E-Paper
US anti-semitic incidents up 400% since Israel-Hamas war began: Report
Israel-Hamas War: Prior to the war, anti-semitism was already rising in the US.
Anti-semitic incidents in the United States rose by about 400% in slightly over two weeks since war broke out in the Middle East after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, advocacy group Anti-Defamation League (ADL) said. The data showed a 388% rise in anti-semitic incidents in the US between October 7 and October 23 over the prior year. The ADL Center on Extremism said preliminary data showed 312 reported US anti-semitic incidents from October 7 to October 23, including harassment, vandalism and assault.
About 190 of those were directly linked to the war between Israel and Hamas, data showed. ADL cited examples of alleged physical assault; violent online messages, especially on messaging platform Telegram; and rallies where "ADL found explicit or strong implicit support for Hamas and/or violence against Jews in Israel."
In the same period of 2022, ADL recorded 64 US anti-semitic incidents, of which four were linked to Israel. Prior to the war, anti-semitism was already rising in the US as nearly 3,700 such incidents were recorded in 2022, more than in any year since ADL began tracking the issue in 1979.
ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt urged authorities to provide security and support to Jewish communities, saying, “When conflict erupts in Israel, anti-semitic incidents soon follow in the US and globally.”
This comes as the US Justice Department has said that it is monitoring rising threats against Jews and Muslims amid the conflict. Hamas' attack has killed over 1,400 people and Israel's air strikes on Gaza have since killed over 5,700 Palestinians.
