To wonder if there has been a rise in Anti-semitism the UK?

[TheSoulCakeDuck]

This is a genuine question, I have no wish to start a fight or upset anyone.

I was watching Question Time last night and there was a very heated debate on whether there had been a rise in anti-semitism in the UK and the panel were talking about the police protecting synagogues etc.

This shocked me as it genuinely hadn't been on my radar at all but then I'm not a member of the Jewish community and a quick look at the census data shows in my town of just over 105,000 population 45 people identify themselves as Jewish and just over 2000 identify themselves as Muslim, Sikh , Hindu, Buddhist or other religion, so we are not exactly a diverse place.

So, is there a rise and is it across the country (QT last night was from Finchley)? If so what has changed (if anything)? If it is the case that this kind of thing is on the rise it dismays me hugely as we have so much to gain from being a tolerant society.

You get angry hateful people on all sides. Sadly they are usually the loudest, most self righteous, and most repetitive. Most repetitive. Most repetitive...

Israeli State, not Jews SamG76. Crucial difference!!.. There is a clear distinction between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. Galloway is deeply critical of Israel. It is after all responsible for the enduring occupation and slaughter in Gaza - all carefully sanitised as 'another rise in violence'.

Also I'm not so sure I agree that Israel is being singled out. China, Iran, etc are frequently and vociferously criticised for their human rights violations.

In Oct' last year Galloway was subjected to a brutal street attack by a supporter of Israel. Just imagine the uproar if an enraged Muslim had attacked a pro-Israel MP in the street?

lem73 - people accuse GG of being an anti-semite not because he criticises Israel but because he says, for example, that he wants all Israelis out of Bradford and won't discuss the ME with someone with an Israeli passport. As explained above, if someone said the same about Indians or Jamaicans, no-one would dispute this was racist.

sourdrawers - has GG said that he doesn't want Chinese people or Iranians in his constituency - of course not. Everyone would recognize this as idiocy. So how is it different with Israelis?

And are you suggesting that the Iranian govt policy isn't anti-semitic? I think their regular summits for Holocaust deniers suggest otherwise.

If the Indians or Jamaicans were illegally occupying neighbouring territory, blowing the heck out of it's civilian population with M-16 fighter bombers, drone strikes and navy shelling, killing thousands. Oh and slaughtering journalists too, (17 last year I think) all with America's backing, the context would be slightly different, and I think they just might.

I don't think so much anti-semitism but definitely an increase in anti-zionism and anti-Israel which I think is understandable seeing what Israel has been doing in Palestine.

sourdrawers - even if one accepted your one-sided view of the ME situation, Pakistan is doing far worse than that (except for the navy bit, admittedly), with American backing, but no-one suggests that Pakistanis should be made unwelcome in any part of the UK. Everyone can see that it such a call would be racist.

I would suggest that any of you who think there hasn't been a rise in anti semitism in the UK should read the thread about anti-semitism that has been linked to further up this thread - I am not technologically advanced to do it myself.

Jews are being attacked in the UK each and every day and for people to suggest that it isn't happening or that it is justifiable is anti-semitic in itself.

I abhor the activities taking place in Syria, Nigeria and by Islamic state, but would never consider that that attacks on the Muslim's in the UK are justifiable. Why is the same not true for Jews and Israel?

It's always been there. Mostly though, Jewish people see it as a [nasty] bit of normal life (at least that's what my friends & the Jewish bit of my extended family usually do). But recently several friends/family have been wondering where they can go that's safe.

It is true for Jews glasshouses, no one is trying to justify attacks on anyone.

Trying to discuss the reasons why a minority of thugs chooses one group of people to attack over another group of people is not justifying anything. Nor is it anti Semitic.

BTW the Egyptians have also closed their Gaza border, and there is hardship for the Palestinian civilians due to this.

Most of the [Muslim] Middle East is closed to Palestinians.

Israel is the only multi-cultural democracy in the Middle East.

There was a feature in the Telegraph this morning about a Jewish family from Manchester who are emigrating to the States as they don't feel comfortable here anymore.

