Analysing antisemitism after 7 October
Jewish Community Centre London (JW3)
5 March 2024, 7–8.30 pm
Join us for a roundtable discussion featuring the Institute for Jewish Policy Research and the Decoding Antisemitism research project.
The events of 7 October, the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust, along with the subsequent Israeli response in Gaza, mark a pivotal moment in the Arab-Israeli conflict and Jewish life worldwide. They have sparked extensive media and public response and fervent reactions from all sides. Social media has been central to the way this response has played out over the past months – fierce debates have been joined by denial, distortion and the harassment and abuse of Jewish and Israeli social media users. How have these events affected Jewish communities in the UK? What patterns can be found in the online responses to the Hamas attacks and the subsequent war? What do the data being generated by the community and global polling agencies tell us about the current state of antisemitism in the UK, both on- and offline? This event brings together researchers from the Institute for Jewish Policy Research and the Decoding Antisemitism project, who will present the latest findings regarding trends both online and offline during this escalation phase, and discuss potential courses of action within an increasingly toxic social climate.
Contributions
- Dr Jonathan Boyd, Executive Director of the London-based Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR) will share JPR’s recent research looking at British social attitudes towards Israel and the Palestinians in the aftermath of 7 October and how British Jews are shifting politically as a result of reaction to the Hamas attacks, as well as the latest antisemitic incident data.
- Dr Matthias J. Becker, lead of the Berlin-based international Decoding Antisemitism project (DA), along with colleagues Dr Matthew Bolton and Karolina Placzynta, will present the project’s analysis of online reactions to the Hamas attacks and Israeli military operations on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. They will show how the initial social media response to 7 October represented a turning point in online discourse about Israel, and track the development of the subsequent debate. They will also discuss how current trends in the English-language online discourse about Israel compare to those visible in other countries examined by the DA project. The event marks the publication of the project’s latest Discourse Report and an open-access Guide to the identification of antisemitism online, including the distinction between legitimate critique and antisemitic rhetoric.
For registration, please check the JW3 website!
