is to provide safety, security, and advice to the Jewish community in the UK, there were 1,978 instances of anti-Jewish hate recorded across the UK in the first six months of 2024. This is the highest January-to-June total ever reported to CST, and higher than every previous annual total bar two: 2023 and 2021 when the record figures were also driven by anti-Jewish reactions to conflict in the Middle East. It is a 105% rise from the 964 antisemitic incidents reported in the first half of 2023, and 44% higher than the previous six-monthly record of 1,371 cases of anti-Jewish hate in 2021.
CST recorded 121 Assault incidents in the first six months of 2024, the most ever recorded in the January-to-June period and an increase of 41% from 86 incidents of this type reported in the first half of 2023. Together with the one additional case severe enough to be classified as Extreme Violence, physical attacks constitute 6% of the six-monthly total, down from 9% of last year’s half-year figure.
Cases of damage and desecration to Jewish property rose by 246%, from 24 in the first half of 2023 to 83 between January and June 2024, the highest ever six-monthly total in this category. Twenty-six of these involved damage done to the homes and vehicles of Jewish people, 20 to posters of the hostages captured by Hamas, 11 to Jewish businesses and organizations, seven to synagogues, two to Jewish schools, two to kosher food aisles at a supermarket, and one to a public menorah.
CST recorded 1,618 incidents of abusive behavior in the first half of 2024, more than in the first six months of any other year, and an increase of 104% from the 792 instances of abusive behavior reported over the same period in 2023. This figure alone eclipses the incident total recorded across all categories between January and June of all preceding years and is higher than all but six annual antisemitic incident totals ever reported to CST. These 1,618 incidents form 82% of the half-year total.
OCTOBER 7 CHANGED EVERYTHING
The CST Antisemitic Incidents Report January-June 2024 reiterates the observation from the second half of 2023, that there was an instant increase in antisemitic incident levels in the UK following Hamas’s attack on Israel – well before Israel had coordinated any large-scale military response in Gaza. The subsequent war, and the widespread public focus it has drawn, have continued to impact the scale and content of antisemitism so far this year.
The report notes that while the quantity of recorded antisemitic incidents in the first six months of 2024 is lower than the instant spike in the aftermath of October 7, the six-monthly figure of 1,978 incidents is unprecedented.
More than 200 incidents were reported each month between January and June 2024. Before October 2023, CST had only recorded more than 200 incidents in one month on five occasions, all of which corresponded to a war waged by Israel. February’s, January’s, and March’s incident counts of 443, 388, and 318 respectively make them the fifth, sixth, and seventh-worst months for antisemitism in the UK ever reported to CST.
The report also notes that when antisemitic incidents finally appear to settle down following a surge, they plateau at a higher level than before the trigger event. In the six months leading up to October 7, 2023, CST recorded a monthly average of 162 incidents per month. In the first half of 2024, an average of 330 anti-Jewish hate incidents were reported to CST.
Seventy-three antisemitic incidents recorded by CST between January and June 2024 contained discourse relating to Islam, Muslims, and Islamist groups, 37 of which showed evidence of Islamist extremist ideology. This is a substantial rise from nine and four such reports respectively made in the corresponding timeframe last year. Once again, this is indicative of how war in Gaza gives life to anti-Jewish discourses that lie more dormant in other times. In the specific context of the months following October 7, the majority of the Islamist incidents endorsed or celebrated Hamas’s terror attack or encouraged future repeats of that atrocity.
THE GEOGRAPHY OF HATE
CST recorded 1,037 antisemitic incidents in Greater London, an increase of 120% from the 471 incidents reported in London in the first half of 2023. Meanwhile, there were 268 antisemitic incidents recorded in Greater Manchester, an increase of 96% from the 137 such incidents in the same timeframe in 2023. Combined, incidents in these communal hubs form 66% of the January-to-June total, compared to 63% across the first six months of 2023.
Elsewhere, the UK regions with the highest volume of reports were West Yorkshire with 115 incidents, Hertfordshire with 60 incidents, Thames Valley with 47 incidents, West Midlands with 43 incidents, and Scotland with 40 incidents.
Finally: CST recorded at least one antisemitic incident in all but two police constabularies across the country.
