There has been a significant increase in anti-Semitic incidents across the U.S. since Hamas militants launched a deadly surprise attack on Israel earlier this month, according to data released Wednesday by the Anti-Defamation League.
The group recorded 312 anti-Semitic incidents from October 7, the day of the Hamas attack, to October 23, compared to 64 during the same period last year. Of the 312 incidents, 190 were directly related to the Israel-Hamas war, the ADL said.
According to the ADL, a nonprofit that combats anti-Semitism and extremism, the surge resulted in a 388% increase in incidents of harassment, vandalism and/or assault compared to the same period in 2022.
In one such attack cited by the ADL, a man allegedly punched a 29-year-old woman in the face in New York’s Grand Central Terminal on October 15. According to CBS New York, the woman told NYPD officers that when she asked why he attacked her, the man replied, “You’re Jewish” before fleeing.
Analysts have also observed a rise in anti-Semitic hate speech among extremist groups in recent weeks. Since the start of the war, messaging platform Telegram has seen a 1,000% increase in the daily average of “violent messages mentioning Jews and Israel in white supremacist and extremist channels,” the ADL said.
“If conflict breaks out in Israel, anti-Semitic incidents will soon occur in the United States and around the world,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement. “From white supremacists in California displaying anti-Semitic banners on highway overpasses to radical anti-Zionists harassing Jewish people over their real or perceived support for the Jewish state, we are witnessing a disturbing rise in anti-Semitic activity here while war rages abroad .”
Incidents of anti-Semitism have also been increasing in Europe since October 7th, according to the ADL. In Germany, the Ministry of Research and Information on Anti-Semitism reported a 240% increase in anti-Semitic incidents in Germany in the week after the Hamas attack compared to the same period in 2022.
French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin reported on Monday He said on social media that there had been 588 anti-Semitic incidents in France since October 7, resulting in 336 arrests.
The war sparked violent protests in the United States and around the world. At least 139 people were arrested during an Oct. 20 protest in midtown Manhattan calling for a ceasefire. The ADL said Wednesday that nearly 400 rallies it deemed “anti-Israel” have taken place across the U.S. since Oct. 7, including some that it said explicitly supported terrorism.
At the same time, the Council on American-Islamic Relations also expressed concerns about a rise in threats and violence against Muslim Americans and a “rise in Islamophobic and anti-Palestinian rhetoric.”
Even before the recent violence in the Middle East, the ADL had observed a significant increase in anti-Semitic incidents. In a report released earlier this year, the group said it recorded 3,697 anti-Semitic incidents nationwide in 2022, the highest such number since ADL began compiling statistics in 1979.
Earlier this month, frequent anti-Semitic remarks prompted the city of Walnut Creek in Northern California’s Bay Area to stop making public comments online and by telephone at city meetings. Several other Bay Area cities, including San Francisco and San Jose, had already issued similar policies.
A national survey released last week by the ADL and the University of Chicago found that about 10 million American adults have high levels of anti-Semitism and support for political violence — a number they say is “higher than the overall number.” Jews in the United States.
Israel and Hamas at war
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