Mis-representing anti-Semitism in Scotland

See anything odd, inconsistent, in the above map which suggests by colouring and by position in a table, that Scotland is the sixth worst part of the UK for anti-Semitic incidents?

Even Wales is accurately broken down into regions like England so that we can see more accurately just where the problem is, but Scotland is presented as one region with the data totalled to make it seem worse.

There are 34 council areas in Scotland so, on average each has had 2 anti-Semitic incidents putting most down at the bottom of that table. Remember that putting a leaflet through the door of a synagogue counts as one incident.

Reporting Scotland, has of course, happily used these data to tell viewers that Scotland is just like the rest of the UK and the Guardian today tells us Antisemitic incidents in UK schools soared in 2023, charity reports because there’s no regional or national breakdown of their figures.

Try finding examples of ant-Semitism in Scotland’s schools, heaven knows Reporting Scotland will have, and all you get is ‘Scotland Yard’ stories.

20 thoughts on “Mis-representing anti-Semitism in Scotland”

  1. Ah but …. the unionist narrative goes along several contradictory lines, which the media never pick up on, because they deploy them themselves. Firstly, is the sneer based on the straw man claim which independence supporters are supposed to make that ‘Scotland is more tolerant’. So the fact that there is even just one incident in Scotland shows we are as bad as anywhere. Secondly, we are not just as bad – we are WORSE – which is why all the cases in Scotland are lumped together rather than providing regional breakdowns. Thirdly, there is the ‘tip of the iceberg’ fallacy – only 69 cases??????? I hear 10 times that every Saturday in Glasgow. Fourthly, as you indicate, there is no attempt to indicate the relative seriousness of each reported incident. As you indicate, putting a leaflet through a synagogue door is ranked alongside setting a synagogue on fire or assaulting a Jewish person. The latter two are horrific, the former can be thrown in the bin.

    The same reasoning is applied to reports of Islamophobia, misogyny, hostility to gay or trans people, racism, insulting people with disabilities. All of these things are appalling, but, somehow the media make out that Scotland is the worst.

    Alasdair Macdonald

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      1. Is it not amazing how Paul Simon’s lyrics to “Fifty ways to leave your Glover” suddenly come to mind – ‘You don’t need to be coy, Hoy: You just listen to me. You just hop on the bus, Pus, you don’t need to discuss much, you never do…..”

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  4. “Mis-representing anti-Semitism in Scotland”

    Any actual ‘Scottish’ media would pick up on that point as a tad disingenuous in it’s presentation…..but as we appear to be at a disadvantage as far as an abundance of ‘Scottish’ media fighting our corner then this, as per other matters, is how Scotland will be presented (badly) ……too wee for them to breakdown where the apparent ‘problem’ is as we , Scotland, are considered only to be somewhere within their UK that is but no more than a ‘Region’. apparently (for some)…..indeed are we not , by Pro UK political parties, considered to be no more significant as say the likes of Manchester and other English cities, with their respective Regional Mayors via the 2014 Devolution Agreement with the UK Government that gave their region(s) additional powers……..

    It also , as yet another skewed example ,must then be promoted as representing a problem not just via England but instead always be promoted as a British/UK problem…..as never can Scotland (or Wales) be seen as an exception to the rule and thus must be always tarred with the same brush as it’s neighbour……bearing in mind also that there now seems to be a very slim definition of what constitutes as being anti Semitic in some people’s opinion/definition…..that is, for some, just vocally opposing the actions of Netanyahu and the IDF in Gaza and thus sympathising, empathising and being supportive of Palestinians in Gaza is then defined as somehow being anti Semitic…….as in you are either with us or against us….as it’s promoted as a black and white issue with no grey area apparently…….indeed pre the Hamas attack on October 7th one could easily be fooled, if ignorant, in assuming that prior to that date there was no issue in this region….of course that is not the case is it ????

    Don’t forget that in presenting this data to include Scotland also aids the Labour party and their recent candidates apparent anti Semitic quotes…..so then it appears it’s not just a Labour party problem…..but see tis everywhere, indeed look over here, in Scotland, as in ‘even in a SNP run country, there is anti Semitism also’ kinda vibe…..as Alasdair states above (at 10.31am) it then , they think, dispels the notion that “Scotland is more tolerant”….so there is a method in their madness or rather badness…..

