UNITED KINGDOM 2006

 

The country recorded the highest annual total of antisemitic incidents ever− 594 compared to 455 in 2005, a 31 percent rise. The number of incidents during the first half of the year was lower than the same period in 2005, but the overspill of the war in Lebanon resulted in a near doubling of incidents in the latter part of the year compared to the parallel period in 2005. The All Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Antisemitism published its report on the growth of antisemitism in Britain after a year long investigation by senior members of parliament.

 

THE JEWISH COMMUNITY

The Jewish community of the United Kingdom numbers about 350,000, out of a total population of 58 million. Two-thirds of the community is concentrated in Greater London. Other major Jewish centers are Manchester (30,000), Leeds (10,000) and Glasgow (6,500). Although the Jewish population has experienced a decline in recent years, mainly due to a low birth rate, intermarriage and emigration, the question on religion in the 2001 census indicated that there were more Jews than was previously thought.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews (BoD) is the principal representative of British Jewry. Security and defense activity is organized through the Community Security Trust (CST). Welfare and education are given high communal priority through organizations such as the United Jewish Israel Appeal and Jewish Care. A network of Jewish day schools operates in London and other major cities. There are also a number of tertiary centers for Jewish studies, including the London School of Jewish Studies (formerly Jews College) and Leo Baeck College, as well as the Jewish Studies departments at University College London, Southampton University and the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies at Yarnton, all leading institutions in Europe in this field. The main community papers are the 160 year-old Jewish Chronicle, the Jewish Telegraph published simultaneously in northern cities, and the Jewish News. The Jewish Tribune and Hamodia cater for the growing, strictly Orthodox community. Two Jewish websites are based in the UK: www.totallyjewish.com and www.somethingjewish.co.uk, carrying national and international news.

The Jewish Leadership Council formed in 2003 brings together heads of major national Jewish organizations and key communal leaders with the aim of enhancing the long-term effectiveness of communal representation, and to ensure greater consultation by communal organizations and leaders.

The London Jewish Forum was launched at the end of 2006 to represent London's Jews on statutory bodies, including the Greater London Authority.

 

POLITICAL PARTIES AND EXTRA-PARLIAMENTARY GROUPS

Political Parties

The extreme right British National Party (BNP) fielded 363 candidates in the May local elections; 33 new councilors were elected and one was re-elected, giving the party a total of 49 councilors in England and Wales. During 2006, 35 BNP candidates stood in local by-elections, and the party is now a permanent feature of the mainstream political landscape in some parts of the country, with consistent voter support.

The BNP's move away from fringe extremism towards mainstream political activity continued with a national conference in Blackpool in November, attended by more than 200 delegates. Motions passed included opposition to same sex civil partnerships, immediate withdrawal of British troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, and a call for a ban on the public wearing of the burqa (an all-enveloping robe worn by many Muslim women, especially in Central and South Asia).

The party held its annual Red, White and Blue open air gathering in Sawley, Lancashire, over an August weekend, attracting up to 3,000 participants.

Throughout the year, the BNP was beset by internal squabbles which frequently attracted media attention. Much of this was fuelled by internal and external allegations of financial mismanagement, a constant theme throughout its existence. In November, for example, Albion Life, a life assurance company established by Steven Blake, BNP website editor, collapsed after its political links were publicized. It was believed that trading profits from its business were to be used to fund BNP-related activity.

In December, BNP Chairman Nick Griffin and Publicity Director Mark Collett were acquitted of charges of incitement to racial hatred at their Leeds Crown Court retrial. The charges related to speeches they made in Keighley, which were secretly filmed for the BBC "Secret Agent" television documentary in 2004.

Despite a public move towards respectability, and an attempt to woo Jewish support in a letter to the Jewish Chronicle in November, the BNP continues in private to promote antisemitism and violence. For example, in August, BNP supporter Mark Bulman was jailed for five years for daubing antisemitic graffiti in Swindon; books recommended to members on the party website include some with antisemitic themes, such as John Tyndall's The Eleventh Hour, and others by the American anti-Jewish propagandist Michael Hoffman II. Fifteen BNP members, some senior, were charged with or convicted of criminal activity during 2006, 13 of them for racist offences. In October, former BNP local election candidate Robert Cottage, and retired dentist David Jackson, were arrested and later charged with terrorist-related offenses after a large amount of bomb-making equipment was found in their homes. Their trial began in early 2007.

