A recently published survey revealed worrying trends with regard to the United Kingdom’s adult population’s opinion of Jews, in which nearly half were shown to have antisemitic views.
“Forty-five percent of those questioned agreed with at least one of six antisemitic tropes that was put to them by a team from YouGov and King’s College London,” reported the Jewish Chronicle.
The statements included the ideas that Jews control the media — which 11% of respondents stated to be the case — “chase money,” or “talk about the Holocaust just to further their political agenda,” which a further 8% agreed with.
Twelve percent of those polled agreed with four or more of the statements, according to the research, commissioned annually by the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA).
Asked whether they felt “Israel can get away with anything because its supporters control the media” — 16% of those questioned agreed.
Researchers gave 12 statements to participants in the survey who were asked to agree or disagree with them.
More than half (55%) of people did not agree with a single statement, while 45% agreed with one or more.
The proportion of British adults holding antisemitic opinions has continued to drop over the years — a trend which continued in the latest survey.
According to a parallel survey, only 20% of British Jews say authorities are doing enough to address and punish antisemitism — with 78% maintaing that politicians do not do enough to protect the UK’s Jewish community.
A separate part of the CAA survey investigated Jews’ feelings of security coupled with the fall of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour Party leader.
It found that 57% of Jews now feel welcome in the United Kingdom, up from just 20% in 2019. While people generally felt more positive, the scars of a punishing five-year battle against Corbyn and Corbynism are reflected in the findings that 88% of respondents still do not think Labour has done enough to combat antisemitism in its ranks.