By The Independent (World News) | Created at 2024-10-07 16:15:23 | Updated at 2024-10-07 18:19:24
2 hours ago
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The number of antisemitic incidents in the US reached its highest since 1979 in the 12 months since the terror attacks on October 7, new data has shown.
According to preliminary data collected by the Anti-Defamation League, there were more than 10,000 instances of antisemitism between October 7, 2023, and September 24, 2024.
These newly released figures represent more than a 200 percent increase compared to the incidents reported to the ADL during the same period a year before, which saw 3,325 incidents.
It is the highest number of incidents ever recorded in any single year since the ADL started tracking in 1979.
Exactly one year ago, some 1,200 people were killed after Hamas terrorists attacked a music festival in southern Israel, sparking conflict in the Middle East that has led to the death of more than 40,000 Palestinians.
“Today, we mourn the victims of the October 7 Hamas attack in Israel, marking one year since the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. From that day on, Jewish Americans haven’t had a single moment of respite,” said ADL chief executive Jonathan Greenblatt.
“Instead, we’ve faced a shocking number of antisemitic threats and experienced calls for more violence against Israelis and Jews everywhere.”
According to the ADL Center on Extremism, which gathers reports and tracks antisemitic incident data, the antisemitic incidents are broken down into three categories; verbal or written harassment, vandalism, and physical assault.
The center recorded that over the past 12 months, there were more than 8,015 incidents of verbal or written harassment, more than 1,840 incidents of vandalism, and more than 150 incidents of physical assault.
At least 1,200 of these antisemitic incidents happened on college campuses. In the same period a year before, ADL recorded about 200 incidents, representing a 500 percent increase.
More than 2,000 occurred at Jewish institutions such as synagogues and Jewish centers.
More than half of all incidents at Jewish institutions took the form of bomb threats, compared to just 81 bomb threats against Jewish institutions that were recorded in the same period in the prior year.
ADL’s preliminary data also found that more than 3,000 of all incidents took place during anti-Israel rallies, which featured regular explicit expressions of support for terrorist groups, including Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis [Yemen] and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
The ADL said that it expects these preliminary figures to increase as it receives more incident reports from partners, law enforcement, and victims.
Final data on antisemitic incidents for 2024 will be published in the spring of 2025.
