Anti-Jewish hatred is now running at the highest level on record as Britain reaches a “tipping point”, new polling shows.
Campaign Against Antisemitism commissioned YouGov to survey British adults’ attitudes with “alarming” findings showing antisemitism has doubled in less than five years.
The charity claims the results show the number of people in Britain holding what it considers to be entrenched antisemitic views now covers more than one fifth of the British population.
Some 45% – almost half of the population – believes Israel treats the Palestinians like the Nazis treated the Jews, a record figure and an increase from last year’s prior record of 33%.
Almost half 18-24-year-olds are uncomfortable spending time with people who openly support Israel while only 18% are comfortable while only 31% of young voters agree Israel has a right to exist as a homeland for the Jewish people and 20% of them say that it does not.
Disturbingly 10% of young people have a favourable view of Hamas and 14% of them believe it is wrong to class the proscribed organisation as terrorists.
Almost one fifth of young people believe the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 was justified.
A CAA spokesman said: “These are deeply alarming figures. On October 7 Hamas murdered some 1,200 people in Israel – having also murdered hundreds over preceding decades by suicide bomb, rocket, bullet, knife and other means. There are few stronger indicators of the rise of extremism in our country than that such high proportions of young people believe that this attack was justified and view the perpetrators favourably.”
“Our country is clearly at a tipping point. These are the highest antisemitism figures that we have ever recorded, having doubled in less than five years.
“Our young people are being radicalised into adopting hateful ideologies before our eyes. Britain will lose its soul to extremists unless the silent majority wakes up. The public recognises that racism against Jewish people has skyrocketed, but the authorities have abysmally failed to rise to the occasion. Politicians, police and prosecutors, regulators, media organisations, cultural institutions, universities, trade unions – they are all complicit in the creation of a climate of hatred in Britain. Jews may feel it most sharply now, but for all of us, this is not the country that we used to know. Soon it will be too late for our country to change course.”
Earlier this year Express columnist Vanessa Feltz tearfully told how she was singled out by a screaming pro-Palestinian protester “because I’m known to be Jewish”.
The popular broadcaster recounted how she was preyed on in central London and feared for her safety as she was bombarded with vile antisemitic abuse.
Ms Feltz, 63, said: “I was walking to get to the Tube station when suddenly I heard very, very loudly, ‘Vanessa Feltz, Vanessa Feltz, fascist Zionist scum’.
“I wheeled around and there was a guy, he looked like a white guy to me, not that I know what his origin was, and he was chasing me, screaming into a megaphone and chasing me shouting ‘fascist, Zionist scum’.
“Obviously it wasn’t because of the colour of my skin but because I’m known to be Jewish.”
Ms Feltz was saved by a good samaritan who ushered her to the sanctuary of the Underground.
Antisemitic hate crimes have overtaken Islamophobic incidents with more reported abuses of Jews than Muslims.
Gideon Falter, Chief Executive of CAA, said: “Hamas is a genocidal terrorist organisation committed to eradicating Jewish people. It managed to murder 1,200 of them on October 7, 2023. Hamas’s main sponsor is the tyrannical Iranian theocracy whose regime denies the Holocaust while it plots another.
“Their supporters have taken over our streets week after week and the effects are being felt in schools and universities, in hospitals and cultural institutions, on television and online.”