London police say they recorded about four times as many anti-Semitic incidents during the deadly 11-day war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip in May, than at any other time during the years. last three years. A total of 87 anti-Semitic incidents were reported, 65 more than the previous month, while the highest monthly figure since May 2018 was 22 incidents, police told UK news agency PA.
"This type of behavior and abuse against any individual or group has no place in our city,"
London police said in a statement.
"We will not tolerate it and we will act swiftly and firmly in response to all reported crimes of this nature
.
"
To read also: Guillaume Tabard: "Anti-Semitism and separatism, the detestable collusion"
This upsurge in anti-Semitic acts took place against the backdrop of a new conflict in the Gaza Strip: from May 10 to 21, Hamas in power in Gaza and the Israeli army fought a fatal 11-day war against 260 Palestinians, including children and combatants, and 13 people in Israel, including a soldier, a child and a teenage girl.
The crisis had many repercussions on British Jews: in London, the word
"Hitler"
was written on the ceiling of a building and stones were thrown at a house inhabited by Jewish people.
A resident of the Stamford Hill neighborhood in north London, where a large Hasidic Jewish community lives, said the tires of more than 30 Jewish-owned cars were punctured.
Police arrested four people after a video showed them shouting anti-Semitic slurs from a car.
Two men had also been charged in connection with an attack on a rabbi who was struck on the head with a concrete brick near his synagogue.
Read also: Anti-Semitism in Germany: a battle of interpretation
According to the Community Security Trust (CST), an association campaigning against anti-Semitism against British Jews, 116 incidents were reported across the UK between May 8 and 19. Prime Minister Boris Johnson had condemned the
“intolerable”
wave
of anti-Semitic incidents, while Mayor of London Sadiq Khan had stepped up police patrols in the areas concerned. The CST recorded 1,668 anti-Semitic incidents in the UK in 2020 - its third highest annual figure - and 1,813 in 2019.