    Currently the media are obsessed and in some cases restricted to (over) reporting the fear felt by ‘British’ Jews from attacks in the UK (though so far I have only seen the UK/English TV media’s reports via English cities) while the total decimation in Gaza where thousands of Palestinians have been killed and also includes the destruction of Palestinian’s houses and other buildings/Hospitals in Gaza , is not apparently as prominent in being presented as more significantly tragic and thus more salient via some of that same media’s reporting (concern) ……so NO…..no one should target Jews in any country in the world for the actions of the Israel government and the IDF in Gaza……but we do all have the right to freedom of speech and the right to peaceful protest against the atrocity that has unfolded during (and before) this awful loss of innocent Palestinian lives in what has been very much a total decimation of Gaza and it’s people which has been orchestrated by Israel’s government and implemented by the IDF…….no ifs, ands or buts

    NMRN

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  6. Daily Record front page “Sarwar I will stand up to Starmer for Scotland”

    Well someone did not think that statement through did they via either Sarwar OR their client media as in the Daily Record promoting it as a supposed positive.

    Because it seems as if Sarwar anticipates that he will have to fight Keir Starmer to get anything (positive or of benefit) for Scotland.

    It also suggests that Starmer must be reluctant to favour Scotland getting anything that will benefit us within his UK when(if) he, Keir Starmer, becomes the next UK PM….and thus Sarwar thinks he and Keir Starmer will be on opposing sides re Scotland’s best interest….that’s reassuring…NOT.

    Reality is though this above statement via Sarwar is just SPIN but it’s not very good SPIN because it suggests there is a division between Keir Starmer & Anas Sarwar on Scotland’s best interests does it not……. but as far as the public trying to work out who, between them both, has the best plan …..well….I would suggest to anyone that they do not waste their time thinking about it…….as it is HQ as the UK government that decides what happens to Scotland in their UK and NOT nay NEVER their respective branch office manager(s) and we all know who Labour HQ favours more in their UK do we not…..indeed his, Sarwar’s, only role in the branch office is to keep ‘planting seeds of doubt’ about both the SNP and too independence via his ‘carping from the sidelines’ plus he also has to continue to pretend that he and his political party care about and stand up for Scotland over their beloved precious UK (Never in a million years is that true)….and that somehow a Pro UK Labour party are better for Scotland than the SNP….when we all know that the SNP’s only/prime focus and interest is for Scotland and it’s people…..and ultimately they, the SNP, see that Scotland and it’s citizens interests/concerns/problems are far better addressed by being an independent country than staying within a Brexit UK that is sinking and too pretty much stinking as a state thanks to their politics and media.

    Stand up for Scotland ?….BLOL

    As pity then that in 2014 Sarwar and his party (branch office and HQ) fought against Scotland’s best interests as he , and the former branch office manager then, unified with their HQ leader to ensure that they kept only the UK’s best interests at the forefront of their combined campaign with the Tories and Lib Dems against Scotland…..in what was named ‘Project Fear’ that included what has now been exposed as broken promises and pledges……and Lies !

    So far all we, in Scotland, have seen and heard from Sarwar’s Labour HQ leader that is Sir Keir Starmer….. is a succession of announcements of pledges, mission statements and policies that have now fallen by the wayside and basically Keir Starmer having turned the Labour party into a poor imitation of the Tory party aka a Tory Tribute act (poor one)……..so why would that ever appeal to Scotland !!!!!

    NMRN

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  7. I have no wish to underplay the awful impacts of discrimination, abuse and acts of violence against individuals and their communities that are motivated by religious or ethnic prejudice or hate. Nor do I wish to appear complacent. However, those seeking to address serious issues involved in sustaining community safety and respectful co-existence are IMHO not well served by ‘misrepresentation’ of statistics or worse.

    I offer the example of the Scottish Daily Express (15 February) which has been exhibiting its all too familiar rabidly anti-Scotland journalism in coverage of the Community Security Trust’s (CST) latest report on anti-semitism.

    Express headline: ’Antisemitic attacks double in Scotland with country emerging as hate hotspot as Jews face new ‘pogrom’.

    The Express does what the Express does: ‘Scotland has emerged as a HATE HOTSPOT with antisemitic incidents doubling in a year. New figures from the Community Security Trust (CST) recorded more than 4,000 incidents involving racism against Jews across the UK.’ (my emphasis)

    ‘The all-time high figure has been put down to an explosion in attacks since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7. The vast majority were recorded in London (2,410) while Manchester (555) also recorded a high number. But Scotland was also IN THE TOP FIVE FOR HATE INCIDENTS with 68 – exactly double the 34 recorded in 2022.’ Any sense in the article of 2,410 being two orders of magnitude bigger than 68 – of course not!

