A staggering 77 percent of respondents to a survey conducted by the firm Survation for Jewish News and the Jewish Leadership Council, said they now felt “much less safe” (46.4 per cent) or “somewhat less safe” ( 30.7 percent) living in this country following the murder and hostage taking of Jews in Israel.
The growing insecurity of the community in the UK is shown to have been compounded by a growing distrust of institutions such as the BBC, the UK university authorities and with the police.
In response to a question about the BBC and how it was perceived 64% said they trusted the corporation “less” than they did before the Hamas terror attacks.
This result would assem to confirm the widespread belief within the community that the BBC’s coverage of the current war by Israel on Hamas in Gaza has not been fair and does not reflect the Israel that the community know.
Similarly in response to their attitude to British university authorities 58 per cent said they trust them less than they did prior to October 7th, a result which would seem to confirm that Jewish families feel not enough is being done to stem rising antisemitic sentiment on campuses.
According to the results of the poll undertaken in November, 50% of British Jews say that following the Hamas attacks they trust the police less than they did.
Quizzed about the impact on them of antisemitism, the polls suggests 89% of British Jews think it has grown in the last five years, with two thirds (71%) of those surveyed suggest it has increased a lot in this period.
The poll also revealed that many British Jews have personally experienced or witnessed antisemitic attacks in the last year. The survey revealed 15% said they have personally experienced a verbal attack, while 14% had experienced online attack, with the majority of these coming post-October 7th.
The poll also underlined the huge significance of Israel for the UK’s Jewish population, with 9 in 10 respondents (89%) saying the state of Israel is important for the security of Jewish people around the world
