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Home Office raises grant for protection of Jewish institutions by £600,000

Sajid Javid says it is 'totally unacceptable that antisemitic incidents are at a record high in Britain'

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The Home Office has raised its grant for the protection of Jewish institutions by £600,000 in the wake of last year’s record number of antisemitic incidents in the UK.

Home Secretary Sajid Javid announced the government would allocate £14 million for the security of synagogues, schools and other Jewish centres - up from £13.4 million last year.

Speaking at the Community Security Trust dinner in London on Wednesday, he said it was “totally unacceptable that antisemitic incidents are at a record high in Britain. They have absolutely no place in modern day society and we all need to act”.

More than a hundred antisemitic incidents a month were reported to the CST, producing a total of 1,652 for 2018.

The government’s new pledge will bring the amount it has allocated to the Jewish Community Protective Security Grant to £65.2 million since its introduction in 2015.

Mr Javid said he was “committed to doing everything in my power to ensure Britain does not become a safe haven for anyone who supports violence or abuse against Jewish people”.

CST chief executive David Delew said it was “extremely grateful to the Home Secretary for announcing a further year of increased funding to protect Jewish schools and other sites.”

He added that, at a time of rising Jew-hate, “this vital support will give renewed reassurance to the Jewish community that we do not stand alone”.

Mr Javid was expected to pin the blame at his speech on Wednesday for the rise in antisemitism on mob mentality and on internet trolling for normalising radical behavioiur.

His forthcoming white paper on online harm would set out measures to compel tech companies to do more to protect citizens in order to help clean up “the darkest corners of the internet”.

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