The National Front (NF) is virtually a spent force electorally, and now fails to produce either large numbers of candidates or sustained intensive campaigning. Their only notable performance in the May local elections, in which they stood only seven candidates, was in Hillingdon, West London, where the local branch is composed of former BNP activists. A planned anti-immigrant march through Luton was banned in July by the home secretary, on the grounds that it might lead to violence. In December, NF leader Thomas Holmes was convicted of racially aggravated harassment, and given a six month curfew order.

Sharon Ebanks was expelled from the party, for making antisemitic web postings and due to her involvement in a financial dispute, but reportedly because her father is black. In December she established a new organization, the New Nationalist Party.

Support for anti-immigrant policies was felt in Blackburn, where two candidates from the openly racist England First Party (EFP) won two seats on the local council in the May local elections. The EFP is a tiny party, and these were the only candidates it stood in the country, but won its seats due to a combination of local campaigning and attracting support from an increasing number of disillusioned voters from mainstream parties. EFP policies are more extreme than those of the BNP, and call for the banning of mixed race marriages. EFP leader, Mark Cotterill, is a veteran neo-Nazi and founder of Friends of the BNP in the USA.

The Freedom Party (FP) promotes an anti-European, white nationalist ideology, and is composed mainly of former BNP members. The leadership includes chairman Adrian Davis, and party founder Sharon Edwards. No candidates stood in the local elections.

 

Far Right Extra-parliamentary Groups

The tiny Leeds-based British People's Party (BPP), founded in September 2005 by veteran neo-Nazi activists John Wood, Kevin Watmough, Peter Williamson, and Eddie Morrison, was the subject of a police investigation over alleged electoral fraud in the run up to the May local elections, but no criminal charges were brought. At the beginning of the year, the BPP was responsible for distributing an antisemitic leaflet in Manchester, against the planned establishment of a new Jewish primary school (see below). During the course of the year, however, both Williamson and Wood left the party.

Tiny neo-Nazi groups, such as the National Revolutionary Faction, White Nationalist Party, International Third Position, Blood and Honour, and the November 9th Society, as well as ultra right conservative groups, such as the Conservative Democratic Alliance, Bloomsbury Forum and Monday Club, continue to exist, with activity confined mainly to the web.

 

Militant Islamist and Other Muslim Groups

In October 2004, al-Muhajiroun (AM − The Emigrants) was disbanded by its leader, Omar Bakri Mohammed, who returned to Lebanon. He was subsequently barred from re-entering the UK. In November 2005, Mohammed announced the formation of a new group, Ahl ul-Sunnah Waal Jamma (ASWJ - The Messenger and His Companions). In July 2006, two other AM successor groups, the Saved Sect (SS) and Al-Ghurabaa (AG), were proscribed under the amended Terrorism Act 2000 for glorifying terrorism (see below). Nevertheless, the groups continue activity under the joint UK leadership of Anjem Chowdary and convert Abu Izzadeen (formerly Trevor Brooks).

The Danish cartoons issue (see ASW 2005) led, in February, to public protests by many Muslim groups, most of which were peaceful. Islamist groups, however, staged sometimes angry demonstrations, among which those organized by the AM successor groups were notable for their violent and antisemitic rhetoric and placards. On 3 February, AG organized a march from the Central London Mosque, Regents Park, to the Danish Embassy with banners which proclaimed "behead those who insult Islam" and "Be Prepared for the Real Holocaust", among others. In July, Chowdary was fined £500 and £300 costs, after being found guilty at Bow Street Magistrates Court, for failing to notify police of the February demonstration outside the Danish Embassy. Three other demonstrators, Umran Javed, Nizanur Rahman and Abdul Saleem were also subsequently found guilty of inciting racial hatred at separate trials and were due to be sentenced in early 2007.

The Muslim Public Affairs Committee (MPAC) accused 'the Zionists' of being behind the Danish newspapers' "deliberate provocation, designed to outrage and incite Muslims." Asghar Bukhari, the founding leader of MPAC, admitted in December that he had donated £60 to the 'Fighting Fund' of British Holocaust denier David Irving in 2000. Along with the money, Bukhari wrote to Irving "You may feel like you are on your own, but rest assured many people are with you in your fight for the Truth." He also offered to send Irving a copy of former US Senator Paul Findley's book, They Dare to Speak Out, because Findley "has suffered like you in trying to expose certain falsehoods perpetrated by the Jews."

