The appalling consequences of Hamas’s barbaric acts of terrorism against Israel on 7 October, and the escalation in the conflict that ensued in Gaza, are of course being felt directly in both places. But in a world of social media polarisation and real-time disinformation, with close connections between Israeli and Palestinian diasporas with their relatives and friends in the Middle East, the conflict is also affecting the lives of Jews and Muslims around the world.
Here in the UK, incidents of Islamophobia and antisemitism have spiked in the three weeks since the Hamas atrocities. The Community Security Trust (CST), which collates reports of antisemitism in the UK and provides security advice and training for Jewish schools and synagogues, recorded at least 805 antisemitic incidents between 7 and 27 October; the highest ever recorded in a 21-day period, and more than those recorded during the first six months of this year. Tell Mama, which does the same for Islamophobia, recorded 291 incidents of anti-Muslim hate between 7 and 19 October, a sixfold increase on the same period last year.
