UK politicians urge action over anti-Semitism

LONDON, Sep 7 (Reuters) An influential group of politicians today called for the government, police and prosecution services to act urgently to tackle rising anti-Semitism across Britain.

A panel of 14 members of parliament said there had been a steady rise in anti-Semitic incidents across Britain since 2000 which had increased since July due to the conflict in Lebanon.

The report by the All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Anti-Semitism came amid reports of rising anti-Semitism elsewhere in Europe this year. France has seen a spate of attacks denounced by Jewish leaders as anti-Semitic.

The report called on police to record anti-Semitic attacks and on the Crown Prosecution Service to investigate why fewer than one in 10 reported incidents resulted in legal action.

Currently different British police forces have different methods of recording crimes, with only a minority recording whether an attack or assault is anti-Semitic.

''Acts of violence and abuse towards Jews are an affront to any modern society,'' said panel chairman Denis McShane, a former Foreign Office minister.

''The most worrying discovery of this inquiry is that anti-Jewish sentiment is entering the mainstream, appearing in the everyday conversations of people who consider themselves neither racist nor prejudiced.

''All forms of anti-Semitism are racism and should be treated as such.'' The panel also called for a study to investigate the correlation between the conflict in the West Asia and attacks on the Jewish community, saying it needs to be understood if the problem is to be tackled.

It also called for more security for British Jews, especially in their places of worship and schools.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews welcomed the report and said they looked forward to working with the government in implementing its recommendations.

The Community Security Trust (CST), which advises Britain's 290,000-strong Jewish community on safety issues, said there had been 92 anti-Semitic accidents in Britain in July, coinciding with the conflict between Israel and Hizbollah in Lebanon.

That was the third highest recorded monthly figure and while there were few violent incidents, it included death threats, hate mail and the daubing of graffiti such as ''kill all Jews''.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, an international Jewish human rights organisation, said recently that the British authorities had to do much more to stem the rising tide of anti-Semitism.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the Center's associate dean, noted that a rise in anti-Jewish crimes in France had led to a determined effort by the French authorities to take on those responsible.

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