Hate crimes against Jews in England and Wales doubled in past year
Government figures also show increase in targeting of individuals based on their sexual orientation
The number of reported hate crimes against Jews in England and Wales doubled in the past year, according to government statistics reported Tuesday by The Guardian.
Some 1,326 hate crimes targeted Jews, compared to 672 offenses last year. Attacks on Jews made up 18 percent of the year’s religious-based hate crimes, according to statistics from the UK’s Home Office.
In one account recorded by the Citizens UK community organizing group, a Jewish student in her 20s named Alicia was walking through Manchester when two men approached her and said, “We need you to run our business. We need a Jew to run our business because the Jews have all the money.”
She tried walking away, but one of the men proceeded to assault and sexually harass her. “If you can’t run our business, you can at least fuck me,” Alicia recalled him saying.
The 3,530 attacks on Muslims made up 47% of religious-based hate crime offenses, a similar figure to that recorded last year.
The overall number of hate crimes in England and Wales has more than doubled since 2013, to a total number of 103,379.
The majority of hate crimes in 2018-2019, 78,991, were described as racially based, but attacks on individuals due to their sexual orientation also saw a notable increase of 25%.
The Home Office said that the rise in offenses is partially due to improvement by authorities in crime reporting. However, the increase is also correlated to major national events such as terror attacks and the Brexit vote, according to the government office.