Worrying times.

sourdrawers journalists were not being "slaughtered" in Gaza last year. They were there voluntarily, doing their job and were killed during a war, just as Marie Colvin and others have been killed in Syria and elsewhere. Unlike the journalists killed in recent months by IS who were indeed slaughtered, not to mention charity workers etc but I don't see any Jews (for Steven Sotloff) or Christians (for James Foley etc) rising up and using that as an excuse to attack British Muslims willy nilly.

Equally nearly 1 million Jews were booted out of the Middle East (including Arabia) between 1920 and 1950 (many of them before the creation of the state of Israel). The hundreds of thousands of Jews chucked out of Iraq, where they had lived for 2,500 years, don't go around attacking Iraqis living in the West do they?

I'm sick to death of people using the Palestinian issue as an excuse for anti semitism. There IS no excuse for it and it is not remotely acceptable or, to me, understandable.

Sam it is idiotic and racist of GG to make that comment about Israelis but it's not anti Semitic. Remember there are Christian and Muslim Israelis too, although a small minority. You can speak against Israel without being anti Semitic.
I am opposed to the policies of the Israeli government but I have no problem with Israeli people or Jewish people. In fact over the years I've had several Jewish and Israeli friends and got on extremely well with them. Same goes for Saudi Arabia. I hate the regime there but have known a few Saudis over the years and have found them some of the warmest and nicest people I've ever known. You can hate Saudi Arabia and Iran without being an Islamaphobe.

I think that part of the problem is that people have used being anti-Israel as an excuse and justification for being anti-Semitic

Anti semitism is rising. As is islamophobia, attacks on the poor, unemployed, fat, skinny, rich, those on benefits. ...

Society just seems to have become so antagonistic in the last decade. It's depressing.

Re GG: i think he was set up but he can handle it I'm sure. He was attacked by a Jewish man last year so agressive talk won't be a problem for him. I'm not a fan of him btw.

Louise Jews lived for hundreds of years peacefully and productively in the Middle East unlike Europe. They were not booted out of anywhere between 1920 and 1950. Some chose to settle in Palestine as part of the Zionist influx and many more came when Israel was established. The real exodus came with the 'perception' of leaders like Nasser that Jews were spying for Israel against them. There are still sizeable communities in Tunisia and Morocco. However for many centuries the Jews were valued in countries like Egypt and older Egyptians will tell you their departure was a loss. Unfortunately the anti Semitic rhetoric in those countries now makes you want to vomit.
And yes people do use the actions of IS to attack or insult British Muslims.

You're desperately trying to play the Anti Semitism card there LouiseBrooks in regards to any criticism of Israel. Most people do not fall for it. No one's denying Israel's right to exist, least of all me.

As for your claim that the journalists killed by the Israeli's in Gaza last summer, were killed during a war this is equally spurious. A "war" implies two equal sides squaring off in a series of battles. Are you seriously suggesting the Palestinian teenagers chucking rocks, and some firing low-tech rockets are comparable to actual bombings by the state of the art bombs, missiles and shells?

sourdrawers But it's not only the romanticized vision of "teenagers with rocks", is it? It's guys blowing up clubs, stabbings women and children, sending young girls to blow themselves up on market places, sending rockets to hit civilians, abducting teenagers and taunting their parents with their fate...

In answer to OP question; I live in a Jewish area and I think generally it is hyped up over exaggerated propaganda from the media due to what happened in Paris - not forgetting though that Charlie hebdo did not just 'attack' the Islamic faith, the Jewish and the Catholic too, if you have seen their cartoons.

I live near Stamford Hill, in a very Jewish area. The ultra orthodox Jewish community.

I feel very sad that there is a great lack of community spirit and integration. The ultra orthodox community keeps themselves to themselves and lives their own world. There of course is nothing wrong with that, except Jewish buildings or businesses are not in English, instead Yiddish, so one cannot know what they are for?

Also when celebrations it can be extremely disrupting like noise. There is no warning in advance or apology.