    Alert readers will note the careful juxtaposition of ‘facts’ by the Express’ journalist: the construction of the text seeks to provide a (false) perspective in order to paint Scotland in a bad light. It is a blatant gaslighting tactic: Express readers should note that even their intelligence is being insulted.

    The Scottish Daily Express also tells its readers: ‘Speaking to BBC Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme on Thursday, Ephraim Borowski of the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities said JEWS IN SCOTLAND WERE FACING A NEW “POGROM”. These were violent riots in the 19th and 20th centuries in mainland Europe aimed at exterminating or expelling Jews.’

    So just for the avoidance of doubt, combining these inputs with the journalistic contribution from the Express, the charge is that Scotland is a anti-semitic hotspot where there is an imminent (recall ‘facing’) threat of a ‘progrom’, an activity that has the objective of exterminating or expelling Jews. I’m not sure who to condemn most for such misrepresentation – or should I say, arrant nonsense?

    Even the Express struggles to keep up the ‘progrom’ comparison, noting: ‘It is understood the vast majority of Scottish incidents were examples of abusive behaviour. Four were physical assaults, three desecrations of property and one incident of antisemitic leaflets being posted to a synagogue in Glasgow.’ Taking them all at face value as ‘anti-semitic’ incidents, is this evidence enough to invoke the language of ‘facing a progrom’ in Scotland?

    I had a look at the CST’s reporting. Interestingly, it published data on alleged anti-semitic incidents across the UK for the first half of 2023 and later published a further report for the whole of 2023. So, by calculation, it’s possible to split out the incidents for just the second half of 2023, which of course includes the period since 7 October.

    In the latter half of 2023, the CST records 54 incidents across the whole of Scotland (population c.5.5 million), some or all of which could have been triggered by the latest events in Gaza i.e. ONE INCIDENT over six months per 100,000 population. Anyone stating this to be ‘one too many’ will get no counter argument from me beyond beyond let’s keep some perspective!

    For comparison, over the same period the CST records 1,963 incidents in Greater London (population c.9 million) i.e. by calculation, c. 21.8 incidents per 100,000 population. The equivalent figure for Greater Manchester is 14.6 incidents per 100,000 population.

    As the main TuS blog post notes, the CST ranks areas of the UK by absolute number of incidents, opting to consider the whole of Scotland as one geographic entity. (It’s this which gives the Scottish Daily Express its ‘fact’. and ‘hotspot’ jibe.) It’s worth looking within the CST’s rankings for areas with the most similar absolute number of ‘incidents’ to Scotland:
    – Hertfordshire (population c.2 million) has 88 ‘incidents’ in the second half of 2023 i.e. 4 incidents per 100,000 population
    – Northumbria (population c. 0.3 million) with 42 ‘incidents’ i.e. 13.1 incidents per 100,000 population.

    Scotland, the ‘anti-semitic hotspot’ where a small community is facing a “progrom”: aye right! Does anyone other than those with malign motives to denigrate and gaslight Scotland think the use of such framing is appropriate and helpful? 

    Looking beyond those who undoubtedly have such motives, do the community organisations in Scotland at the forefront of these issues really think this framing – such gross misrepresentation – is at all helpful to cross-community cohesion Candidly, it has the potential to make even my mild mannered self thoroughly p….d off!

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    1. Well said Stewart and your ire is perfectly understandable, imo. It is dangerous indeed to attempt to portray Scotland as an ‘anti-semitic hotspot’,
      but most likely all manufactured to instill divide and provoke hate where none should be. Scary times.

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    2. Well considered Stewart, your opening paragraph is one on which the vast majority in Scotland would concur.

      What troubles me most is the minefield of perceptions as to what constitutes anti-semitism which is then abused on both sides, the most egregious of which turns up as propaganda on behalf of the Israeli state.

      In the IHRA definition of Anti-Semitism, eg https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/policies/justice-and-fundamental-rights/combatting-discrimination/racism-and-xenophobia/combating-antisemitism/definition-antisemitism_en the IHRA plenary observed amongst other clarifications – “Manifestations might include the targeting of the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity. However, criticism of Israel similar to that levelled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic”.

