CST released their antisemitic incident report for the period of January-June, 2017, and the results are troubling.
- CST recorded 767 antisemitic incidents across the UK in the first six months of 2017, a 30 per cent increase on the 589 incidents recorded in the first six months of 2016. This is the highest total CST has ever recorded for the January-June period of any year. The second highest total was in 2009, when CST recorded 629 antisemitic incidents. CST has been recording antisemitic incidents since 1984.
- The long-term trend shows that the number of antisemitic incidents has been at a sustained higher level since the summer of 2014, when incident totals increased sharply in response to conflict in Israel and Gaza. Average monthly antisemitic incident totals are now more than double what they were in 2011-2013.
- CST recorded 80 incidents in the category of Assaults during the first six months of 2017, a 78 per cent increase from the 45 incidents in the category of Assaults recorded in the first half of 2016. This is the highest number of incidents in this category that CST has recorded for this time period.
- CST recorded 142 antisemitic incidents that took place on social media, comprising 19 per cent of the total of 767 incidents recorded during the first half of 2017. In some cases, social media has been used as a tool for coordinated campaigns of antisemitic harassment, threats and abuse directed at Jewish public figures and other individuals.
- CST received a description of the ethnic appearance of the offender or offenders in 208 of the 767 antisemitic incidents reported during the first six months of 2017. Of these, 106, or 51 per cent, were described as white – north European; five, or two per cent, were described as white – south European; 36 (17 per cent) were described as black; 50 (24 per cent) were described as south Asian; one (one per cent) as east or south-east Asian; and 10 (five per cent) as Arab or north African. These proportions are broadly typical for a period when there is no trigger event from the Middle East.
See the full report here.