A
darkness falls on England
By JTA
 "The
single most important thing is for our community to enlist others
to join in the protest against the attacks,... Jews must not be
left to fight anti-Semitism alone."
Jonathan Sacks, Britain's Orthodox chief rabbi.
LONDON – It may sometimes seem that British Jews display upper
lips as stiff as their non-Jewish countrymen's, preferring to suffer
quietly or downplay prejudice directed against them.
But
new official statistics have revealed that anti-Semitic incidents
in Britain have reached new heights.
According
to the Community Security Trust, the body that monitors threats
to British Jewry, a total of 532 anti-Semitic incidents were recorded
last year, marking a 42 percent increase from 2003.
The
figures include a 323% rise in anti-Semitic threats, with an all-time
high of 93 such incidents last year, compared with 22 in 2003.
There
was also a 54% increase in assaults, with 83 attacks recorded last
year, including four in which the victim's life was endangered.
Britain
has historically been a generally tolerant and calm society, but
in recent years life has become more uncomfortable for the country's
290,000 Jews, most of whom live in London.
"Violent
assaults increased disproportionately," said the trust's director
of communications, Michael Whine. "This increase is extremely
alarming. The transfer of tensions in the Middle East to the streets
of Britain has resulted in an unprecedented level of anti-Semitic
incidents."
"Jews
now have two fronts, which wasn't the case five years ago,"
said Barry Kosmin of the UK's Institute for Jewish Policy Research.
"There is a constant level that comes from the far Right, but
there's the opening of a new front by far-Left and Palestinian sympathizers
and people antagonistic to the Zionist cause."
The
trust's figures put the correlation between events in the Middle
East and attacks on British Jews in stark relief.
In
October 2000, just after the start of the Palestinian violence,
the total number of anti-Semitic incidents in Britain leaped to
105, the largest number recorded in a single month for at least
five years.
In
March 2004, the month in which Israel assassinated Hamas leader
Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, there were 100 anti-Semitic incidents, including
54 within 48 hours of Yassin's death on March 22.
Incidents
have ranged from cemetery desecrations – the worst example
of which came in May 2003, when almost 600 gravestones in East London's
Plashet graveyard were defaced – to physical attacks, such
as the spate of assaults early this year on members of London's
haredi Stamford Hill community.
"The
government shares the Jewish community's concerns about attacks
on Jewish people and property," said a Home Office spokesperson.
"Attacks on synagogues and Jewish cemeteries are completely
unacceptable and we continue to strongly condemn anti-Semitism and
all forms of racism.
"Our
track record for tackling anti-Semitism is a good one, and we believe
that our approach of introducing strong and effective legislation,
while working closely with community groups and working in the field
of education, is the right one."
But
community leaders are keen to emphasize that this new atmosphere
goes far beyond street thuggery.
They
charge that widespread media hostility toward Israel, which many
feel often crosses the line from acceptable criticism into downright
bias, has served to legitimize prejudice against Jews.
One
such incident was the publication of a cartoon in the staunchly
pro-Palestinian newspaper The Independent on January 27, 2003 –
Holocaust Memorial Day – that showed Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon biting off the head of a Palestinian child.
Not
only were official complaints by Jewish groups dismissed, but the
drawing went on to win the Cartoon of the Year award from Britain's
Political Cartoon Society.
As
for the BBC, whose policy is to describe Palestinian terrorists
as "militants," the corporation's stance so angered the
Israeli government that by mid-2003 Israeli officials temporarily
severed all official contact with the broadcaster.
Analysts
say that in some cases the demonization of Israel has amounted to
incitement.
Pointing
to the "insidious and drip-drip effect" of coverage of
the Middle East conflict, Kosmin said, "The left-liberal media
claim they distinguish between being anti-Israel and anti-Semitic,
and at an academic level you can make that distinction, but people
are attacking the local synagogue, not searching out their local
Zionist headquarters."
The
issue has spilled over into university circles, with calls for British
scholars to boycott their Israeli counterparts.
In
2002, Mona Baker, a professor at the University of Manchester Institute
of Science and Technology, dismissed two Israelis from her academic
journal because of their nationality.
In
June 2003, Oxford University professor Andrew Wilkie refused to
accept an Israeli graduate student because of "Israel's treatment
of the Palestinians." Most worryingly, community leaders point
to a creeping level of prejudice in British politics.
Historically,
the far-Right British National Party has been steadfastly antagonistic
toward Jews, although in recent years it has shifted its focus of
prejudice toward Muslims and asylum-seekers. Those tactics helped
the party win 17 council seats in June 2004 local elections.
In
recent months Jewish leaders have also expressed concern that elements
in Britain's ruling Labor Party have been attempting to make political
capital over issues of anti-Jewish prejudice.
In
May 2003, Britain's longest-serving member of Parliament, Labor's
Tam Dalyell, sparked controversy when he expressed concern over
a "cabal" of Jewish advisers allegedly exerting undue
influence over Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Then,
in a piece published in the Muslim Weekly newspaper this January,
Minister Mike O'Brien of the Department of Trade and Industry said
that only Labor would protect the rights of Muslims and campaign
for the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Singling
out the leader of the Conservative party, who is Jewish, O'Brien
wrote, "Ask yourself what will Michael Howard do for British
Muslims? Will his foreign policy aim to help Palestine?"
Weeks
later, Jewish leaders were astonished when trial posters for the
Labor election campaign featured the faces of Howard and his shadow
chancellor Oliver Letwin – Britain's two most prominent Jewish
politicians – transposed onto the bodies of pigs. Another
image showed Howard as a Fagin-type hypnotist.
"There
is at the moment a very nasty smell of anti-Semitism around,"
said Labor peer Lord Greville Janner, who is Jewish. "Each
of these issues or items on its own is not particularly important,
but I can't remember a time since the end of the war when there
has been so much of this muck around."
London
Mayor Ken Livingstone, a Labor member, outrages Jewish groups regularly.
Only last week, Livingstone refused to apologize for comparing a
Jewish journalist to a concentration camp guard.
Such
high-profile displays of insensitivity have depressed community
figures, especially as the displays appear to indicate a more widespread
lack of awareness.
When
Prince Harry, third in line to the throne, was pictured wearing
a Nazi costume, a newspaper survey found that more than half of
British adults between 18 and 24 could see no problem with the outfit.
According to a BBC poll last December, 45 percent of British adults
claimed never to have heard of Auschwitz.
With
mainstream ignorance at such levels, British Jews face a battle
if anti-Semitism is to be treated as a general human-rights issue,
rather than a Jewish problem that Jews are responsible for tackling.
"The
single most important thing is for our community to enlist others
to join in the protest against the attacks," said Britain's
Orthodox chief rabbi, Jonathan Sacks. "Jews must not be left
to fight anti-Semitism alone."
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Radio Kol Yisrael 