      Distortions for propaganda purposes have been no better exampled than by Eylon Levy the “British Israel spokesman” on UK media – The number of occasions this gentleman has deployed ‘holocaust denial’ in defence of the Israeli state has been appalling, but he’s far from alone in this tactic.

      As to the deplorable Express’s latest nonsense, let’s not forget who set this particular propaganda ball rolling, Mis-Reporting Scotland, 15th February..

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      1. “Well considered Stewart, your opening paragraph is one on which the vast majority in Scotland would concur...”

        I certainly do.

        “…What troubles me most is the minefield of perceptions as to what constitutes anti-semitism which is then abused on both sides, the most egregious of which turns up as propaganda on behalf of the Israeli state...”

        As far as I’m concerned, as long as references to religion are kept out of it, attacks on the State of Israel; the IDF; Netanyahu, or his government and any number of other examples aren’t antisemitic. Is expressing distaste for the Church of England appointing up to 28 Lords Spiritual “anti Anglican”; of course it isn’t. Or, concern over the Vatican’s secretive banking practices “anti Catholic”?

        i take antisemitic to mean attacks on Jews or Judaism and nothing else; not a nation state, not its army, not its government, or any of its representatives. Although applying the term exclusively to Jews is also somewhat contentious in some quarters; Google “Semitic” and you’ll find very few references to religion, you’ll be directed to rafts of articles about Semitic languages. Hebrew is a very ancient language, it predates Judaism by a long way; but its unlikely in the extreme to be the original Semitic tongue. It is generally accepted that Akkadian is the original Semitic language and that all the extant Semitic languages are descended from it; Arabic being, by far, the most dominant. Given the Akkadians founded their empire between the Tigris and Euphrates, in ancient Mesopotamia (or the Fertile Crescent), acknowledged as a cradle of civilisation (perhaps the cradle), it has a much stronger claim.

        Where religion is referenced, the term “Semitic peoples” (note the plural), now long obsolete, along with “Hamitic peoples” came from the notion that various groups were descended from the sons of Noah: Ham, in Africa; Shem [Sem] in Asia and Japeth [Iapheth] in Europe. By that token, all the people of Asia (or the known parts of it at the time) were descendants of Shem; but somehow a term that used to be applied to much larger groups (all Asians, all speakers of Semitic languages) is now applied only to a very minor group within a minor group, and is now used as a catch-all term to shut down criticism of anything and everything associated with the State of Israel, or any individual or group from it that is acting on its behalf. cf “woke” thrown at anything right-wingers don’t like, or don’t have an answer to.

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  9. Scottish people are being massacred by the hate filled austerity programme England has inflicted on us Scottish people for decades

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  11. Terence, Terence, you need to tone down the language; there are adults here. Look around; John and his regular contributors don’t go in for nativist, blood and soil, anti English rhetoric. Well researched, well presented pieces are the order of the day here.

    As ever, wherever you pop up, you manage to get an awful lot wrong in very few words. Do you think “pogroms” is appropriate; extremely violent episodes perpetrated against [usually] Jewish people, in this of all articles? Did the actions of the Unionist mob, in George Square, the day after the referendum constitute a pogrom in your fevered imagination; because that’s the closest I can think of, and nobody died.

    Your target isn’t “England and its helpers”, it is very much Westminster governments that should be your focus; it has obviously escaped your notice that people in England are suffering from Tory led austerity, and that most of the people there actually voted against it and the Tories.

    We, by that I mean the whole independence movement, can do without misplaced references to England or the English. Every time we try to explain to people that Scottish nationalism is civic nationalism and isn’t based on othering anyone, along comes an ill informed, hard of thinking idiot to make the job orders of magnitude more difficult; so stop behaving like one. England and the English aren’t the problem; the Tory establishment and, more especially, their neoliberal arriviste chums (“proud Scots, buts” amongst them) that are the problem.

    To my eternal misfortune, I’ve been aware of your anti English nonsense since before the referendum. I couldn’t begin to count the number of times you’ve been telt, across many sites, to give it a rest; but here you are, spouting the same old, same old. There are usually three types of people that post in the way you do: Unionist concern trolls stirring the pot; the useful idiots, who regurgitate their bile, because they lack the wit to see they’ve been had; or, the extreme minority who are actually blinded by hatred of England and all things English. Which are you, Terence?

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