Author: RYAN MINION

Rise in antisemitism

January 29, 2020 / / 0 Comments

Earlier in the week marked the 75th anniversary of the Holocaust yet currently anti-Semitism is rising throughout the world. More information on the anniversary can be read in the blog post “Auschwitz 75 years’ on”.

December in New York showed a spike in violence towards Jews. Including a fatal shooting, stabbings and other attacks. In fact, more than half of the hate crimes reported in New York were directed towards Jews.  David Nirenberg – who has written extensively on the history of anti-Semitism discusses to what extent anti-Jewish violence be tied to other hate crimes, and to what extent should it be understood as having a distinct history and motivations.

The Anti-Defamation League noted there were 1,879 attacks against Jews during 2018, which is the 3rd highest year on record since they began tracking data in the 1970s. There are many reasons why anti-Semitism is rising and in his article Peter Dreier examines the reasons and how related they are to politics.

It is not just in the US where anti-Semitism is on the rise , there are numerous issues within the UK including a Nazi salute being given to a Jewish man. It is not just Nazi salutes, there have been attacks on rabbi’s, anti-Semitic rants aimed towards families, swastikas and hail Borris being graffitied in a Jewish suburb of London.  There has been a 10% increase of anti-Semitic crimes since 2018. Alona Ferber shows more evidence of the rise of anti-Semitism in her article.

People are noticing this rise and there have been demonstrations against it. In response to accused anti-Semitism of one party during the general election there was a rally organised by campaign against anti-Semitism “so that Jews and non-Jews alike can say clearly and with one voice that we stand together against antisemitism.” Football club Chelsea, honoured a poppy seller who was a prisoner of Auschwitz as part of their campaign “say no to anti-semitism”. In response to the attacks in December more than 10,000 protesters marched from Manhattan to Brooklyn in a display of solidarity. This “no hate, no fear solidarity march” was organised by UJA-Federation of New York, Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, Anti Defamation League-New York, AJC-NY, and the New York Board of Rabbis, to stand against hatred of any kind in New York.  More information on taking a stand against anti-Semitism can be found in the blog post; Take a stand against Antisemitism.

Tackling Racism

January 21, 2020 / / 0 Comments

Recently in the news is Uni of Sheffield’s attempt at tackling racism on campus and in Halls. They plan on hiring students to be “race equality champions”. This seems like a potentially good idea, however their execution of it is lacking.

Their plan is to tackle so called “microaggressions”, which they so happen to give a list of examples. Are microaggressions really the type of racism that needs addressing? Is there not something more pressing? A report from last autumn stated incidents of name-calling, physical attacks and racist material on their campus, shouldn’t this be dealt with first? The idea is to open communication surrounding racism, not to control free speech. This response to the idea that universities can be oblivious to hate is a step forward but is it focusing on the right issues, especially when microaggressions are mostly unintentional.

It’s not like Hallam hasn’t had problems, so should Hallam take the same initiative and have our own “champions”? Is there another way Hallam could tackle racism? Should students be paid to tackle racism or should it be something any decent person should tackle for free?

Report, Support, Resolve

December 20, 2019 / / 0 Comments

There are many report systems in place which means no matter who you are or what has happened you can report and people will listen.

Students can be directed to support through the uni, including steps on how to report a Hate incident to the uni.  You can report anonymously or report and get support through Report and Support.  There is some specific information available on reporting  hate crime .

If the incident is specifically muslim related there is the option to report it to Tell MAMA, who are Measuring Anti-Muslim Attacks and can support through the process. tellmamauk.org 

For Anti-Semitic hate crimes or incidents there is the  CST website who like Tell MAMA will support through the process and help where possible. cst.org.uk

Hate crimes, no matter the reason behind them, may also be reported through the True Vision website. Similar to CST and Tell MAMA the True vision site allows a report to be issued no matter what the hate crime. www.report-it.org.uk

Finally any Hate Crime or incident may be reported to your local police station at any time by any one. Support can be received through citizens advice. If there is a wish to stay anonymous you may also call Crimestoppers on 0800 555111 to report a Hate Crime.

