The Israeli defensive war against Hamas in Gaza may have finished a month ago but its side effects are still reverberating abroad, not least of all in the UK.
While the range and level of anti-Semitic and anti-Israel activity in Britain has not matched that seen in parts of continental Europe such as France, the UK Jewish community still felt its effects as never before, as illustrated by near record levels of incidents reported by the organization responsible for the Jewish community’s defense, the Community Security Trust (CST).
Their monthly anti-Semitism figures told it all. In July, the CST recorded over 302 incidents, while the provisional figure for August is already over 150. The statistics are incomplete as the CST anticipate receiving more detailed information about incidents from the various regional police authorities and other sources, many of which, due to their other responsibilities and priorities, take their time in submitting reports. Each and every incident reported has to be assessed and, where necessary, duplicated reports must be eliminated.
But the overall figures do not lie. The CST points to a comparison of the July total of 302 incidents with the 304 incidents registered in the 6 month period from January to June 2014.
Mark Gardiner, the CST’s Director of Communications has spent most of the last three months fielding media enquiries on what he admits has been the worst period yet for the UK Jewish Community. While the statistics of anti-Semitic incident levels helped them measure what happened during the summer, “perhaps even more important was the way that British Jews reported actually feeling about what was going on.”
This, he said, ranged from influential newspaper columnists who do not normally talk about their Jewishness, through to what one might call the ‘average Jew in the street’.
“The overwhelming feedback was that they had never felt so singled out, nor so fearful about what this might mean for the future. Now, as time passes, many of those fears will outwardly calm and the community will return to its normal vibrant life, but a negative impact still remains.”
Nevertheless the CST has stepped up its High Holy Day precautions with enhanced patrols at synagogues and other sensitive Jewish and Israel-related events and venues.
While it is still too early to report on and assess the impact of the Gaza saga on the Rosh Hashana High Holy Day period, initial reports suggest there were no major physical attacks but several verbal incidents.
A flavor of the aftermath of the Gaza episode will best illustrate the situation on the ground as it affects the community since the ending of hostilities.
Two weeks ago during the late afternoon on London bus route 102 - which passes through the predominantly Jewish northwest London suburb of Golders Green – a Jewish Chronicle reporter, Rosa Doherty, 27, witnessed one of the more telling incidents of recent weeks.
Traveling on a bus full of Jewish schoolchildren, she watched a man who suddenly started shouting “Get the Jews off the bus,” adding “all they do is f*** us.” She immediately complained to the bus driver who chose to do nothing but allow the man off the bus at its next stop. Having heard him threaten to “burn the bus” and “burn the Jews,” her concerns changed to fears and then anger when moments later the bus driver allowed the same man to reboard the bus to continue his verbal tirade.
Incensed, she called the 999 emergency number to contact the police, but their operator’s response just added to the problem, “If the driver does not stop the bus, we cannot send police to you. He added that the man was just shouting abuse which is only ‘anti social’ behaviour”
Only later when the Metropolitan Police and ‘Transport for London’ (who manage London’s buses) realized they were dealing with a journalist did they respond with more appropriate action. After a CCTV image of the suspect allegedly abusing the bus passengers was issued, he was quickly arrested and made his first appearance in court at the end of last week.
Ian Campbell, 42, of north London was charged with a "racially or religiously aggravated public order offense" using “threatening abusive or insulting words or behavior to cause harassment, alarm or distress.”
Doherty later described how the Metropolitan Police had been falling over itself to apologize over their initial response, including a refusal to apprehend the abuser “because the bus was moving.” Graham Skitt, of the police’s safer transport team, admitted that their response to her 999 call was the result of “a comedy of errors.”
Steve Burton, the Transport for London’s Director of Enforcement admitted she had witnessed “an appalling incident” which he claimed was the subject of urgent enquiries. “All of our customers rightly expect to use our services without fear of being abused. Offensive behavior like this simply will not be tolerated”
Campbell was granted bail and ordered to reappear at Hendon Magistrates court on October 9 and banned from traveling on the 102 route bus in the Golders Green area.
Meanwhile, in what is viewed in utmost seriousness in Jewish community leadership circles, the Liverpool Football Club have come under fire after they deleted a “Happy New Year” tweet to all their Jewish supporters because of the nature of and intensity of anti-Semitic responses.
The message had read: “Liverpool FC would like to wish all our Jewish supporters around the world a happy new year. #RoshHashanah.”
So unpleasant was the response that “Kick It Out,” British football’s equality and inclusion organization, contacted Liverpool Football Club to draw their attention to the abuse.
Some time later the club removed the tweet though. It was subsequently made clear however that they did so independently of advice from the ‘Kick It Out’ organization.
A Liverpool Football Club spokesman explained that “due to a number of offensive comments that were attached to a tweet on the official LFC twitter account, the tweet and comments have since been removed from the account.”
The ‘Kick It Out’ spokesman later commented that it was encouraging that a football club recognizes holidays and religious landmarks. Liverpool, he noted, had done the same for Ramadan.
But he added, “it is extremely sad when a club does that in a proactive manner and gets these responses. Premier League clubs appeal to supporters around the world and it would have been nice for Liverpool’s Jewish supporters to see this message from their club, that’s the bigger issue.”
CST Communication Director Mark Gardiner told The Jerusalem Post that they wished that only the anti-Semitic tweets had been removed, rather than the entire Rosh Hashana thread that Liverpool FC had so positively begun. “The saddest and most important thing here is that a Jewish New Year greeting should have met such a wide anti-Semitic reaction,” he added.

By JERRY LEWIS