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The disturbing rise of anti-Semitic intimidation and incidents is widespread throughout Europe, although with significant variations in the number of cases and the accuracy of reporting. European governments in most countries now view anti-Semitism as a serious problem for their societies and demonstrate a greater willingness to address the issue. The Vienna-based European Union Monitoring Center (EUMC), for 2002 and 2003, identified France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Belgium, and The Netherlands as EU member countries with notable increases in incidents. As these nations keep reliable and comprehensive statistics on anti-Semitic acts, and are engaged in combating anti-Semitism, their data was readily available to the EUMC. Governments and leading public figures condemned the violence, passed new legislation, and mounted positive law enforcement and educational efforts.
In Western Europe, traditional far-right groups still account for a significant proportion of the attacks against Jews and Jewish properties; disadvantaged and disaffected Muslim youths increasingly were responsible for most of the other incidents. This trend appears likely to persist as the number of Muslims in Europe continues to grow while their level of education and economic prospects remain limited.
United Kingdom
Anti-Semitic incidents included physical attacks, harassment, desecration of property, vandalism and hateful speech, and racist letters and publications. The Community Security Trust, an organization that analyzed threats to the Jewish community and coordinated with police to provide protection to Jewish community institutions, recorded 511 anti-Semitic incidents between July 2003 and June 2004.
On June 25, near Manchester, a group of five persons physically assaulted a rabbi while shouting anti-Semitic statements. In October 2003, a man driving past Borhamwood Synagogue shouted anti-Semitic statements at members of the synagogue's security team.
The media also reported instances of desecration of synagogues, Jewish cemeteries, and religious texts. On June 17, vandals caused a fire in the South Tottenham United Synagogue that resulted in the destruction of Jewish prayer books smuggled out of Central Europe before World War II. On June 18, in an apparently unrelated incident, a suspicious fire damaged a synagogue and Jewish educational center in Hendon. On August 22, cemetery officials discovered the desecration of approximately 60 gravestones in a Jewish cemetery in Birmingham. Police charged two suspects with racially aggravated criminal damage, racially aggravated public disorder, and causing racially aggravated harassment, alarm, or distress. In November, vandals spray-painted swastikas and other Nazi symbols on 15 gravestones in a Jewish cemetery in Aldershot.
Nazi slogans and swastikas were painted on 11 Jewish gravestones at a Southampton cemetery in July 2003, and 20 Jewish gravestones were damaged at Rainsough cemetery in Manchester in August 2003. Police investigated the attacks as a racist incident. In November 2003, vandals desecrated 21 graves at a Jewish cemetery in Chatham, East Kent. Later in November, a deliberately set fire caused severe damage to the Hillock Hebrew Congregation near Manchester, and, in a separate incident, attackers used bricks to smash the windows of London's Orthodox Edgware Synagogue.
Members of some far-right political parties--such as the BNP, the National Front, and the White Nationalist Party--and some extremist Muslim organizations, such as Al-Muhajiroun, occasionally gave speeches or distributed literature expressing anti-Semitic beliefs, including denials that the Holocaust occurred.
The Crown Prosecution Service advised victims of anti-Semitic attacks on how to report the incidents and press charges against the assailants. Police services investigated anti-Semitic attacks, in addition to providing additional protection to Jewish community events where threat levels were considered to be elevated. The Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act of 2001 made it a crime to commit a religiously aggravated offense such as assault, criminal damage, or harassment. The Act also extended the prohibition against incitement to racial hatred to include cases where the hatred was directed at groups located outside the country. In addition, a 2003 regulation explicitly prohibiting racial harassment and a 1980 case law establishing Jews as a racial group provide legal protection against anti-Semitism. Authorities charged 18 persons with religiously aggravated offenses (the religious affiliation of the victims was not released) between December 2001 and March 2003, the most recent period for which data are available; of these, 8 were convicted.
In December 2003, new employment equality regulations regarding religion (or other belief) entered into force. The regulations prohibit employment discrimination based on religious belief, except where there is a "genuine occupational requirement" of a religious nature.
On October 19, police charged Abu Hamza al-Masri with four counts of soliciting or encouraging the killing of Jewish persons based on recordings of some of his addresses to public meetings.
Officials regularly reiterated the government's commitment to addressing anti-Semitism and protecting Jewish citizens through law enforcement and education. In February, Queen Elizabeth II awarded Nazi war crimes investigator Simon Wiesenthal an honorary knighthood in recognition of his efforts to counter anti-Semitism.
much more and a very informative read
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/40258.htm
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