united kingdom 2009

 

The Jewish community in the United Kingdom numbers about 300,000, out of a total population of 61 million. Two-thirds are concentrated in Greater London. Other major Jewish centers are Manchester, Leeds and Glasgow.

            The UK registered 924 antisemitic incidents in 2009, the highest ever reported. The impact of Operation Cast Lead led to an unprecedented number of incidents being recorded in January and February and the level only returned to normal in April. A large number of incidents occurred in September as well, mainly due to the large numbers of visibly Jewish people on the streets during the High Holy Day period. A total of 124 violent incidents were perpetrated, the highest ever recorded, and a rise of 41 percent over the 88 recorded in 2008. There was an increase of 17 percent in incidents of damage and desecration of Jewish property, and of 57 percent in antisemitic threats. In addition, there were 605 incidents in the category of abusive behavior, an increase of 91 percent over the 317 recorded in 2008. This was the highest number of incidents of this type ever recorded by CST (Community Security Trust). Examples included 35 cases of graffiti stating “Kill the Jews,” “Slay Jewish pigs,” “Nuke Jews” or “Jihad 4 Israel” in areas with a large Jewish population. It should be noted that overall the most common single type of manifestation was verbal abuse randomly directed at visibly Jewish people in public.

            Much of the anti-Israel discourse in Britain during Operation Cast Lead was unusually extreme and angry. At several anti-Israel demonstrations participants bore banners equating the Star of David with the swastika and at some, antisemitic slogans were chanted.

            The response in the UK to Palestinian calls to boycott Israel appeared to be greater than in any other country. The driving forces have been radical anti-Zionist leftists, such as the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), which lobby for a general boycott of Israeli goods as well as a cultural and sports boycott. On May 14, the British Fire Brigades Union called at its annual conference for a campaign to boycott Israeli goods and institutions. The London production of Caryl Churchill’s play Seven Jewish Children, written in response to Operation Cast Lead in January 2009, resulted in widespread accusations that it promoted antisemitism. In the play, Churchill accuses Jews of transmogrifying from victims to oppressors in the period between the Holocaust and its military campaign against Hamas, of promoting Jewish supremacy and of exultation at the deaths of Palestinian children. The play came off after a short run at the Royal Court Theatre but thereafter was promoted by pro-Palestinian groups.

            The British National Party (BNP) gained ground in June following the election of party leader Nick Griffin and veteran far right activist Andrew Brons, to the European Parliament. Of the British parties, the BNP came in sixth, with 6.2 percent of the vote, up from 4.9 percent in 2004. In local, borough and city council elections, the BNP won an extra 3 county council seats, bringing the total to 50. Despite developing contacts with neo-Nazi groups internationally, BNP leader Nick Griffin sought on several occasions to woo Jewish voters on the grounds that all Britons faced a common enemy in Islam. In January he gave an interview to Israel’s Maariv newspaper in which he stated that he no longer denied the Holocaust and argued that Jews and Israelis would need the support of European nationalist parties to resist Muslims. Nevertheless, during the June local council and European elections the representative bodies of the Jewish community, as part of a wider mobilization by anti-racist organizations, staged a campaign against BNP with the aim of increasing voter turnout on behalf of the democratic parties, under the rubric of “Your Voice or Theirs.” Denial of the Holocaust rarely occurs among far right groups, but it surfaced during the European election when Marlene Guest, the BNP European parliamentary candidate for a Yorkshire constituency, expressed admiration for the 1974 booklet Did Six Million Jews Really Die?

            Islamist organizations and groups organized several gatherings during 2009. For example, the annual Al-Quds day demonstration initiated by the late Ayatollah Khoemeini took place at the end of Ramadan in mid-September, organized by the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC). In July and August, UK branches of Hizb ut-Tahrir held large public meetings in London and Birmingham under the banner, “The Struggle for Islam and the Call for Khilafah.”

            As in past years, the Muslim Council of Britain boycotted 2009 Holocaust Memorial Day events on January 27, citing Operation Cast lead as its reason, although other Muslim organizations and prominent individuals participated.

            Official data on hate crimes prosecutions published at the end of December 2009 indicated an improving situation. In the four years ending March 2009, over 49,200 defendants were prosecuted for hate crimes, and the conviction rate rose from 74 percent in 2005-6 to 82 percent in 2008-9, with guilty pleas rising from 64 to 69 percent. Some of those convicted were members of extreme right organizations. For example, British First Party leader Kevin Quinn was found guilty of religiously aggravated public disorder after delivering a tirade of anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim abuse from a platform he had set up in a shopping precinct in Watford. Trevor Hannington and Michael Heaton, said to be administrators of the Aryan Strike Force website, were charged in December with various terrorism offenses and soliciting to murder after posting violent antisemitic messages and terrorist manuals on their website.

            In February 2009, the Inter-parliamentary Coalition for Combating Antisemitism brought together 125 parliamentarians from 40 countries for its first international conference in London. It subsequently issued the London Declaration, which notes the dramatic increase in antisemitic hate crimes and calls upon national governments, parliaments, international institutions and civil society to affirm democratic and human values and combat manifestations of antisemitism and discrimination. At a later public ceremony, the declaration was signed by the prime minister, home secretary, foreign secretary and communities secretary on behalf of Parliament.