Metropolitan Police data also showed a 1,353 percent increase in antisemitic offenses during the same period.Hate crimes against Muslims compared to the same 18-day period last year rose from 42 to 101, while antisemitic offenses grew from 15 to 218.
The offenses resulted in 21 arrests, with the Met’s Deputy Assistant Commissioner Ade Adelekan saying: “It is not acceptable and I promise we will investigate.”One man was held over 10 cases of alleged Islamophobic graffiti on bus stops in southwest London.
It comes amid massive pro-Palestine protests in the capital, with another major demonstration planned for Saturday. More than 1,000 officers will be deployed by the Met to oversee the event, with London’s police force putting in place “restrictions” around the Israeli Embassy.
The chant “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” will likely “not be an offense and would not result in arrest,” said Adelekan.
“We are well aware of the strength of feeling in relation to it. We can see scenarios where chanting these words would be unlawful, such as outside a synagogue or a Jewish school of the other Jewish person or group intending to intimidate.”
Last weekend’s protests resulted in 15 arrests, with one person detained on suspicion of supporting a proscribed group.The man allegedly carried a banner showing support for Hamas, which was proscribed by the UK in 2001.
The Met’s online counterterrorism unit has received 1,400 referrals relating to the Gaza conflict, with 100 of those being investigated over potential breaches of the UK’s Terrorism Act.In the U.K., people of ESEA descent have faced decades of structural discrimination and racism, including racial profiling, discrimination in the workplace, and poorer health outcomes than their white counterparts. ESEA people in Britain are one of the fastest-growing groups, with a high percentage of international students. But a lack of in-depth data collection and understanding of the diversity and differences within the community, as well as a lack of representation in politics, leadership institutions and media, means anti-ESEA racism is less understood and often minimized. “I think we have in the past lacked voices to speak out about the hatred and the division that we experience, the racism that we experience,” says Owen, who has also experienced online attacks targeting her heritage.
In the Australian and New Zealand contexts too, anti-Asian racism has a long history. A series of laws directly aimed at restricting Chinese migration to Australia were passed starting in the late 19th century, morphing into a “White Australia” policy at the beginning of the 20th, leaving a painful legacy still felt today. A similar story of struggle, rejection and discrimination has played out in New Zealand. “Asian people are unfairly picked on for over 150 years in New Zealand by governments, as well as the community,” says race relations commissioner Foon. “Quite often, I think in New Zealand, it’s a very quiet type of racism, more institutionalized,”
In May 2020, U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres said “the pandemic continues to unleash a tsunami of hate and xenophobia, scapegoating and scare-mongering” and urged governments to “act now to strengthen the immunity of our societies against the virus of hate.” Nearly one year on, communities worldwide say the situation hasn’t improved, with many countries reporting spikes in hate crimes. For many, the pandemic has only amplified longstanding and violent racism toward Asian people.
“Racism was always there,” says Meng Foon, race relations commissioner at the New Zealand Human Rights Commission. “We’re not surprised by continuous racism that rears its ugly head.”
The rise in hate crimes targeting Asian communities is global, with increased reports coming from Canada, and a number of cases involving anti-Asian discrimination and xenophobia reported by Human Rights Watch in Italy, Russia and Brazil last summer