The number of Jewish residents considering leaving London is increasing daily in response to targeted hostility, Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) warned Monday.
The group has exposed a series of antisemitic attacks in the capital amid reports of increasing nervousness among Jewish people about their safety, the London Evening Standard reports.
CAA chief executive Gideon Falter said an earlier opinion survey had already shown about half of Jewish people were considering moving abroad and the trend was growing because of continuing hostility from sections of the community.
He said examples ranged from threats made to MPs and outside Parliament to antisemitism in universities and attacks on the streets, as well as the impact of Gaza protest marches involving incidents of antisemitism and support for Hamas terrorism regularly seen on the streets of Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan’s London.
“We are aware of people now who have left the country. It’s the biggest untold story, the effect it’s having on Jewish families of mass intimidation. The cumulative effect is pretty devastating,” he told the outlet.
News of the departures came on the same day a pro-Palestine protester told a lone Jewish man everyone should “beat the f**k” out of him as the police allegedly stood watching on.
The footage, shared on social media, shows a group of pro-Palestine protesters chanting “Free, Free, Palestine” multiple times before being one man starts insulting Joseph Cohen in a central London park.
One man then called him a “f***ing Jew” and a “terrorist” before shouting “f*** you Israel” while another member of the group then said “everybody should beat the f**k out of you”.
Falter added British life is changing by the day and Jewish people are particularly being the focus of unwanted attention:
Since October 7, we have seen antisemitism skyrocket in all areas of British life. On our streets, on campuses, online, in workplaces and elsewhere, we are seeing regular expressions of anti-Jewish vitriol, and even violence. Jewish children are being told to hide their school blazers, Jewish students are being terrorised on campus, synagogues are guarded, kosher shops are being attacked, business owners are being threatened.
The effect is that, as our polling shows, a majority of Jewish people in this country are afraid to show their Jewishness in public. This is not the tolerant Britain that we cherish — it is a Britain succumbing to a racist mob.
According to the Standard report, last month by the Community Security Trust, which collects data on antisemitic hate crimes, found there were 4,103 incidents of “anti-Jewish hate” in the UK in 2023, a 147 percent rise on the previous year.
The rise mirrors attacks happening against Jewish communities in other parts of Europe.
It said that two-thirds of the total had been after October 7, with 416 in the week after the Hamas attack in an indication that the surge was “a celebration” of the terror group’s actions rather than a reaction to Israel’s ground offensive, which began three weeks later.
The trust added that 2,410 of the antisemitic hate crimes recorded last year were in London, nearly 60 percent of the total and well over double the 923 such incidents in the capital in 2022.
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