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Race-hate comments ‘normalised by web’

Race-hate comments ‘normalised by web’

August 28, 2008 10:40

BySimon Rocker, Simon Rocker

1 min read

The Community Security Trust has for the first time produced a report into antisemitic rhetoric in political speech, public discussion and the media in the UK.

Although explicit antisemitism "is extremely rare" and "taboo" in public life, the report says that extremists are expressing antisemitic themes through "a demonising language that depicts Zionism as a great hidden conspiracy, centred in Israel and the USA against the rest of the humanity".

The CST regularly publishes statistics into antisemitic incidents in Britain. But its 56-page glossy report, Antisemitic Discourse in Britain in 2007, which is published on Monday (September 1) and is intended to be updated annually, marks a departure in examining contemporary antisemitic ideology.

The report notes the potential for the spread of antisemitic conspiracy theories, citing a 2007 UK poll where half of the respondents thought Jews were "probably" more loyal to Israel than their own country, and a third thought that American Jews control US foreign policy.