Government-backed report finds antisemitism ‘increasingly normalized’ in the UK

Among its many recommendations is to revamp the authorities’ approach to antisemitic crimes.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

A newly published, government-backed report found that antisemitism is becoming “increasingly normalized” in the UK and demanded immediate action to combat the phenomenon.

Lord John Mann, the Labour government’s independent antisemitism adviser, and former Conservative defense secretary Dame Penny Mordaunt took on a six-month-long investigation commissioned by the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the Jewish community’s primary umbrella group.

“We heard about the noisy demonstrations and how intimidating people find the current environment, but as we dug deeper, what really scared us was the increasing normalization of far more extreme, personalized and sometimes life-changing impact directed at individuals purely and simply because they are Jewish,” the distinguished peers said in an interview in The Telegraph Saturday.

Antisemitism was particularly prevalent in the National Health System (NHS), higher education and the arts, they found.

“Many Jewish employees within NHS organizations” felt that their complaints of abuse by colleagues were being “swept under the carpet,” they said, while such cases skyrocketed.

On college campuses, like in the U.S., there were record numbers of students and faculty being threatened and even physically assaulted.

Leading unions in both fields have passed anti-Israel resolutions, which Jewish members felt were antisemitic.

In the arts, a field replete with progressive proponents who have adopted the pro-Palestinian narrative, the researchers found “substantial evidence” of Jewish performers being “cancelled” and suffering discrimination.

British musicians have recently unleashed antisemitic outbursts, leading audiences of thousands in chants against Israel. Even as Prime Minister Keir Starmer called it “appalling hate speech,” no legal action has been taken against them to date.

Of particular concern to the authors is how the police are responding to the fact that British Jews are often being “held responsible for the actions of the Israeli government,” and antisemitic incidents have exploded.

Since Oct. 7, there have been almost weekly demonstrations against the Jewish state in London.

The Community Security Trust, a Jewish non-profit dedicated to community protection, has consistently highlighted the authorities’ lenient treatment of anti-Israel protestors, failing to make arrests even in cases of violence, intimidation of passersby, defacement of public property with graffiti, or unpermitted demonstrations.

The report, among its 10 recommendations to combat anti-Jewish prejudice, suggested a complete overhaul of the authorities’ approach to antisemitic crimes.

The report stated that there must be “a consistent standard and understanding of anti-Semitism across all police forces throughout the country,” defining Jew-hatred as “a form of racism.”

Another recommendation was that Judaism should be nationally recognized as an ethnicity as well as a religion so that anti-discrimination and anti-hate laws can be more easily applied to offenders.

A third proposal suggested that all employers should require their workers to undergo a “Anti-Semitism Training Qualification” to help them identify when their behavior may exceed acceptable limits.

“If Britain’s Jewish community is experiencing discrimination, it is evidence of a profound failure within British society itself,” said Mann and Mordant, who noted that they come from opposite sides of the political aisle but were equally “stunned into silence” over the results of their research.

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner “welcomed” the Board of Deputies’ Commission on Antisemitism when it was announced in November and vowed to “look closely at its recommendations as part of our work to keep communities safe.”

anti-Israel protestsBoard of Deputies of British JewsDiscriminationGreat BritainUK antisemitism