[JURIST] British lawmakers stated in a report [text, PDF] on Monday that the country needs to take action against a rise in anti-Semitism throughout the country. The All-Party Parliamentary [official website] found in particular that there has been a growth of “cyber hate” on various social media websites against the Jewish people. Last week the Community Security Trust [advocacy website], a Jewish rights group, reported [BBC report] that anit-Semitic incidents has nearly doubled to 1,168 in 2014. Many of those incidents were a direct result of the conflict in Gaza [JURIST news archive] that concluded in August. Israel’s offensive, aimed at stopping rocket attacks by Hamas, ended with more than 2,100 Palestinians and more than 70 Israeli soldiers dead. The report stated, “[w]hilst the Jewish community is diverse and multi-faceted there is a palpable concern, insecurity, loneliness and fear following the summer’s rise in incidents and subsequent world events. … A more sophisticated understanding of anti-Semitism is needed, together with better defined boundaries of acceptable discourse.”

There has been an alarming rise in anti-Semitism worldwide. Last month the UN General Assembly held a daylong informal meeting [JURIST report] devoted to anti-Semitism in response to a global increase in violence against Jews. The meeting was requested by 37 countries in a letter to the General Assembly president in October. Also in January French police arrested 54 people [JURIST report] for verbally supporting or threatening terrorist acts in the wake of the terrorist attacks at the offices of French humor magazine Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket. Also last month a French court upheld the ban [JURIST report] on a performance by French comedian Dieudonne M’Bala M’Bala that was deemed anti-Semitic and generated much discussion [JURIST op-ed].