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Opinion

You may be shocked by this antisemitism high but I doubt you'll be surprised

Jews and antisemitism never seemed to be out of the news all year, writes CST chief executive David Delew

February 5, 2020 18:08
Graffiti on the Oddbins off licence in Hampstead
1 min read

Not many JC readers will be surprised by CST’s latest antisemitic incident report.

You may be shocked by the new high of 1,805 incidents reported to CST during 2019, but I doubt you will be surprised, because Jews and antisemitism never seemed to be out of the news all year.

December summed it up for me. The rejection of Jeremy Corbyn in the General Election brought unprecedented communal relief, but just over two weeks later it seemed to come crashing down again, with outrage and upset caused by antisemitic graffiti daubed one night in Hampstead and Belsize Park.

Superficially, this was just an idiot or two with a paint pot: but it was much more than that.