Anti-Semitic incidents in US rise to record high: report

Reports of anti-Semitic incidents in the United States have reached a record high since the Hamas attack in Israel last year, according to a preliminary report from the Anti-Defamation League Center for Extremism (ADL).

The group detected more than 10,000 incidents from October 7, 2023 to September 24 this year, an increase of more than 200% compared to the same period last year.

It is the highest since the ADL began recording such incidents in 1979.

The report comes just days after the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security issued a joint statement warning of possible threats of violence amid ongoing unrest in the Middle East.

Since the Hamas attack on Israel last October that killed about 1,200 people, “Jewish Americans have not had a single moment of peace,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement.

“Instead, we have seen a shocking number of anti-Semitic threats and calls for more violence against Israelis and Jews everywhere.”

The more than 10,000 incidents of anti-Semitism reported by the ADL included approximately 8,015 incidents of verbal or written harassment, 1,840 incidents of vandalism and 150 incidents of physical violence.

The states with the highest number of recorded cases in the report were California with 1,266 incidents, New York with 1,218, New Jersey with 830 and Florida with 463.

The ADL said it expects its preliminary numbers to increase as more data comes in. The final report for 2024 will be published in spring 2025.

Part of the overall increase is due to a change in methodology that includes “expressions of opposition to Zionism as well as support for resistance to Israel or Zionists that could be viewed as supporting terrorism,” the ADL said.

The ADL’s preliminary report listed more than 3,000 incidents that occurred during anti-Israel rallies “which regularly express explicit support for terrorist groups,” including Hamas and Hezbollah.

Excluding these incidents, the ADL counted 7,523 incidents of anti-Semitism, a 103% increase from 2022.

After the October 7 attack, Israel launched a massive military operation in the Gaza Strip with the stated aim of eliminating Hamas.

Since then, 41,870 Palestinians have been killed and more than 97,000 injured in Gaza, most of them women and children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

The war sparked a wave of demonstrations across the United States, particularly on college campuses, with many protesting rising humanitarian casualties.

In Lebanon, More than 1,000 people were killed While up to a million people may have been displaced since Israel’s attack on Iran-backed Hezbollah.

The ongoing violence in the region has also led to a rise in anti-Muslim and Islamophobic incidents across the United States.

According to a Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) report released in April, anti-Muslim incidents reached 8,061 in 2023. The report marked the highest level since CAIR began counting nearly 30 years ago, with nearly half coming after the Oct. 7 attack.