Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

Britain has an anti-Semitism problem. Here are the numbers that prove it

A new report on anti-Semitism in Britain makes uncomfortable reading all round.

The study, a joint enterprise by the Community Security Trust and the Institute for Jewish Policy Research, is an in-depth exploration of anti-Jewish attitudes, the role of animus towards Israel, and the prevalence of prejudice in 2017.

It is a sober analysis and the researchers tend towards restraint – sometimes a little too much restraint – in drawing conclusions from their data. It is this very interpretive modesty that makes the findings all the more concerning. While the report caps the ‘hardcore’ anti-Semite population at five percent, it detects a further 25 per cent who feel negatively about Jews and hold one or two viewpoints that most Jews would consider anti-Semitic. These include traditional Judeophobic tropes of undue influence, divided loyalty, and ill-gotten wealth.

The far-right remains the most anti-Semitic demographic but the far-left, by the force of numbers and its new-found influence over British politics, is roughly on an even keel with reactionaries when it comes to hating Jews.

The findings from Muslim attitudes are especially troubling. In short, British Muslims are markedly more anti-Semitic than the general population, as measured by agreement or disagreement with a series of value statements. Posed the proposition, ‘A British Jew is just as British as any other British person’, 78 per cent of the general population agree but only 61 per cent of British Muslims. Sixty-one percent of Britons believe Jews make a positive contribution to society, a dismayingly modest response but better than the miserable 37 per cent of Muslims who can bring themselves to agree. Muslims are twice as likely to assert that ‘Jews think they are better than other people’ (28 per cent to 13 per cent) and ‘Jews get rich at the expense of others’ (27 per cent to 12 per cent) than the population at large and three times as likely to believe ‘Jews have too much power in Britain’ (27 per cent to 8 per cent).

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