Anti-Semitic attacks remain high

Graffiti appeared on this block of flats during 2005, the CST said

A report said there were more incidents of anti-Semitism in Greater Manchester in 2005 than anywhere outside London.

The Community Security Trust (CST) said 29% of incidents happened in the area, which has a large Jewish community in north Manchester, Bury and Salford.

These included 33 violent incidents - 40% of the national total of physical anti-Semitic attacks.

The CST said figures were based on incidents reported directly to itself rather than police statistics.

They ranged from physical assaults to attacks on cemeteries and offensive e-mails, including the knocking over of 96 headstones at the Rainsough Jewish cemetery in Prestwich in June.

The CST said there were 455 anti-Semitic incidents in total, of which 213 were in Greater London and 132 in Greater Manchester.

The total number of incidents nationally had fallen by 14% since 2004, but still remained higher than at any point before the outbreak of violence between Israelis and Palestinians in 2004, the report said.