No matter who you speak to, what organisation you report it to, please do report any Hate Crime you witness or experience. Nobody has to, nor should they, deal with it alone. We all stand together.

WWWW: Welcome, Who, What, Why?

December 20, 2019 / / 0 Comments

Welcome to Stand Together, SHU’s blog regarding Hate Crime and Harassment.

Who are we?

This blog is run by students, who have created these posts in order to raise awareness around the situations involving Hate Crime or harassment that are important to them.

What is the aim?

The aim of this blog is a safe space to raise awareness of Hate Crime and Harassment that students are interested in or are affected by. This can be through personal experience; all information is provided freely and if personal stories are wanting to be shared this can be done anonymously.

Why does the Blog exist?

Standing Together is SHU’s response to the Universities UK Changing the Culture initiative. This initiative was created as there were many cases of harassment, hate crime, or sexual violence, and universities may not always have responded effectively. Through Standing together SHU wishes to raise awareness and let students know that they won’t be unheard. Someone will be there, someone will listen.

Hate Crimes v Politics

December 20, 2019 / / 0 Comments

Every general election the topics of Hate Crimes, discrimination and racism appear; this year Hate Incidents have appeared within the political parties themselves. Both leading parties seem to have issues revolving around Hate and Discrimination.

How can Hate Crime be reduced when the leaders of the country have issues with discrimination in their own parties? Has this given permission for people to be more racist? Hate crime has more than doubled since 2013 (https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/oct/15/hate-crimes-double-england-wales)

One party has members that claims Muslims have a ‘nasty culture’ and always play the ‘race card’ (https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/dec/09/tory-candidate-linden-kemkaran-shared-tweet-claiming-muslims-play-race-card). This way of thinking and blatant discrimination is embodied by their leader too. There are many instances of the leader stating their opinion on Islam and Muslims; going as far as stating that Islam is the problem and that women in niqabs look like letterboxes and bank robbers.(https://inews.co.uk/opinion/general-election-results-2019-boris-johnson-conservative-majority-muslim-woman-1340462).This leader’s remarks and actions have been seen to ‘encourage’ racism within football as the UEFA president remarked (https://edition.cnn.com/2019/12/03/football/boris-johnson-ceferin-racism-football-spt-intl/index.html)

Another party appears to have issues within itself when it comes to Anti-Semitism; Anti-Semitism being the specific name to hatred towards people of the Jewish faith. There has been sworn statements from party members about the anti-Semitic abuse they suffer within the party; including being called Zio scum, child killer and being told Hitler was right. (https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/dec/05/seventy-labour-staffers-give-statements-to-antisemitism-inquiry). There have been around 673 reports made within 10 months on this (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-43893791).

The issues within the parties has not been unnoticed by the public, especially when some members of the leading party have shown their contempt for Muslims. It is no wonder that the rate of Hate Crimes, especially on Muslim and Jewish victims, has increased the past 5 years since the Muslim hating party has been in power. The statistics show that there has been a significant increase in both Jewish and Muslim hate crimes. 47% of religious Hate Crime were against Muslims while Jewish Hate Crimes were doubled to 18%. Hate crimes have increased in all aspects, doubling in five years. (https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/oct/15/hate-crimes-double-england-wales)

Islamophobic incidents were reportedly risen by 375% after the ‘letterbox’ remark (https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/boris-johnson-muslim-women-letterboxes-burqa-islamphobia-rise-a9088476.html ).With the Jewish community being a target four times a day within 2017 (https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/feb/01/antisemitic-incidents-in-uk-at-all-time-high ).

The increase in Hate Crimes has been reported in many areas. Just recently antisemitic incident happened in London (https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/antisemitic-hate-crimes-london-bus-attack-jewish-man-stamford-hill-a9246301.html). Also there was a hate incident in Sheffield supposedly due to the fact of the election outcome, (https://www.thestar.co.uk/news/politics/hate-crime-culprits-sheffield-suburb-emboldened-boris-johnson-1341719).  If this is how people are treated in public it is no wonder there is an issue with university students and Hate crime and Harassment.

By Ryan Minion, Serish Khan and Zalmea Naseem.

 

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