Sharp rise in West Yorkshire anti-semitic hate crimes

Anti-semitic hate crimes in West Yorkshire rose seven times higher than average in October, figures show

Reports of anti-semitic hate crimes have risen steeply in West Yorkshire in the wake of the Israel-Gaza war, figures have shown.

Police recorded 43 incidents in the county in October, the month the conflict began.

That was seven times higher than average, according to statistics obtained by the BBC.

Incidents commonly involved either verbal abuse or social media posts, an umbrella body for the Jewish community in Leeds said.

Susie Gordon, chief operating officer of the Leeds Jewish Representative Council, said: "Whenever anything happens in Israel, there's an automatic rise in anti-semitic attacks. There's always a correlation between the two."

Mrs Gordon gave an example of an anti-semitic image posted on a West Yorkshire-based online forum.

She said: "There was an image of a lion with a Palestinian flag around it eating a rat. Now, lions don't eat rats. What it is saying is, 'dirty vermin'."

The local Jewish community felt vulnerable as it was only small, with about 8,000 people, Mrs Gordon said.

She added that people were particularly self-conscious if they wore religious items such as skullcaps or Star of David emblems.

Susie Gordon, from Leeds Jewish Representative Council, said the city's Jewish population felt vulnerable

Mrs Gordon called for people to be more considerate and engage in dialogue with all sides when discussing the conflict.

She said: "We can't control what's happening in the Middle East. We can only control what's happening in the city and we all want to live in a city that's kind and multi-cultural.

"The only way to do that is to have dialogue, to really speak to each other and really listen to each other."

Rabbi Jason Kleiman, of the Beth Hamidrash Hagadol Synagogue in Leeds, said it was more important than ever that Jewish people in West Yorkshire felt they could express their faith during Hanukkah, or the Festival of Lights, which runs from 7 to 15 December this year.

He told BBC Radio Leeds that "for some people there's a sense of fear of being as public as we normally would be" because of tensions over the conflict.

Alison Lowe, West Yorkshire's deputy mayor for policing and crime, said there was "absolutely no place for hate in West Yorkshire".

“Jewish and Muslim communities have the right to feel safe in our region and I have been working with the Mayor and community leaders to provide reassurance," she added.

Ms Lowe said she was monitoring the number of reported hate crime incidents closely.

Reassurance patrols

Hate crimes can include a variety of incidents, such as physical assaults, verbal abuse or incitements to violence posted online.

The figures seen by the BBC were obtained through a Freedom of Information request.

They showed that from January 2018 to September 2023, police received an average of six anti-semitic hate crime reports each month.

In October of this year, that figure jumped to 43.

The statistics also showed a slight rise in the number of hate crimes directed towards Muslims, with 26 reports in October.

That compared with a monthly average of 21 in the five years from January 2018 to September 2023.

The figures also showed that from 2018 to 2022, Muslims were the target of more hate crimes in West Yorkshire than any other religious group.

All the figures seen by the BBC only showed hate crimes which were reported to police.

A spokesperson for West Yorkshire Police said the force had increased patrols "to provide reassurance".

He said: "Any rise in hate crime is a concern and our officers are continuing to engage with their communities, particularly during the current Israel and Hamas conflict."

He urged both victims and witnesses to report any offences.

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