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00:05I've been called a baby killer, I've been spat on, had a death threat, while walking along the street.
00:10There's been a big rise in anti-Semitic hate in the UK over recent years.
00:16We're getting it in schools, we're getting it in hospitals, we're getting it in workplaces.
00:21So for a lot of Jewish people it feels like there's no escape from this.
00:26Offensive, age-old stereotypes are being widely circulated.
00:30You only have to look at social media for about three minutes to see the old tropes.
00:36Jews control the media, Jews control the world, Jews have all the wealth.
00:44Protests against Israel's actions in Gaza have fuelled fears about hate speech.
00:49It's almost common ground now that it's okay to stir up hatred against Israelis.
00:54And of course it's a very quick step from hating Israelis to Zionists to Jews.
01:01Some Jews say things are now so bad they're even thinking of leaving the country.
01:18I think of that day as a very terrible day that has left and a very deep mark on the
01:25community.
01:28Six months ago I was in Manchester to report on a deadly attack at a synagogue.
01:35Manchester police are saying they're at the scene of a reported stabbing.
01:45As worshippers gathered for Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar,
01:50Jihad al-Shammy, a man pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group,
01:55drove his car into a security guard before attacking people outside Heaton Park synagogue with a knife.
02:03There's very brave men on the day who tried to stop our attacker and succeeded in stopping our attacker in
02:12making entry into the synagogue.
02:14We were holding onto the doors and the doors were buckling.
02:18Yoni Finlay was at the synagogue that day.
02:22And I could see a very large, very angry person trying his best to break into the synagogue itself.
02:30He had a very large knife, incredibly large blade, and what looked like a bomb around his waist.
02:38I know he was shouting things. I think he was talking about Gaza and talking about this is for killing
02:45the babies.
02:46When police shot the attacker dead, Yoni was hit by a stray bullet.
02:53You were in no doubt when you saw him what this was about.
02:56There's been so much hatred and so much anger towards the Jewish community for something that's happening thousands of miles
03:03away.
03:04You're allowed to criticise the government. You're allowed to criticise the country.
03:07But when the actions and the words and the hatred that you show spills over into actions like what happened
03:16at Heaton Park on that morning,
03:17that's a very different story.
03:22Two members of the congregation were killed in the attack.
03:26Melvin Kravitz was stabbed.
03:30Adrian Dolby is believed to have been killed by the same police bullet that hit Yoni.
03:37Three people were seriously injured.
03:47I know those who died are still very much in your thoughts when you come here, aren't they?
03:53Yes, very much so.
03:54So, yes, two seats sit vacant.
03:58So I can't walk in here without remembering them.
04:01And I want to remember them.
04:03But, yeah, their presence is always hit.
04:07And I know that the gap their families are feeling is a huge and terrible one.
04:17Greater Manchester is home to the second largest Jewish community in the UK.
04:23It's my faith and community too.
04:26People here are feeling vulnerable.
04:30A lot of the Jewish community in general find ourselves questioning our security and how safe we are.
04:38We were living behind fences. Our fences are now higher.
04:42Our defences are now more impregnable.
04:45And that's a good thing. We need it. We're grateful for it.
04:51But it's an expression of the fear which is there in the back of all of our minds.
04:59Last year, there were around 10,000 religiously motivated hate crimes recorded by police in England and Wales.
05:07The Muslim community is more than 10 times larger than the Jewish community.
05:12And it was the single most targeted group with a spike in Islamophobic hate crime after the Southport knife attack.
05:20Yet when it comes to per head of population, Jews experienced more than eight times as many hate crime incidents
05:28as Muslims.
05:34I wear my Star of David everywhere, pretty much. I always have.
05:37When I've been out and about, especially going into London, I've been spat out. I've been called a baby killer.
05:42I've been called racist. I've had various sort of slurs like Zio.
05:48This man started screaming and shouting at us, telling us that we were dirty Jews.