Although Prime Minister Tony Blair had committed the government to banning Hizb ut Tahrir (HUT- the Islamic Liberation Party) in an August 2005 speech, a decision not to do so was taken at the end of December on the grounds that there was no proven link to terrorism, nor did the party glorify it. It was agreed, however, that the decision would be subject to a regular review. HUT remains outlawed by the National Union of Students (NUS) as are AM and MPAC, for promoting antisemitism. A motion to overturn the ban on HUT was defeated at the annual NUS conference in Blackpool, in April.

The Iran-oriented Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC), established in 1997 and led by Massoud Shadjareh, campaigns for Muslim rights, demonizes Zionism and promotes antisemitism. Through its Justice for Palestine Committee it organizes the annual al-Quds Day march (initiated by the late Ayatollah Khomeini for the liberation of Jerusalem), which took place at the end of October in Central London. Among the speakers were anti-Zionist Respect (see below) leader George Galloway MP, Hamas-linked Azzam Tamimi, and journalist and Islam convert Yvonne Ridley.

The anti-Jewish Islamic Party of Britain, founded by convert Daoud Mussa Pidcock, engaged in no public activity during the year, but co-leader, German-born convert Sahib Mustaquim Bleher, briefed British participants to the Holocaust denial conference held in Tehran in December.

Respect - the Unity Coalition, a coalition of far left and militant Islamist activists, led by George Galloway MP, stood 150 candidates in the May council elections, winning 12 seats in the East London borough of Tower Hamlets. They also won three seats in the East London borough of Newham, and one seat on Birmingham Council. Respect now has a total of 17 councilors (see also ASW 2005).

           

ANTISEMITIC ACTIVITIES

A motion to boycott Israeli universities and academics was passed at the May annual conference in Blackpool of the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (NATFHE). The boycott applied to Israeli academic institutions and individuals who did not "publicly disassociate themselves from Israel's apartheid policies." The resolution was scrapped after the June merger between NATFHE and the Association of University Teachers (AUT). The Union of Jewish Students and Jewish academics had argued that the decision was discriminatory against Jewish students.

Chris Davies was forced to resign as leader of the Liberal Democrats (LDP) in the European Parliament in May after publication of a series of abusive e-mails to a Jewish woman, who had complained to him about comments he made during a visit to the West Bank in which he drew a parallel between the Holocaust and Israeli treatment of the Palestinians.

At an Edinburgh University meeting in December, Baroness Jenny Tonge repeated comments she had made at a LDP conference fringe meeting in September, that "the pro-Israel lobby has got its grips on the West End world, its financial grips. I think they've probably got a grip on our party." Baroness Tonge was sacked from her position as foreign affairs spokesman within the LDP in January 2004 for announcing that she would consider becoming a suicide bomber if she were a Palestinian. Her September remarks were condemned publicly in an open letter to The Times newspaper signed by the former Archbishop of Canterbury, as well as by an all party group of members of the House of Lords and her party leader. In December, she was forced to resign as a trustee of Christian Aid.

 

Violence, Vandalism, Harassment and Threats

There is no statutory requirement to collect data on antisemitic incidents, and as a consequence, the figures published by the CST are accepted as authoritative. Criticism of this omission was made by the All Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Antisemitism (see below), and by intergovernmental agencies monitoring hate crime in Europe.

The CST recorded a total of 594 antisemitic incidents during 2006, a 31 percent rise over 2005 (455 incidents). This was 12 percent higher than the previous record figure recorded in 2004 (532), and continued the long-term trend of rising incident levels since 1997. In addition, the totals for July, August and September were, respectively, the third, fourth and fifth highest monthly totals on record.

Four incidents of life-threatening violence were recorded. They included the stabbing of a Jewish man in Stamford Hill, north London, during an unprovoked street attack; a gang assault on two strictly Orthodox men in Manchester, during which one was struck several times over the head with a metal bar; an attack at a nightclub on two Jewish students by two Asian men who shouted antisemitic abuse before hitting one of the students over the head with a bottle; and an assault on a father and his two sons walking to synagogue.

A further 108 violent incidents were recorded, the highest number in a single year. The majority were random, opportunist non-life threatening assaults on Orthodox Jews, and included 16 attacks on congregants on their way to or from synagogue. A further ten targeted Jewish school children. The strictly Orthodox communities in north Manchester, and north and northwest London are particularly vulnerable to such acts. For example, on 5 January three young Jewish school boys on a bus were verbally and physically attacked by three other youths. They knocked the skull caps off their heads and spat at them. A similar incident took place a month later in Manchester. On 8 April, an egg was thrown from a passing car at a Jew who was on his way home from the synagogue. He was injured and his glasses broken. The police have yet to identify any of the perpetrators in the above incidents.

