In an unprecedented move, the British government this week plans to release new “stand-alone” figures for anti-Semitic crimes.
This past July the Jewish Community Security Trust (CST) watchdog organization recorded 727 anti-Semitic incidents in the first six months of 2018, the second-highest ever recorded for that period, although the figures reflected a drop of eight percent from the same period in 2017.
The attacks were perpetrated against children as young as 11 years old, and lawmakers were attacked when they spoke out against the perpetrators. CST CEO David Delew said when releasing the report, “This antisemitism is not a random event; it reflects the state of British politics and wider society. Each month we are seeing over 100 antisemitic incidents and many more go unreported.”
Of those, 34 of the incidents included explicit references to the Labour Party led by Jeremy Corbyn.
A supporter of Corbyn’s party, 69 year old Frid Milani of Wembley, was charged Friday with sending an anti-Semitic email in March 2018 to Labour’s Lord Michael Levy, according to a report in the Evening Standard, West End edition.
Milani is accused of writing: “I see that you dare to criticize the Labour leader. Who the hell are you to comment on Jeremy Corbyn? You are just another Jewish pig, bloodsucker living on taxpayer money. What are you doing in this country anyway? Why don’t you piss off to Israel? We don’t need Jewish bastards like you in this country.”
Corbyn was shown the email that same week, but he did not condemn it. In fact, he ignored it.
At the time, Levy accused Corbyn of not taking anti-Semitism seriously enough, saying, “There has to be a ‘zero tolerance’ policy. Enough words… I have never received such a disgusting email.”
Milani was due to appear in Magistrate’s Court last Wednesday to face a charge of sending an offensive message under the 2003 Communications Act, according to the report, but failed to show up. A warrant has been issued for his arrest.
Three of Britain’s Jewish newspapers banded together this past July to warn readers this past summer that a government led by Corbyn would post an “existential threat” to British Jews. And at the start of September, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, former Chief Rabbi of Britain, warned that many of country’s estimated 300,000 Jews are already contemplating a mass exodus due to the rising tide of anti-Semitism.
Sacks told the BBC, “When people hear the kind of language that’s been coming out of Labour, they cannot but feel an existential threat… I had to issue a warning – anti-Semitism has returned to mainland Europe within living memory of the Holocaust.”