05:54I've had a death threat where someone has said, oh, you all deserve to die just for having my Star
05:59of David on.
06:06As you walk around areas like this, are you observing people taking greater precautions?
06:13So we're encouraging people to carry on living their lives, but to be more alert, more aware of the need
06:18for security.
06:20Dave Rich is Director of Policy at the Community Security Trust, or CST, a charity providing security and advice to
06:29Jewish schools, organisations and synagogues across Britain.
06:34It also monitors and receives reports of anti-Semitism, prejudice against and hatred towards Jews.
06:42Last year, the CST recorded 3,700 incidents of malicious acts aimed at Jewish people or organisations.
06:51It's happening across the country. It's affecting Jewish people of all different backgrounds and ages and status.
06:58So the whole community is feeling this.
07:00I think what's changed is that we're now seeing it in parts of society where it was never present and
07:05never a problem before.
07:06So we're getting it in schools, we're getting it in hospitals, we're getting it in workplaces.
07:11So for a lot of Jewish people, it feels like there's no escape from this.
07:18In March, the government launched an independent review into anti-Semitism in schools and colleges in England.
07:25And there's concern about anti-Semitism on university campuses.
07:31My name is Avital. At my university, there have been a number of protests with megaphones, have been shouting that
07:41Zionists should get off of our campus.
07:43I've walked past the student union where there's been chalk on the floor with phrases such as apartheid on our
07:51campus, get the Zionists off of our campus.
07:54For students to have to live in any level of fear about their identity being questioned by other students is
08:06horrible.
08:08The government has also carried out a review into concerns about anti-Semitism and other forms of racism in the
08:15NHS.
08:17My name's Laura and I'm a midwife and I work in the community in London.
08:22I think because there's been so much activism around sort of anti-Israel, anti-Zionist sentiment, that makes us feel
08:32very unsafe, it makes us feel very unwelcome.
08:35And there has been also direct personal, you know, abuse online directed towards myself and other Jewish birth workers.
08:48As concerns over anti-Semitism have grown, security around schools, synagogues and community centres has increased.
08:58Going to synagogue, there will be police all around the area.
09:02Especially if it's a festival, police will walk you to the troop station to make sure that you're safe.
09:07There will be police inside the synagogue.
09:10And even though it's meant to make you feel safe, it doesn't.
09:18Increased security hasn't stopped attacks spreading fear throughout the Jewish community.
09:25Last week, two London synagogues and the former premises of a Jewish charity were targeted in attempted arson attacks.
09:35It followed an earlier incident at a Jewish medical charity, Hat Soller.
09:40The volunteer-run emergency service provides free care for anyone in the area.
09:48Four ambulances were destroyed.
09:53Massive, massive blast.
09:55I can see where the ground is scorched and the glass still here.
10:00Yeah, what you're looking at really is the charred remains.
10:03Three men and a teenager have been charged with arson.
10:07This is now on our doorstep.
10:10This is bang smack in the middle of a densely populated Jewish community.
10:15And it was never like that before.
10:16What was happening in the Middle East kind of stayed in the Middle East.
10:19I think what's happened since, since perhaps October the 7th, I think since that time those barriers are down.
10:27And now a Jew in Jerusalem is as vulnerable as a Jew in London or anywhere else in the world.
10:34The CST says reports of anti-Semitic incidents in the UK rise in the aftermath of significant attacks like Heaton
10:43Park.
10:46And the mass shooting on Australia's Bondi Beach, where 15 people were killed at a Hanukkah celebration.
10:57On October the 7th, 2023, Hamas attacked Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage.
11:09The war in Gaza that followed has seen more than 72,000 Palestinians killed by Israeli military action, according to
11:18the Hamas-run Health Ministry.
11:19Free, free, free!
11:28Tens of thousands, including Jews, have taken to the streets to protest against Israeli action in Gaza and show support
11:36for Palestinians.
11:37Palestine will be free!
11:43Some chants and placards have left many British Jews feeling under threat.