Seventy incidents involving damage and desecration to communal property were recorded, a rise of 46 percent over the previous year (48 incidents). A Jewish cemetery in Manchester was desecrated on two separate occasions, resulting in damage to 47 gravestones. In London, swastikas, SS signs, and the words "Juden Raus" were daubed on a South London synagogue. In March, 59 gravestones were damaged in the Jewish section of a municipal cemetery in Derby. Daniel Coleman and Richard Fallows were arrested shortly after the attack and have since been convicted of criminal damage. Large amounts of Nazi materials including DVD's of Hitler's biography, Downfall and Romper Stomper films were found in Coleman's home. A war memorial in Worthing, Sussex, was defaced with swastikas and SS symbols in November, resulting in one arrest.

Materials that could have been used to manufacture petrol bombs were found, in suspicious circumstances, in November, near the South London Croydon synagogue, following a police investigation into militant Islamist activity centered at a nearby mosque.

There were 365 incidents of abusive behavior, including both verbal and written offenses, a rise of 34 percent over the previous year (273 incidents). Again this was the highest total recorded in this category. Examples included the slogan "Jewish scumbag, go back to the camps" shouted by a group of Asian men at synagogue-goers in London; daubing of "the Jews are evil people" in large letters on a London Underground station; the receipt by a Jewish charity in Manchester of a letter that stated "Jews are still crying about the killing of innocent people from 65 years ago, but are doing the same today in Beirut. Jews think they have a right to take over wherever they go . they spread like a disease, and breed contempt wherever they go. Without the backing of Americans they would be nothing, and the reason for that is that America is run by the Jews.. There will never be world peace, as long as there is a living Jew."

Twenty-seven antisemitic threats were recorded, a rise of 8 percent over the previous year (25 incidents). They included two bomb threats, one to a Newcastle synagogue (see below).

 

Propaganda

For the second year in a row, the mass distribution of antisemitic literature fell by 26 percent to 20 incidents (27 incidents in 2005). In five of these, literature was sent to Jewish schools and homes in north Manchester by the BPP, which stated: "No Jew school in Heaton Park. Supporting the campaign to defend our English park." In another, organizations connected to Holocaust Memorial Day received an antisemitic e-mail with cartoons showing Nazis murdering Jews for food. The captions were in both English and Arabic. In a third incident, several people received a letter containing a razor blade, and bearing the name of the far right Combat 18 group. The letter stated, "We fully intend to complete the final solution. When the National Identity Registry is operational locating and tracking your kind will be easy. We will know which schools your children attend, your places of work, how to find your family and friends. slit the throats of your kinder [children] now. Save us the effort."

 

ATTITUDES TOWARD THE HOLOCAUST

Holocaust Commemoration and Education

The theme of Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) held on 27 January, was "One Person Can Make a Difference." The national event was held in Cardiff and hosted by the first minister for Wales. Attendees included the prime minister, political leaders and leaders of the Jewish and other faith communities. A statement by the Archbishop of Canterbury was read in all Anglican churches. HMD is increasingly commemorated by municipalities and schools throughout the country, and is coordinated by the government funded Holocaust Memorial Day Trust established in May 2005.

The Muslim Council of Britain maintained its boycott of HMD for the sixth year running. On this occasion it announced that HMD should be replaced by a genocide day "which would also include the plight of Muslims around the world."

 

Holocaust Denial

The Holocaust is openly denied within Islamist bodies, as well as within local BNP, NF and other far right groups, at their meetings and through their book clubs.

In February, British Holocaust denier David Irving was jailed for three years by a Vienna court, after pleading guilty to charges of denying the Holocaust. He had been arrested in November 2005, during a one-day visit to address a student meeting, on a 1989 arrest warrant. In December, his jail sentence was reduced on appeal, and he was repatriated. He will, however, remain on probation for the duration of his sentence.

 

War Crimes

In June, the Metropolitan Police Service Crimes against Humanity Unit announced that it was investigating two suspected Nazi war criminals living in Scotland, but refused to divulge their names. Earlier in the year it had announced a wider inquiry into former members of the Waffen SS recruited in the Ukraine, who have been residing in Britain since the end of the war.

