Radio 4's The Report gave the impression that most anti-Semitic attacks in the UK are carried out by the far-right. Is this really the case though?
The CST received a physical description of the perpetrator in 29% of case - 340 out of the 1,168 antisemitic incidents recorded during 2014. These break down as follows:
The CST received a physical description of the perpetrator in 29% of case - 340 out of the 1,168 antisemitic incidents recorded during 2014. These break down as follows:
White-North European - 44%South Asian - 37%Arab/North African - 10%Black - 8%White-South European - 1%
It appears, therefore, that the far-right accounts for around 45% of all anti-Semitic incidents, while the remaining 55% of attacks appear to have different, non-far-right motivation.
What that other motivation might be emerges from another set of CST figures. These are drawn from the 453 cases where an ideological motivation or beliefs was identified alongside anti-Semitism. The the break down here runs as follows:
Anti-Israel/Islamist motivation or beliefs - 65%
Far-right motivation or beliefs - 35%
During July and August, however, when the conflict between Israel and Hamas was raging, the proportion of offenders looked like this:
South Asian - 50%
White-North European - 34%
Arab/North African - 12%
Black - 5%
White-South European - 0%
Radio 4's The Report was, therefore, giving a distorted and misleading impression of anti-Semitism in the UK.