11:53According to some protesters, Globalize the Intifada is a call for an uprising against injustice.
12:00But for many Jews it's seen as a call for violent action against them wherever they are.
12:08So I was at Waterloo Station with a friend of mine and a massive amount of pro-Palestinian protesters came
12:16to the station
12:16and they just started screaming and waving flags and shouting about the Intifada.
12:22I was completely terrified and I ran to the back of the bookstore with my friend and just couldn't leave.
12:30There are plenty of people who go on those marches who would say they are absolutely not anti-Semitic.
12:37What do you say to them?
12:38I'm sure a lot of people who go on these marches, they're there for human rights reasons, they're there because
12:44they want peace.
12:48But they're also on a march where there are other people who are expressing anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.
12:54They're claiming Jews or Zionists control the government, they're supporting Hamas, they're calling for Intifada,
13:01they're calling for armed struggle, violent resistance and so on.
13:04People in the Jewish community look at this and that's what leads people to feel real fear about the marches
13:10as a whole.
13:10Five, six, seven, eight!
13:15The Palestine Solidarity Campaign and the Stop the War Coalition have helped organise many of the marches.
13:22Defend the right to protest! Defend the right to protest!
13:27Two of their leaders, who were recently convicted of breaching protest conditions, have previously given evidence to Parliament.
13:36I think there's a tiny minority of people who have had placards that we challenge.
13:44And we have an operation with our hundreds of stewards to try and make sure that anyone who does this,
13:51anyone who holds placards or flags or anything that could be construed as liable to be inciting hatred or of
14:06prescribed organisations are talked to and are removed.
14:09And that's been a very effective operation.
14:11Israel's a country like any other with a government and an army and, of course, as such, should be subject
14:17to scrutiny.
14:19But what we hear too often is Jewish people in Britain being held responsible for what the Israeli government has
14:25done.
14:25And that's where people's criticism or hostility or opposition to Israel translates into harassment of Jewish people, blaming Jewish people.
14:35The Palestine Solidarity Campaign said in a statement, endorsed by the Stop the War Coalition,
14:42that it unequivocally condemns anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and all forms of discrimination.
14:48And it rejects any suggestion that its marches constitute harassment of Jewish people.
14:56Senior Rabbi Julia Neuberger believes criticism of Israel can be used as a smokescreen for anti-Semitism.
15:05There are people who say that accusations of anti-Semitism are a way of stifling criticism of Israel.
15:14There are people saying that.
15:16And sometimes, only sometimes, they may be even right.
15:20But mostly what happens is people use the cover of criticising the actions of the Israeli government to be anti
15:28-Semitic.
15:29And that's where the confusion lies.
15:33Since 2023, more than 3,500 people have been arrested on pro-Palestinian protests and marches, nearly 3,000 of
15:43them in London.
15:45Jonathan Hall is the government's independent reviewer of terrorism and state threats legislation.
15:51I think the evidence is in now. There is open hatred on the streets.
15:56So the Jewish community's right to ask for that to be stopped.
16:00I wrestle with this point because I can imagine things that I would want to protest about all the time.
16:06But I also think now, applying the precautionary principle,
16:10I think they are right to ask for society to step in and do something to stop that hatred.
16:19There's also concern about anti-Semitism being spread online.
16:23The Centre for Countering Digital Hate says its research shows some social media platforms have become hubs of anti-Semitism,
16:32where algorithms normalise hatred of Jews, spread conspiracy theories and glorify the Nazis with little or no accountability.
16:43Daniel Finkelstein's grandmother was murdered by the Nazis.
16:47His grandfather set up the Wiener Holocaust Library.
16:52To see the same things that produced the Holocaust, the same ideas, the conspiracy thinking,
16:59the sort of taunting of Jewish people, that is very disturbing.
17:04Hello everybody, how are you doing?
17:06This is far-right political commentator Nick Fuentes.
17:11Handler was a pedophile and kind of a pagan.
