Rising European anti-Semitism blamed on lockdowns
By Rob Picheta and Sharon Braithwaite, CNN
A Jewish man was subjected to anti-Semitic abuse in London twice in the space of one evening while traveling on public transportation, his brother has said, as videos of the altercations went viral on social media.
Footage showed a man berating a bus driver and then the person filming the video on a bus on Saturday evening, saying to the driver: “He’s f**king Jewish. You’re Jewish too,” and then banging on the window of the bus from the street.
Another video, filmed earlier the same evening, showed a man at a subway station singing: “F**king hate the Jews,” before telling other travelers: “We’ve got a Jew behind us.”
The Metropolitan Police said “an investigation is ongoing after a man was subjected to a torrent of anti-Semitic abuse on a bus in central London.” The British Transport Police said it was investigating “anti-Semitic behaviour on a London Underground escalator.” No arrests have been made in either incident.
Videos of both incidents went viral after being uploaded to Twitter by the man’s brother, who told CNN his sibling came “very close to being physically attacked.”
“He somewhat successfully (talked) him out of it, managing to relatively de-escalate the situation, (but) not without him continuing to ferociously spew all kinds of ugly racist remarks and death threats,” the man’s brother told CNN.
On Twitter, he wrote: “Will anything be done about this rampant antisemitism” and said the incidents were “so depressing.”
Reports of anti-Semitic incidents have become more common in recent years in the UK, according to watchdogs and charities that monitor cases.
The Community Security Trust said it recorded 1,668 incidents in 2020, the third-highest year on record, after a record count the previous year.
Marie van der Zyl, the President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, condemned the incidents on Monday.
“It is absolutely intolerable that a Jewish passenger travelling on public transport should be subjected to disgusting racist threats and abuse in the UK in 2021 not once but twice on the same day,” she said in a statement. “Those responsible should be must be tracked down and prosecuted.”
The-CNN-Wire
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