Police investigating attacks on Jewish business, synagogue in N. Ireland
Police in the city of Derry are investigating an attack on a Jewish-owned business as a hate crime, the Belfast Telegraph reported on Monday.
Perpetrators of the attack painted graffiti on the owner's
business. This incident comes on the
heels of other acts of antisemitism in Northern Ireland, following a similar
global rise of antisemitism amid violence between Israel and Gaza-based
terrorist organizations.
In Belfast, a synagogue was threatened with being picketed
if the local Jewish community refused to condemn Israeli operations in Gaza,
which ended up disrupting Shavuot services. The synagogue ultimately held
services with only 10 congregants, the minimum amount needed to conduct
services, after other congregants expressed concerns about attending.
The Community Security Trust (CST), a UK-based charity
focused on aiding victims of antisemitism and strengthening relations between
British Jews and British society, said that antisemitism in Northern Ireland is
also being expressed via social media, in addition to verbal threats.
Sensitives toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has long
been particularly acute in Northern Ireland, due to perceived similarities to
the conflict between Irish Catholic republicans and Ulster Protestant
unionists, with the former traditionally supporting the Palestinian cause and
the latter group Israel.
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