17:15It's like, well, he was also really f***ing cool.
17:19When Daniel Finkelstein decided to call him out, the American then turned on him,
17:25mocking the death of his family in the Holocaust, in which six million Jews were murdered.
17:31This old British guy is saying, me mum got killed by Hitler and me dad got killed by...
17:35Because he doesn't find it funny when you say Hitler's very f***ing cool.
17:38I don't care, I don't care.
17:39Others then created more online content based on what Fuentes had said, even turning it into songs.
17:53There were thousands of messages and it went on for day after day after day,
17:58and it's in everything that I do or say online.
18:02So, things that have nothing to do with politics will be suffused with messages about the Holocaust or about Jews.
18:09What has the online world done to anti-Semitism?
18:14And the thing that's happened is the growth of a media that hasn't got any gatekeepers.
18:19So, the spread of racism from one person to another, the spread of Holocaust denial,
18:26which you might otherwise have had to sell someone under the counter and you couldn't admit to,
18:32and was therefore quite small.
18:34That becomes much easier. It's much easier for niche opinions to reach mass audiences.
18:40You only have to look at social media for about three minutes to see the old tropes.
18:46So, the tropes about Jews control the media, Jews control the world, Jews have all the wealth.
18:53You know, it's that echo chamber, echo chamber, echo chamber.
18:57Once you've read it on social media, it must be right.
19:00So, the tropes about Jews are repeated so people begin to believe it.
19:09These tropes would play a role in a violent kidnapping.
19:15In 2024, Itai Kashti, a London-based Israeli music producer, received an email from what looked like a record company,
19:24inviting him to a songwriting camp in the Welsh countryside.
19:29When he arrived, the taxi driver helped him in with his luggage.
19:34So, we went into the cottage.
19:37Inside there waited three men, all masked up, so I couldn't see their faces or know who they are.
19:46And they started hitting me straight away.
19:50It was like a horror film.
19:52They said to me that they will hurt me even more if I try to escape.
19:58Yeah.
20:00And then they used these handcuffs on me to kind of keep me there.
20:07Itai's abductors wrongly believed.
20:09Because he was Jewish, he was rich.
20:11And they planned to extort money from him or his family.
20:15But their plan failed.
20:17When Itai was left alone, he managed to free himself and escape.
20:22Went out of the cottage and I was covered in blood and my shirt was completely torn.
20:27I was frightened to death.
20:29The taxi driver, who'd escaped during the struggle, alerted police.
20:33We were under arrest and suspicion of GBH, of kidnap and unlawful imprisonment.
20:40Sentencing Itai's three attackers, the judge concluded they were motivated by racial and religious hostility.
20:48There was a lot of prejudice against Jewish people in general and Israel in particular.
20:56And people may like or not like their politics the same way I don't like the politics in Israel.
21:02You know, it's fine.
21:06You can like or dislike the politics in a country.
21:10But it doesn't mean you need to judge the individual people that come out of it on that basis.
21:16Cases like Itai Kashti's are extreme and rare.
21:20But there are fears that anti-Semitism is being normalised and that in turn could pave the way for serious
21:28violence and even terror.
21:31There's a principle in national security called the precautionary principle.
21:34No-one can say for sure that any particular protest or march or expression of anti-Semitism in the public
21:41sphere has led to a particular attack.
21:44But there's obviously a coincidence now between an extraordinary amount of anti-Semitism in the public domain and those really,
21:53really grievous attacks.
21:54I think that hatred in the public sphere towards Jews has made them more acceptable as a target for terrorism.
22:05Counter-terror police say they're seeing an increase in activity against the Jewish community.
22:13We've definitely seen a rise in both anti-Semitic hate crime and how that plays through to counter-terrorist activity
22:21as well.
22:22And the rhetoric that comes from ISIS and other terrorist organisations shows a clear intent to target Jewish communities.
