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Almost Half of Britons Hold Antisemitic Views: Poll

© REUTERS / Amir CohenAn ultra-Orthodox Jewish man lights a candle.
An ultra-Orthodox Jewish man lights a candle. - Sputnik International
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It turns out that almost half of British citizens who have traditionally been most tolerant, hold antisemitic views at least, according to a recent poll.

Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men - Sputnik International
Survey Suggests Anti-Semitism Increasing in UK, Results Disputed in Kent
MOSCOW, January 14 (Sputnik) — Almost half of British citizens hold antisemitic views, the British activist network Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) said Wednesday in the findings of the new poll.

The poll, conducted by YouGov global research company and commissioned by CAA, suggests that 45 percent of British adults agree with one of four antisemitic statements presented in the questionnaire, the activist network reported.

"Whilst antisemitism in Britain is not yet at the levels seen in most of Europe, the results of our survey should be a wakeup call. Britain is at a tipping point: unless antisemitism is met with zero tolerance, it will continue to grow and British Jews may increasingly question their place in their own country," CAA said in the foreword to the report.

The research revealed that a quarter of Britons believed that Jews chase money more than other British people.

One in five Britons supposed that Jews are less loyal to Britain due to their loyalty to Israel, according to the poll. Meanwhile, almost one fourth (17 percent) believed that Jews considered themselves to be better than other people and had too much influence on the media.

The poll also found that more than one in eight respondents thought that Jewish people "use the Holocaust as a means of gaining sympathy."

The poll was conducted in December 2014 – January 2015; almost 3,500 adult UK residents were questioned.

In a separate survey carried out by the CAA, almost 70 percent of British Jews said that the Jewish community has to protect itself because the state does not protect it enough, while 54 percent feared they had no future in the country.

The number of assaults on Jews in Britain in 2014 is set to be the highest recorded in the past 30 years, the Community Security Trust, a UK charitable fund with a focus on the security of the Jewish population in the country, reported in December. The exact figures will not be released until February 2015 but the number is likely to exceed 1,000, the charity said.

England is home to the second largest Jewish population in Europe and the fifth largest Jewish community worldwide, according to the European Jewish Congress.

The Jewish population in Britain stands at almost 270,000 persons, or half of one percent of the total population, according to the 2011 census.

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