Jewish schools across England are taking extra precautions to protect their staff and students after the attack on Israel, as the body that provides security advice to Jewish communities in the UK said it had recorded 89 antisemitic incidents between Saturday and Tuesday.
Extra security patrols have been posted at school gates, and trips and after-school detentions have been cancelled.
Several schools said they had carried out “invacuation” drills, where pupils practise sheltering in safe areas or reinforced rooms in the event of a threat. Pupils have been told to avoid wearing identifying school uniform on public transport.
The Community Security Trust reported that the number of antisemitic incidents in the four days from Saturday morning had increased by 324% compared with the same period last year.
“This is a provisional total that is almost certain to increase further as we receive more delayed reports of incidents covering this period, and while we continue to verify and log all the reports that we have currently received,” the CST said.
“Make no mistake: these are anti-Jewish racist incidents and hate crimes in which Jewish people, property and institutions are singled out for hate, including death threats and abuse.
“In many cases, the perpetrators of these disgraceful incidents are using the symbols and language of pro-Palestinian politics as rhetorical weapons with which to threaten and abuse Jewish people.”
The 89 incidents included six assaults, three cases of damage to Jewish property, 14 direct threats and 66 cases of abusive behaviour, including verbal abuse, graffiti, hate mail and online abuse.
Among the examples given by the CST was an Orthodox Jewish man on a London bus being hit in the face by a man who tried to take his religious hat. A Jewish person walking to a synagogue in London was called “dirty Jew” by a stranger, who said “no wonder you’re all getting raped”.