22:32In February, three men were jailed for a total of 69 years for their part in an Islamic State group
22:39-inspired terror plot to target the Jewish community in North Manchester.
22:44It would have been an absolutely devastating attack, probably one of the worst the UK has seen for many, many
22:50years.
22:52In January 2024, a march was held in Manchester to protest against anti-Semitism.
22:58Yoni Finlay, who, a year later, would be injured in the attack on Heaton Park Synagogue, was on the march.
23:06It was a march against anti-Semitism, but it was a very peaceful march.
23:10We weren't there to have we go anybody, to be angry.
23:15If you look at the flags that were displayed, there were Israeli flags, yes, but there were also British flags
23:21because we are British Jews.
23:23The gang plotted to attack the next march.
23:26Two individuals were seeking to buy automatic firearms with the sole intent of going to crowded and highly populated Jewish
23:36areas of Manchester and killing people.
23:42I'm arresting you on suspicion of being a terrorist.
23:45Do you understand the caution?
23:48The gang was stopped by an undercover officer who'd infiltrated the group.
23:58Following the attack on the Heaton Park Synagogue, the Home Secretary questioned whether the laws in England and Wales were
24:06sufficient.
24:07Some changes were already underway.
24:09A bill is currently going through Parliament to give police more powers to protect places of worship and monuments.
24:17An independent review is also being carried out into public order and hate crime laws.
24:23It's looking at the balance between the right to protest on the one hand and the need to protect communities
24:30on the other.
24:31It's due to be completed by the end of May.
24:34But there are those who believe that existing laws are adequate.
24:38The challenge is for the police to enforce them.
24:41I think that there has been undue caution in using the law as it currently is.
24:48I think you cannot understate the public interest in removing real violent, hostile antisemitism from the public sphere.
25:00I say that from the position of national security.
25:02I mean, there are lots of other reasons to do it as well.
25:04But because of the potential impact on targeting of Jews in terrorist attacks and also recruitment by hostile states of
25:10proxy actors,
25:12it seems to me the public interest is so high that the police and the Crown Prosecution Service need to
25:18see this as a real priority.
25:21We work very hard with Crown Prosecution Service.
25:24Where people do break the law, we will put all of our investigative effort into dealing with that, wherever that
25:31law-breaking might sit.
25:33It has been said to us that if those marches had been policed more firmly earlier on,
25:42that the Jewish community would not be feeling under threat in the way they are now.
25:46We are acutely aware of the concerns they have, the fears they hold.
25:51We work incredibly hard to try and get that balance right.
25:57It's been very difficult for the police themselves.
25:59What do you take issue with? Where is the borderline?
26:04Where people are feeling threatened doesn't necessarily mean you should inhibit freedom of speech.
26:10When it's real hate directed at people, that is clearly hate speech and I think there we ought to act
26:17and act quickly.
26:18Since the attacks of October the 7th and Israel's response, community leaders say it's becoming harder to have dialogue between
26:27faiths.
26:29Interfaith work has become incredibly more difficult and it's a shame.
26:33I think a lot of Jews are quite frightened of making those relationships with Muslims and Christians.
26:41And there's increasing nervousness, unwillingness, unhappiness, particularly amongst Muslims, but to some extent amongst Christians too, about entering this dialogue.
26:53One of the beauties of our society was that we believed that we had the right to have hugely different
27:00opinions and to disagree entirely over very fundamental things and yet still to do so with respect and with tolerance.
27:09I think we're losing that society as a whole.
27:15A survey for the Institute for Jewish Policy Research suggests around one in five British Jews are thinking about leaving
27:23for Israel in the next five years.
27:27Rabbi Walker is determined to stay put.
27:32Whilst recognising that things are not okay, I am relentlessly positive and I choose to believe that the good will
27:42do what needs doing and that society will become a better place.
27:48I hope and I pray that I am right.
27:50With instability continuing in the Middle East, faith leaders say it's okay to disagree and to do so passionately, but
28:00there should be no place for hate directed towards anyone.
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