LIVERPOOL Wavertree MP Luciana Berger has been given special security advice after being on the receiving end of an online battering of anti-Semitic threats, insults and taunts.
She is one of the victims of rising incidents in the UK against members of the Jewish community, a number that has reached the highest number ever recorded.
Figures released by the Jewish security charity Community Security Trust reveal that almost 1,200 antisemitic incidents were reported to them during 2014, more than double the 2013 figure.
A fifth of the incidents were threats or abuse via social media. Luciana Berger became one of the year’s biggest victims of attacks through the social media platform Twitter.
Last summer Ms Berger received a message on Twitter from Garron Helm, 21, which depicted her with the Star of David on her head. It used the hashtag #Hitlerwasright and called her a “communist Jewess”.
Helm was jailed for four weeks but the Wavertree MP was subsequently bombarded with more than 2,500 hate messages tagged #filthyjewbitch.
Today she said she was horrified by the new figures from CST.
“I know from the online hate campaign directed at me by neo-Nazis at home and abroad, that antisemites are using every digital platform to intimidate and harass Britain’s Jews.
Abuse
Speaking to the Guardian, she said: “Digital media companies, particularly Twitter, need to sharpen up their acts and move faster to remove accounts being used to spread and incite hate. To date, they have been too lax, and moved too slowly, allowing racists a free rein.”
Ms Berger said police and security experts had given her advice about security and personal safety.
The number of antisemitic incidents in the UK has reached the highest level ever recorded, with reports of violence, property damage, abuse and threats against members of Britain’s Jewish population more than doubling last year .
Leading politicians have condemned the trend, with home secretaryTheresa May, describing the figures as “deeply concerning” and “a warning to everyone to do more to stop antisemitism in Britain”.
Police forces around the country say the figures are consistent with an increase in antisemitic crimes reported in recent weeks following last month’s terror attacks in Paris when four shoppers were killed by an Islamist attacker at a kosher supermarket.
Jewish people are now being directly abused in the street at a rate of more than one a day, particularly if wearing religious or traditional clothes or a Jewish school uniform.
Incidents reported to the CST hotline included a man shouting at a group of Jewish schoolchildren who had boarded a bus in London: “Get the Jews off the bus” and “I’m going to burn the bus.”
Actress Maureen Lipman is reported to have said she is considering moving from the UK to Israel ot the US in the wake of a growth of anti-Semitic feelings.
Eric Pickles, the Communities Secretary, said: “These attacks are not only an attack on British Jews, but an attack on all of us and our shared values. This is totally unacceptable. Those who perpetrate hate crimes of any kind will be punished with the full force of the law.”
Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper wants Twitter and others to take stronger action against hate crimes on their platforms, with plans in the next few days to outline Labour’s hate-crime strategy.
Graves in Liverpool’s Jewish cemetery were recently daubed with anti-Jewish slogans, including one headstone daubed with a swastika.