There were signs put up asking women to walk on the left side.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2762637/Posters-telling-women-walk-one-road-Jewish-Orthodox-parade-spark-angry-response.html

I have seen a non Jewish man collapsed on the road and no one asked if he was OK. The Jewish people crossed the road.

I have witnessed an incident on a bus, between a black woman and a Jewish woman, where the black woman was told not to speak to the Jewish woman's daughter 'you people don't speak to us.'

I am aware liberal modern Jewish people are respectful towards rememberance day and that is clearly visible when it is publicised however the sect I live around did not wear poppies and when coming home from work when the 2 minuted silenced happened, I didn't really acknowledge that aswell.

I was so curious to find out an answer as to why their attitudes were towards this, and the furthest I got was a speculation on the Internet from an American Jewish FAQ site that this was due to this sect not believing in war, and that is why they did not acknowledge.

I just believe overall a group of people should not be stereotyped and I do not hate anyone, I just feel this country is far too sympathetic and positively discriminates Jews as opposed to a black person, gypsy or a Muslim.

I read in the press about the Islamic school controversies, yet on my road in the Jewish schools there are no non Jewish teachers. They receive full government funding yet no one outside their religion or community attends. One of the Islamic schools was only ousted because of a non Islamic teacher being forced to wear a hijab, how can one whistleblow if one is endocrined and part of a community that lives a completely different way of life to a British one?

There are housing associations set up by this sect, small estates are built with'private road', it forms little ghettos.

That's true OfaFrenchMind but if you look at the body count then the conflict does appear rather one-sided.

I don't agree with things set up along religious lines - schools, charities, hospitals, pavements... I've worked in places where I've been addressed in another language (by visitors), then ignored when I say I'm not xx. All very weird. Or had to pass a stack of paper cups for a guest to select an 'uncontaminated' one from the middle? Not many like this tbh, but enough to piss me off!

Israel and the surrounding areas are well documented in the Torah, Bible, and Quran.

I therefore don't agree that Israel should solely be a Jewish state and 'belong to the Jews' I believe it should of been a state acknowledged by all religions, representing three similar and powerful religions together in Union and peace.

What you have again is cultural beliefs endocrined and brainwashed to each other that one side is evil and one side is good.

I posted above on my personal experiences about the ultra orthodox Jewish sect, as they do not belief in war, some are 'anti Zionist' and prefer to live here and the U.S.

I read that the Jewish Ashkenazi population who lived in Europe (majority of the worlds jews) are more genetically linked to white Europeans due to 'mixing' when their population became low thousands of years ago. If this is true, and visibly it seems true because a very pale skinned, fair haired light eyed person standing next to an 'arab' looks very different, then I am against the Zionist movement going to gaza and forcibly removing Arabs from their homes in the middle of the night, because they are on 'Jewish ancestry land', sorry that's racially cleansing, and wrong considering they are normally wealthy Americans that can afford land elsewhere.

Back to the point I just hope there is peace in the world and people put narrow minded backwards views asides and for the sake of the world be at peace .

America is just as bad for trying to enforce their beliefs onto others and the Middle east that is wrong, like Iraq and Afghanistan.

Yes OK I'm wrong about all of it, but the Palestinians are a trapped, impoverished people, under occupation. Israel's occupation. Are you really putting those atrocious acts of some Palestinian individuals on a par with the means of killing that the Israeli armed forces posses? At the very least, the stabbings and suicide bombings you speak of, only sit along side the fact that Israel fired on hospitals in Gaza in 2014,. (there's indisputable evidence of this BTW) these are major war crimes, but they brought little outrage from politicians and the media.

I've stated a few times I agree the Jews should have a homeland and I do support Israel. (Which one has to do repeatedly in order to avoid the Anti-Semitism accusation). I haven't heard you extend the same recognition to the Palestinians?

I don't think the UK government should be funding anything that is solely for a particular race or religion.

We should be funding only on an education system that provides for everyone, that is fair, good quality, and if people do not like that idea then to privately educate their kids elsewhere.

No doubt kids of Palestine and Israel are taught hate from birth. I don't think there is a victim anymore, but I do think Israel has the upper hand due to being funded by the U.S.