TORONTO (JTA) — Recorded anti-Semitic incidents reached an all-time high in Canada last year, indicates B’nai Brith’s annual audit. The yearly tally, released June 11, shows there were 1,627 reported anti-Semitic incidents in 2014, a 28 percent increase over the year before. .... The previous record was 1,345 incidents in 2012.
Most cases last year – 84 percent or 1,370 incidents – involved harassment; there were 238 reported incidents of vandalism, or 15 percent of all cases; and 1 percent of recorded incidents, or 19 cases, involved violence.
Reported incidents of vandalism in 2014 declined over the year before by nearly 40 percent. But cases of harassment increased by nearly 30 percent.
Overall, most incidents – 961 – were in Ontario, followed by Quebec and Atlantic Canada at 259. That is “consistent with years past,” BBC stated.
n July and December, coinciding with the kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers and July’s Israeli ground offensive against Palestinian militants in Gaza.
The summer incidents “mirror what has occurred in previous years when Israel is in a state of conflict,” the audit stated.
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