 

Public Opinion Polls

According to a Populus survey of British Muslims for The Times newspaper and the ITN News network published in June, 13 percent thought that the 7 July 2005 suicide bombers should be regarded at 'martyrs'; 7 percent agreed that suicide attacks on civilians can be justified in some circumstances, rising to 16 percent for a military target; 16 percent believed that although the 7 July attacks were wrong, the cause was right; 20 percent would be proud of a family member who joined al-Qa`ida, while 16 percent would be indifferent.

In October, a poll of British Muslims' attitudes to foreign policy, for the 1990 Trust, an anti-racist charity which campaigns for black rights, noted that foreign policy plays a central role in shaping Muslims' engagement in the British political arena. One finding was that 96 percent of respondents rejected terrorism against civilians; another that 82 percent thought that Muslims were becoming more radicalized, whilst 86 percent questioned Muslim sectarianism.

 

RESPONSES TO RACISM AND ANTISEMITISM

Legislation

The Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006 was passed in February, but was not yet in force in mid-2007. It is intended to extend existing incitement to racial hatred laws that protect certain religious groups and to provide protection for people of all faiths, and those of no faith, by creating new offenses relating to the incitement of religious hatred. The legislation will operate under part of the Public Order Act 1986. The legislation, which was much debated and rejected by parliament over a number of years, was passed only after a high threshold for prosecution was set.

            Parliament also passed the Equality Act 2006, which was due to take force in April 2007, which makes it unlawful to discriminate on grounds of religion or belief in education, the provision of goods, facilities and services, the use and disposal of premises, and the exercise of public functions. It is expected that the measures will afford protection: from direct discrimination, where one person is treated less favorably than another; from indirect discrimination, where adherence to a particular religion or belief provides a disadvantage which cannot be reasonably justified; and from victimization, where a complaint of discrimination leads to less favorable treatment. The BOD had submitted written evidence to the Equalities Review which preceded the act, earlier in the year.

The Terrorism Act 2006, which came into force in March, amended the Terrorism Act 2000. Section 1 criminalizes the encouragement and glorification of terrorism; the distribution and possession of terrorist material; conduct in preparation for committing acts of terrorism, or assisting another to commit terrorism; training for terrorism; attending terrorism training; and making or possessing devices or materials that can be used for the purposes of terrorism. Shortly after the act was passed, it was used to proscribe two Islamist groups (SS and AG - see above), which glorify terrorism and promote antisemitism.

 

Court Cases

Several teenagers were punished for antisemitic offenses. Two youths, unnamed because of their age, were sentenced to a total of 7 years in a young offenders institution in March following a three-day campaign of violent robberies and antisemitic verbal threats against pupils from the Jews Free School in Kenton, north London, in June 2004. Further, two 14-year-old girls were found guilty of robbery and attempted robbery in January 2007 after they stole a bracelet and attacked a Jewish girl on a London bus during August. Although not charged with a racially aggravated crime, it was clear from the evidence that their motivation was antisemitic, as they asked the victim if she was Jewish before they attacked her. The victim had been left unconscious after the assault. One attacker was sentenced to 10 months custody in a young offenders institution; the other received an 18 month supervision order.

In addition, Caroline Smith, her 18-year-old son Michael, and an unnamed 16 year old, were convicted, in July, of assaulting a Jewish woman and her husband in Manchester. Mrs Smith was given a 4 month prison sentence suspended for two years: her son, a 12-month prison sentence suspended for two years; and the 16-year-old, a 12-month rehabilitation order. William Galbraith, a 79-year-old, was found guilty of racially aggravated assault, and given a 12-month conditional discharge in March, after he had abused and spat at a group of strictly Orthodox Jews sitting on a Norfolk beach in August 2004. Galbraith was also ordered to pay costs.

Bamidele Omisore-Arayemi, a 20-year-old from Bournemouth, was found guilty of racially aggravated harassment in July after he verbally abused Jewish staff and customers in a restaurant in Hackney, north London, while Gerald Goddard, a 63-year-old taxi driver from Wakefield, was jailed for 6 weeks in February, after pleading guilty to several counts of racially aggravated criminal damage after he had daubed antisemitic graffiti on walls at Manchester airport in four separate incidents during September and October 2005. On one occasion, he had drawn a swastika, and written "Finish the job Hitler started." In September, Paul Jonathan Mahon was convicted of malicious communication, and fined £150 for phoning a synagogue in Newcastle and leaving a message which stated "Following your killing of the children of the Lebanon, be on warning that your children are now targets in Newcastle."

