Wiesenthal Center Urges Leaders To Act Against Increasing Tide Of Antisemitic Attacks In U.K.

August 31, 2006

WIESENTHAL CENTER URGES LEADERS TO ACT AGAINST INCREASING TIDE OF ANTISEMITIC ATTACKS IN U.K.

12-year old girl beaten unconscious on a London bus yesterday as fellow passengers sit passively as British Jews prepare for the High Holy Days, “they have little to celebrate”

With this month’s observance of the Jewish New Year  and the marking of 350 years of the re-entry of Jews into England, the Simon Wiesenthal Center is expressing extreme concern about in increase in antisemitic hate crimes in the U.K., which culminated in an incident on a London public bus where a 12-year-old Jewish girl, after being asked her religion, was beaten into unconsciousness by 7 youths. According to reports, no one on the bus, including the driver, came to her rescue.

“This shocking hate crime is just the latest in an increase in antisemitic activities in Britain that include spray-paint vandalism on a synagogue, verbal abuse and hate-mails,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Wiesenthal Center. “When we take into account  the fact that the recent thwarting of a mega-terrorist attack by British-born Islamicists raises the fear of a backlash against the Jewish community and also the fact that London’s mayor, Ken Livingstone, has made it crystal clear that he is more interested in embracing terrorist proponents like Sheikh Qaradawi than dealing with antisemitism” he adding that “it is painfully clear that British Jewry has little to celebrate  with the coming New Year and the marking of the upcoming 350th Anniversary of their readmittance into England.”

“The situation is further exacerbated by the litany of one-sided attacks against Israel by respected NGOs and religious leaders in wake of the Hezbollah war,” Cooper said.

Rabbi Cooper noted that when there was a spike in anti-Jewish hate crimes in France, there was a concerted public effort in word and deed by Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy to take on the antisemites in France leading to a sharp decrease in such attacks.

“We hope that authorities in Britain will do the same to aggressively confront the ugliness of antisemitism in all its nefarious manifestations,” Cooper concluded.

This horrific development spurred the All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Anti-Semitism, co-written by fourteen British lawmakers and presented to British Prime Minister Tony Blair.  The Report’s thirty recommendations included asking the British government to provide greater security for Jewish institutions. According to the Times of London, the report confirmed that “antisemitic violence has become endemic in Britain, both on the streets and university campuses.”

The Sunday Telegraph pointed to recruitment of Muslim students on British campuses to take part in terrorist attacks. This included one university student who was suspected of having links to the foiled plot to blow up transatlantic flights. In addition tapes made by al-Muhajiroun, a disbanded terrorist group, were also discovered.  Al-Muhajiroun, headed by radical London cleric Omar Makri Mohammed, had ties to last year’s July 7th terrorist attacks in London and is currently exiled in Lebanon.  Makri Mohammed is featured in the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s documentary, Ever Again.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE and the Council of Europe. For more information, please contact the Center's Public Relations Department, 310-553-9036.