Via CST:
EXPLICIT antisemitism against Jews per se, simply for their being Jewish, remains rare in British public life and within mainstream political media discourse.
In 2014, CST received an unprecedented number of reports of antisemitic incidents. This was due to levels of antisemitism during the relatively lengthy conflict in July and August, between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and southern Israel.
Levels of antisemitic discourse are far harder to consistently observe and measure, than quantitative antisemitic incidents and hate crimes. Nevertheless, many people contacted CST (and other Jewish organisations), expressing their feelings that the conflict was creating a climate of unusually heightened antipathy and hostility to British Jews. Numerous newspaper columnists and other public commentators voiced the same concerns, stating that the public mood against Jews had never before felt as it did.
This was the first conflict involving Israel at a time when social media is all pervading, more so (especially Twitter) than during the last major conflict between Israel and Hamas in 2009. This resulted in a quicker spread of antisemitic discourse, threats and themes than previously seen during any such conflict: visible to witnesses, perpetrators and victims. For example, the hashtag #Hitlerwasright trended on Twitter, was portrayed on placards and was shouted in verbal abuse against Jews.
In Britain, the use of Nazism to attack Israel, Zionists and Jews was the dominant antisemitic theme during the conflict, in both discourse and incidents reported to CST. Calling British Jews child or baby killers was the second most common theme in antisemitic incidents. It is impossible to prove what role - if any - this old antisemitic theme of Jews as child killers played in mainstream media coverage of the conflict, or in widespread political activism during it.
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