Helen Green, a Jewish secretary who endured a campaign of antisemitic bullying by four female co-workers at Deutsche Bank Services UK in the City, was awarded 800,000 pounds in damages in the High Court in August.

The trial of seven British Muslims accused of plotting terrorist attacks in Britain between January 2003 and April 2004 continued for most of 2006 at the Central Criminal Court in London. The jury were shown evidence in July that the defendants, who had been arrested in Operation Crevice, had compiled a 12-page list of synagogues, allegedly as intended targets.

In December, Abu Hamza Al-Mazri, the prominent Islamist cleric, and leader of Supporters of Shariah, lost his appeal at the High Court in London against his conviction for soliciting to murder, and stirring up racial hatred. In February he had been found guilty on 11 of the 15 charges that he faced: 6 of these related to soliciting to murder; 3 to stirring up racial hatred; one to owning recordings which incited racial hatred; and one to possessing a 'terrorist encyclopedia'. Evidence for the racial hatred charges included telling worshipers at the North London Mosque Finsbury Park in 2000 that, "we do not hate Jews because they hurt each other, we hate them for their corruption of the earth." In one video, Hamza stated that "The Jews are cursed. Hitler was sent to torture and humiliate the Jews, and every last Jew is going to be buried in Palestine. You will fight them until every tree and stone says 'O you Muslims, you servant of Allah, there is Jew behind me, come and kill him'." In another he stated: "Our houses are full of Jews. In the television, in the radio, in the books of your children."

In June, the Standards Board for England cleared London Mayor Ken Livingstone of antisemitic remarks he had made in March, when he publicly accused the Jewish Reuben brothers of playing a divisive role in the collapse of an east London property consortium, and suggested that they "go back to Iran, and try their hand with the ayatollahs." In October, a High Court judge quashed Livingstone's 4 week suspension for bringing his office into disrepute over offensive comments to Oliver Finegold, a Jewish reporter on the Evening Standard newspaper. The judge described the mayor's comments as "unnecessarily offensive, and indefensible" but that he had a right to free speech, and that the Adjudication Panel for England, which had suspended the mayor from office, had misdirected itself.

As a consequence of his behavior, the Mayor was not invited to the September open air event in Trafalgar Square to celebrate 350 years of Jewish life in Britain, although his office provided funding for the event. In December he apologized for offending the Jewish community at the launch of the London Jewish Forum, which he hosted at City Hall, and expressed his support for a viable two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians.

 

Official and Public Activities

The 350th anniversary of the readmission of Jews to Britain was marked by a series of public events which commenced with a thanksgiving service in June in the 300-year-old Bevis Marks Synagogue in the City, attended by the prime minister and Jewish community and religious leaders from all faiths. Other events included the publication of press articles, art exhibitions, concerts, and an all day musical and drama event in Trafalgar Square. The celebration culminated in a reception at St James's Palace hosted by the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh, for 700 community leaders and activists.

In June, Parliament debated the contribution made by Jews to British public life. The debate was initiated by Andrew Dismore MP, chairman of the parliamentary joint committee on human rights, who represents the Hendon constituency in northwest London, where many Jews live.

In September, the Archbishop of Canterbury, on behalf of the Church of England, signed an accord with the two chief rabbis of Israel, which put to rest residual differences over matters of faith between Judaism and the Anglican Communion.

Dennis MacShane, MP, former minister for European affairs and chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Antisemitism, along with representatives of the CST, attended an experts conference on antisemitism in November, in the German parliament buildings in Berlin, organized by the German Parliamentary Delegation to the OSCE.

In September, the Report of the All Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Antisemitism was published. Among its main conclusions: Jewish people and institutions are being targeted regardless of the expressed motive; a minority of Islamist extremists incite hatred toward Jews; Jewish students feel disproportionately threatened in British universities as a result of antisemitic activities. The report praised the valuable role performed by the CST, and recommended that the European Union's Working Definition of Antisemitism be adopted and promoted; that the Home Office provide more support in addressing the Jewish community's security needs; that all police forces should have the capacity to record racist and antisemitic incidents; and that the Crown Prosecution Service investigate the reasons for the low number of prosecutions for incitement. The government's official response was due in early 2007.

In November, the minister for higher education published guidelines for universities and colleges of further education, on dealing with extremism. The document stressed the need to tackle Islamist extremism, recognizing its links to terrorism, and demonization of other faiths.