- Anti-Semitic incidents are increasing by several hundred percent
- The plight of Gaza is intended to target all Jews
- Climate of fear worse than previous crises in the Middle East
LONDON, Oct 31 (Portal) – In Los Angeles, a man shouting “kill Jews” tries to break into a family’s home. In London, girls at a playground are told they are “smelly Jews” and should stay away from the slide. In China, social media posts comparing Jews to parasites, vampires and snakes are surging, attracting thousands of likes.
These are examples of incidents of anti-Semitism that have increased worldwide since the October 7 attack by Hamas gunmen on southern Israel and the subsequent war against the Islamist group that Israel launched in the Gaza Strip.
“This is the scariest time for Jews since World War II. We’ve had problems before, but it’s never been this bad in my entire life,” said Anthony Adler, 62, as he spoke outside a synagogue where he had gone to pray in Golders Green, a London neighborhood with a large Jewish community Community.
Adler, who runs three Jewish schools, temporarily closed two of them after Oct. 7 over fears of attacks on students and has tightened security measures at all three.
“The greatest fear is that there will be an indiscriminate attack on our community, our families and our children,” he said.
In countries where figures are available from police or civil society groups, including the United States, Britain, France, Germany and South Africa, the pattern is clear: the number of anti-Semitic incidents has increased by several hundred percent since October 7th during the same period last year.
In some countries, such as the US and UK, Islamophobic incidents have also increased since October 7th.
The majority of anti-Semitic incidents involved verbal abuse, online insults or threats, graffiti, and defacing Jewish properties, businesses, or sites of religious significance. Physical assaults make up a significant proportion.
A common denominator is that anger over the deaths of thousands of Palestinians as a result of the Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip is cited as justification for verbal or physical aggression towards Jews in general, often accompanied by the use of insults and phrases common in Gaza’s long history are rooted in anti-Semitism.
“Whatever their opinion on the conflict, even if they are extremely critical of the Israeli government’s policies, for them Jews are synonymous with Israel, synonymous with killing Palestinian children,” said political scientist Nonna Mayer, a member of the French CNCDH, an independent rights commission. She described what was going on in the minds of those behind anti-Semitic incidents.
“Any excuse”
The climate of fear for many Jews is worse than previous surges in anti-Semitism linked to outbreaks of violence in the Middle East, partly because of the intensity of the Gaza conflict and partly because of the trauma of October 7.
“The idea that Israel is the ultimate refuge is completely destroyed by the events of October 7,” Mayer said.
The world’s most frightening anti-Semitic incident was the storming of an airport in Russia’s Dagestan region on Sunday by an angry crowd looking for Jews to harm after a flight arrived from Tel Aviv.
Rabbi Alexander Boroda, president of the Russian Federation of Jewish Communities, responded that anti-Israel sentiment had turned into open aggression against Russian Jews.
Shneor Segal, Azerbaijan’s chief Ashkenazi rabbi, said the incident shows that “anti-Semites will use any pretext – the current crisis in the Middle East is just the latest – to terrorize the dwindling number of us remaining in the Caucasus.” .”
“And where do you think they’re going to drive these Jews to? To the very country whose existence is such an abomination to them!” he said, referring to Israel.
But without reaching such extremes, a series of incidents around the world demonstrate the fears and tensions plaguing Jewish communities.
In Buenos Aires, students at a well-known Jewish school were asked not to wear their usual uniform to make them less easily identified, parents said. Other schools canceled planned camping trips and off-site activities.
At Cornell University in upstate New York, security was increased around the Center for Jewish Living after online threats, including a call for a bombing.
In Johannesburg on Saturday, pro-Palestinian protesters marched into an area with a large Jewish community and tore pictures of Israeli hostages in Gaza from the outside walls of a community center while a Shabbat service was being held at a nearby synagogue.
“I am angry at the people who are trying to restrict my freedom of religion and freedom of movement, largely because of their anti-Semitism,” said Akiva Carr, who was at the synagogue at the time of the incident.
Official responses to the rise in anti-Semitism have varied from country to country.
In the United States and Western Europe, authorities have mostly been quick to express strong support for Jewish communities, denounce anti-Semitism and, in some cases, increase security in relevant locations.
In Israel, the government said after the incident in Dagestan that Israeli citizens should “consider the need to travel abroad at this time” and urged Israelis living abroad to be vigilant and stay away from demonstrations.
In China, where the government routinely censors words and phrases it deems sensitive on social media, there was no sign that it had taken any steps to stem the torrent of anti-Semitic vitriol on social media.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said Chinese law prohibits the use of the Internet to spread extremism, ethnic hatred or discrimination.
Additional reporting by Layli Foroudi, Julia Harte, Chen Lin, Maytaal Angel, Andrew Osborn, Carien du Plessis, Steven Grattan, Eliana Raszewski, Wa Lone, Thomas Escritt and Stephanie Van Den Berg; Writing by Estelle Shirbon; Editing by Angus MacSwan
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