Religious hate crimes soar by up to 25% amid Israel-Palestine conflict

Religious hate crime rose by a quarter to record levels as offences against Jews and Muslims surged amid the Israel-Palestine conflict, official figures show. Antisemitic hate crime more than doubled, rising at almost nine times the rate of Islamophobic offences following the October 7 Hamas terror attacks on Israel.

There were a record 10,484 religious hate crime offences recorded by police in the year to March, a 25 per cent increase from 8,370 the previous year. The number of antisemitic hate crimes rose to 3,282 in the year to March 2024, a 113 per cent increase and the highest on record. 

Islamophobic hate incidents were up 13 per cent on the previous 12 months, hitting 3,866, also the highest on record for the Muslim community, according to government figures. 

The Home Office said the increase ‘was driven by a rise in hate crimes against Jewish people and to a lesser extent Muslims and has occurred since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas conflict’. It comes as other hate offences based on race, sexual orientation, disability or gender fell. The total number of hate crimes fell by five per cent to 140,561 in the year to March 2024.

Race-related offences still account for the majority of police-recorded hate crimes, which is consistent with previous years. They reached a high of 109,843 offences in the year ending March 2022, with the latest figure representing a fall of ten per cent since then, the Home Office said.

Offences against Jewish people accounted for a third – or 33 per cent – of all religious hate crimes in the last year, up from a fifth the previous year. Crimes against Muslims accounted for almost two in five of all religious hate crimes in the same period.

Offences spiked immediately after the Hamas terror attacks on October 7, with the most common hate crimes targeted against people from the two faiths being public fear, alarm or distress offences. Hate crimes are offences that are perceived to be motivated by hostility or prejudice based on somebody’s race, religion, sexual orientation, disability or being transgender.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper (pictured) described the ‘appalling’ levels of anti-Semitic and Islamophobic hate crimes as ‘a stain on our society’ and pledged to ‘work tirelessly to tackle this toxic hatred wherever it is found’. She said: ‘We must not allow events unfolding in the Middle East to play out in increased hatred and tension here on our streets, and those who push this poison – offline or online – must face the full force of the law.’

Cooper added: ‘The more than doubling of reported antisemitic hate crime and the significant increase in Islamophobic hate crime are very serious. We must have zero tolerance for antisemitism, Islamophobia and every other form of heinous hate in Britain, and we back the police in taking strong action against those targeting our communities.’

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