Hate Crimes Surge in Wake of Gaza War

We celebrate in love and we danced. Then it was amazing. Then the rockets started in gunshots everywhere.

We managed to escape, but.

There are a lot of friends that didn't.

What we will do to our enemies in the coming days, will reverberate with them for generations.

A missile hit in the square and there was rubble hitting us. As we were walking. There was glass metal. It was like doomsday.

There are civilians here whom are not our enemy, and we do not want to target them.

We are asking them to evacuate.

There are fifty people in the house without any food, drink, water, or electricity.

I don't know how we'll provide food for our children.

War isn't what we're looking for, but war was forced upon us by a bloodthirsty terrorist organization.

On the seventh of October, Hamas attacked Israel. More than one two hundred people were killed and a further two hundred were taken to Gaza as hostages. It was the largest loss of Jewish life since the Holocaust. Israel's military response was swift. At the time of this recording, Gaza's Hamas run government says more than fifteen thousand people have been killed there, including thousands of children a moment ago.

I'd say New York is on edge. The city is a home to the largest Muslim population in the United States, but also the largest Jewish population outside of Israel. We've had demonstrations in the streets starting the day after the attacks in Israel and seemingly haven't stopped. It's been a constant flow of demonstrations in the streets and on campuses, and it's putting all the communities on edge.

Kati.

A lot of this discourse has been playing out, as you've said, in universities. What is the conversation that's being had there? What sorts of things have we been hearing from from people attending those universes.

So in the.

United States, universities are in large part bound by freedom of speech, which means you can say a lot, you can protest, of course, you can hold signs, you can say hateful things. In large part, universities, however, are also bound by the Civil Rights Act. They have to protect

We'll come back to New York in a moment, but I want to go next to Paris and Bloomberg's Jenny Chain and France's home to the largest both Jewish and Muslim communities in Europe. That's numbers based though on survey evidence, because official statistics in France don't include religion due to the seculers and principles and trined in French low Jenny, I want to talk to you about how much we know about how much hate crime has increased in France since the seventh of October.

It's really hard to quantify the change in a number of hate crimes in France since the start of the war. The French government has been very vocal about the rise of the anti Semitic acts in the last few weeks, but authorities have not been very good at providing comparative data, particularly about the number of acts totaling Muslims in the same period, and you have seen the government is taking

Obviously, it was important for me to be here with my government to say that France must protect all of its citizens who may be worried because of their origins, all their religion. The government and all ministers want to say to all our fellow citizens of the Jewish faith that we are at their sides, we are alert, and we will not let anything pass us by.

On the other hand, a few days after the war, the government tried to issue a blanket ban on pro Palestinian demonstrations. Later a court rule that it was up to regional authorities to decide on a case by case basis. But we're seeing this uneven data in this different approach to the communities, and that's it's made it hard to track the difference in acts targeting Jewish people here and Muslim people here.

France has seen several high profile anti Semitic attacks in recent years, the attacks on a Jewish school and Toulose in twenty twelve, the supermarket attack in twenty fifteen as well. How have the community been responding to this latest rise in anti Semitism?

So the government has given numbers on Antisemitic acts since the start of the war, and there have been more than fifteen hundred and that's more than three times all of two thousand and two. But it's partial data, so

Let's go to South Africa next. Michael Cohne is our South Africa government reporter in Cape Town. Of course, Michael the history of racial division as well known as South Africa. But this is a conflict that's created a very different kind of schism. The government's position on the Israel Hamas War. How is that effect during the Jewish community there.

Traditionally relationships between the Jewish community and the government have been pretty cordial. We've seen the Rebbils being invited to speak at major nationally ben so, you've seen the president going to the synagogue and so on. Since startbreak of the war, the relationship has really gone down the tube, and the Jewish community is really really unhappy about the

Michael I wanted to bring in one of the interviews that our team has conducted for this piece. Karen Milner is the national chairperson of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies. Let's take a listen to what she has to say about this.

And we've seen over eighty incidents of antisemitism in the last month, and the severity of those.

Are much much worse.

We've seen a rabbi who was a TechEd in his car.

There was an attempt to drive him to put him off the road that he was subject to gross into Semitic abuse, and there was an.

Attempt to raim his car.

So that's one example of the level of fun and anti Semitism that we're starting to see unfortunately.

So that's Karen Milner from the South African Jewish Board of Deputies. We've also been speaking to Roshan Dado, who's the coordinator of the South African Boycott, Devestment and Sanctions Coalition. Let's take a listen to her position.

Well, I would.

Question the fact that there's been a search of anti semitism because again I think people who are opposing what the States of Israel is doing, opposing this genocide and desigonists. It's against designs projects.

Of course, that's a very strong language that some people would find offensive, and Jewish people would in d say is representative of the sentiment that they're experiencing in many parts of the world as well. Michael, how complex is this relationship in terms of its evolution and how we can consider how serious this increase in anti sim incidents has been.

The Jewish community is a really very small component of the population, less than zero point one percent, but they have quite a prominent role in the legal fraternity, in business and so on. I think it's a really tricky time for the Jewish community here. We've seen leaders saying that the government is not standing up for them and that they're really concerned about their future here. Most of

Of course, the Muslim community in South Africa is much larger. The country home to almost a million Muslims. Have there been a rise in incidents of Islamophobia as well.

I haven't picked that up in any meaningful way. I think partly because the Jewish community is so small, but there'd be no incident of anything in that direction. I mean, we've seen security at schools and synagogues being intensified. I don't think them get Muslim schools and mosques.

Okay, let's come back to London next. Our reporter aim and Firehut is here with me now. London, aim In, like New York, is somewhere where there is a significant amount of data that can help us to understand what's happened since the seventh of October. What numbers are available first of all, and what have they told us about the trend?

