Is lawlessness increasing?

An analysis by Campaign Against Antisemitism of new Home Office statistics recently released shows that Jews are more than nine times likelier to be targets of hate crimes than any other faith group.

The figures published this year, however, exclude data from the Metropolitan Police Service, which was included in previous reports. According to the report, this was “due to a change in the [Met’s] crime recording system”. The Met covers London, where the majority of British Jews live.

It is therefore likely that the true figures are considerably worse.

Police forces across the country record hate crimes against Jews as religious hate crimes, and these records show that in the year 2024/25, 2,873 hate crimes were committed against Jews, making Jews the target in 28% – almost one in three – of the total number of religious hate crimes.

These figures mean that there is an average of just under eight hate crimes directed at Jews every single day in England and Wales.

Hate crimes against Jews are also still widely believed to be underreported, and also do not reflect the extent of antisemitic material and abuse on social media.

However, when one accounts for the miniscule size of the Jewish population, it emerges that Jews are statistically more than nine times more likely to be the targets of hate crimes than any other religious group, with some 1,060 hate crimes per 100,000 of the Jewish population in 2024/25.

Again, this analysis excludes figures for the capital city, where most British Jews reside.

The statistics paint half of the depressing picture. The other half comprises the actual incidents.

In just the past week, we have seen a number of incidents which suggest that law and order is giving way to lawlessness, with the able assistance of feckless police chiefs and prosecutors.

Met will not investigate masked thugs chanting “Zionist scum, off our streets”

Masked men chanting “Zionist scum, off our streets” and “We don’t want no Zionists here” were allowed to do so at an ‘anti-racist’ rally in Tower Hamlets – after police banned UKIP from holding their own demonstration in the borough.

The Metropolitan Police say that they will not investigate, telling reporters that such chants are “not likely to be criminal offences in most contexts”.

This is even though Downing Street has said that police do have the powers to act against antisemitic chants and should “robustly deploy them”.

Once again, Sir Mark Rowley’s Met refuses to protect British Jews from open Jew-hatred on our streets.

Police “could not remove” UCL protesters

“We were told by UCL security and the Metropolitan Police that they could not remove the protestors.”

And therein lies the problem.

Even when the safety of Jewish students is being threatened by Palestine thugs, who disrupt a campus event about Jewish history, our universities and police forces cower to the baying mob.

Why are our authorities so readily yielding to those who seek to do harm to Jews? Is it not precisely their job to ensure the safety of everyone in this country?

When flash mobs targeting events catering to Jewish students spring up, the answer cannot be to back down and let students fend for themselves. UCL President and Provost Dr Michael Spence has issued an apology, but until action is taken and actual consequences for these actions are dished out to the thugs who participated in this riot, words are meaningless.

Jewish students deserve better than what they are getting.

“You Zionist slave”: Politicians harassed

At an awards event organised by The Spectator, a protester harassed attendees, saying: “You prostitute to Zionists.”

Harassing politicians and MPs with accusations of being a “slave” to “Zionists” is exactly the level of discourse this country has come to expect from so-called Palestine ‘activists’.

This isn’t social justice. This is thuggishness.

A passenger allegedly locked in a bus

The driver of a London bus allegedly locked a Jewish passenger in for nearly an hour, withheld his bank card after it fell into the driver’s cab, and told him that he resembled a “Mossad agent” and that he “doesn’t like Jewish people”.

Allegedly trapping a passenger on a bus and subjecting him to antisemitic abuse is not merely disgraceful conduct; it is potentially criminal.

We welcome urgent investigations by both TfL and the police.

If the allegations are borne out, the driver would clearly need to be fired and TfL would need to issue an apology and offer compensation to the passenger.

We understand that for now the driver has been suspended pending investigation.

CPS declined to prosecute Nazi salutes at victims outside Jewish community centre

“I was exposed to conduct by protestors which made me fear for my immediate safety and for my future in this country as a Jewish woman. I was chased away from my home and my community and received no real reassurance or protection by police.”

So says one of two victims of a baying mob outside a Jewish community centre. Allegedly, Nazi salutes were performed, and these were reported to the police but the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) reportedly decided to take no action.

Only now that a judicial review has been threatened is the CPS apparently reviewing the decision not to act.

At Campaign Against Antisemitism, we know all too well that it takes this kind of pressure to galvanise the authorities into action – the sort of action that they should be taking without a second thought.

No wonder our representative polling shows that only a minuscule ten percent of British Jews think that the CPS does enough to protect them.

The fight against antisemitism in Britain would be a lot less challenging if police chiefs and prosecutors actually joined it.

Support for Hamas among British youth

The problem on our campuses is part of a wider problem.

Recent polling that we commissioned showed that 10% of young people in Britain have a favourable view of Hamas.

So, Elie hit the streets to hear people’s thoughts on the terror group.

Listen to what people said here.

Sometimes the police do act – but it would be better if they didn’t

Barely 36 hours before his case was due to be heard, the Crown Prosecution Service dropped its charges against Mark Birbeck — a non-Jewish campaigner against antisemitism — nearly fourteen months after the incident.

Mark had been arrested while holding a placard stating “Hamas are terrorists” in front of a Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) march in September 2024. He was accused of assaulting police officers while handcuffed, despite video evidence contradicting the police’s account.

Mark’s experience shows how anti-Israel activists have been able to weaponise policing against pro-Jewish voices.

Campaign Against Antisemitism is proud to have supported Mark throughout by providing legal support and representation.

Mark’s voice of solidarity would have been silenced. We will continue to support those who stand up for Jews in the UK and hold authorities to account.

Synagogue bomb hoaxer sent to prison

Days after the deadly Manchester synagogue terror attack, a hoax bomb threat was called in to a synagogue in Leeds.

The perpetrator has now been jailed for ten months.

Markel Ible, 32, called Sinai Synagogue in Roundhay, Leeds, four days after the attack, claiming that he had left a bomb in the building that would detonate the following day.

Mr Ible pleaded guilty to the charge of communicating false information via a bomb hoax.

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For more information, please visit antisemitism.org/jobs/education-and-outreach-officer.