So according to the Metropolisan Police, on average is about sixty cases of ant Semitic crimes in London every month, but in October, just after the attack, there have been five hundred and thirty three. That's almost nine times more than usual. And for ssymophobic attacks it's the same thing. It's about two to three times as much as the norm. So definitely been a huge surge of it. It's also what we hear we talk to people in the street.

One of the interviews that you have conducted around this issue, Merian Berger, is the senior rabbi of the Finchally Reformed Synagogue, and you spoke to her just before that demonstration in London.

I think it's a really difficult time to feel safe.

After June in London.

At the moment, I don't think that cancelling the rally would have been something that would have made us feel safer. It would have potentially made more people more committed to doing something that you know, this way comes under the auspices of the police to be able to patrol, to be able to work in dialogue with the organizers, and to be able to be in dialogue with the Jewish community to say how can we help them make you

And it was the question of policing that were central to the political debate around that particular protest. Is there a sense that authorities have moved on from that response? Now how are they approaching this issue given the rise and incidances that you've told us about.

You exactly right, politicians, some call for these marches to be banned. At the end of the day, the met police they have, you know, plans in place to keep people safe and all that. And when you talk to the different community groups, whether it is you know, Miriam who you just had the clip there or to different people in the Muslim community.

They do.

You see that they are working constantly with the police to make sure the people are safe on public transport and these marches, and most of the time it works very well. You know, that has been quite a positive message. And Sidi Khan, who's a mayor of London, he's also really put an emphasis on this kind of bringing communities together.

Let's take a listen to some of that interview with Citi.

Can you know these things have happened in the past. This is the worst I've known it. I used to be a communities minister in two thousand and nine when Israel was involved in a military altercation with Gaza. I think to Selle's really seven to the middle of January, and I remember then as a community minister the impact on communities across the country. But this is worse than that.

That was the mayor of London City can there aim And I wonder when we look at the response from authorities, from the likes of Citi can as well, does this give the communities in London a sense of safety in somewhere where we have seen the rise and incense like these.

I mean, right now, safety is not worth that most people talk about. I mean people do feel unsafe, you know, at the moment. I think a lot of people say that as this war goes on, if this will continuees for however long these tensions will continue. There is a realization that London is a good place for different communities and eventually things will get better. But right now people do not feel safe.

But let's go back to Paris and our reporter Jenny Chay. We talked earlier about the French government's attempt to ban some of these demonstrations and the subsequent legal cases that came around. Is there a sense the French government has come with a coherent response to this problem.

I'm not sure they have. I spoke to Abdella Zegre, president of their French Council of the Muslim Bates Observatory on Islamophobia, and you told me that it would have been better to have a march for peace, because when you have government officials, of course joining a march against antisemitism, it can leave the impression that the government is mainly supporting Israel, and some people in the Muslim community might

Katia Poisikanski in New York, you talked to through the debates that are happening in universities, the demonstrations that are happening in the streets of New York City are communities both Jewish and Muslim, feeling comforted by the actions taken by authorities.

In terms of school authorities, No I think everyone is displeased on both sides. The Department of Education has now opened seven investigations into schools in the United States. Three of those schools are in New York for discrimination, so the pressure is on for them to kind of get

My Jewish sisters and brothers and I are on the receiving end of death threats from our peers. Undergraduates who have filed reports about these intents have been left with no emotional support, no feedback, and no consequences for the perpetrators of these hateful actions. As a result of this in action, there are Jewish students who do not feel physically safe on campus.

At Cooper Union, several students came out and said they felt completely unsupported by the school. When there was a protest that got intimidating and there was some students that entered a library. There were some Jewish, visibly Jewish students in the library behind a glass wall and the protesters were banging on the wall. That was a very intimidating moment for those students. So there was a lot of scrutiny on that event, like what happened? Did the school

Indicative of some of the high profile attention that's being paid to this issue in New York Michael Cohen and Cape Town. Is there a sense that that same attention is being paid to this issue where you are.

I think there have been recent attempts by the government to kind of cool things down, But we had a prison sam up of the writer a weekly letter to the nation in which you was saying there's no place for violence or threats or threats of violence against those who hold country reviews that South Africa's painful history must be a reminder about the cost of a divided society.

Okay, I want to come back here to London and bring you one more clip of another interview. This is with imman Ata, who's the director of Tel Mamma, which is the national anti Muslim Hater, Islamophobia Monitoring and support service.

Listen, as long as the conflict is right, Palestini is going, I don't think things will stop here, although it's thousands of miles away from us, by impacting our communities here heavily. Unless that conflict stops, that's when things maybe would start coming back to normal. And I wouldn't say it would come back to normal as you'll see everyone happy and everyone talking with each other. No, it will take a lot of time, and there are bridges that must probably

That's a Manuta of Tealmama speaking to Aim and fire house Aim and I wonder we've heard this from various interviews, there being a sense of breakdown among the community's. London prides itself on being this multicultural city that welcomes communities from all over. Is there a sense that the damage that has been done can be repaired.

I think what happens in the Middle East is a huge, huge impact on what happens in London. Even though it's thousands of miles away, it still affects people here. There's just so much trauma. You know, as you said in that clip, you know, people have lost loved ones and people are very angry with you know, on both sides. The politician's rhetoric doesn't help either. You know, some people have been flaming things. Social media as well is a

East, Bloomberg's aim in Farhat in London, Katti of Porzikanski in New York, Jenny Chay in Paris, and Michael Cohen in Cape Town. Thank you to you all. After we recorded this conversation, three college students of Palestinian descent were shot and seriously injured near the University of Vermont's campus in Burlington, or Police said they have no additional information to suggest a motive. They noted that two of the victims were wearing traditional Palestinian scarves known as cafeas at

And