The J7 antisemitism task force, an alliance of seven major Jewish communities outside Israel, released a report on 29 July documenting a record surge in hostility. Across Argentina, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States – home to over 90% of Jews living outside Israel – the group recorded more than 23,000 antisemitic incidents in 2025, a 136 per cent increase from the 9,800 cases logged in 2022. At least twenty people were killed in antisemitic attacks in Australia, the UK and the US, making it the deadliest year for diaspora Jews since the 1994 AMIA centre bombing in Buenos Aires that claimed 85 lives. The single deadliest event was a mass shooting at a Hanukkah festival near Bondi Beach, Australia, which killed sixteen people. Germany registered the highest absolute number of cases (8,725) and the highest rate, at nearly 70 incidents per 1,000 Jewish residents. The report described antisemitism as a “new normal” and urged governments to move beyond reactive responses, calling for adequate security funding, stronger laws and enforcement by social media platforms.

In an interview with the Hebrew daily Maariv, former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert acknowledged the dangerous development but insisted that attributing the rise to mere hostility or flawed Israeli public relations was “burying one’s head in the snow.” He contended that the world “can no longer tolerate the savage attacks by criminal Jews on Palestinians in the West Bank” and that “hostile, racist and arrogant statements” by Israeli ministers and lawmakers were “disgusting” global opinion. The J7 report itself noted that antizionism was a leading driver, accounting for 48 per cent of incidents in the UK and 45 per cent in the US. Incidents rose sharply in the years following the Hamas-led attack of 7 October 2023 and Israel’s subsequent war in Gaza; although the 2025 total dipped slightly from 2024, it remained far above pre-October 7 levels.

Olmert’s linkage draws on a catalogue of documented violence. The UN Human Rights Office recently expressed alarm at Israeli plans to expand settlements and at threats to turn the West Bank into “another Gaza.” It reported that Israeli settlers and security forces – often acting jointly – had attacked communities, burnt a mosque, and killed eight Palestinians, including a child, during a single week. In late June, a UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry concluded that Israel had “destroyed the essence of childhood” for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, singling out a systematic campaign that the commission described as genocidal. One incident widely circulated online involved an Israeli sniper shooting a baby in the head while the infant was being breastfed.

The Israeli government, according to the Persian-language report that quoted Olmert, has repeatedly rejected warnings from Jewish organisations that its military conduct would inflame global antisemitism, insisting the attacks on Jews are unrelated to its actions. As Israelis prepare to head to the polls on 27 October for the first election since the October 7 massacre, the Jerusalem Post editorialises that voters deserve a clear record of their government’s wartime decisions, including its messaging to Washington. The J7 task force’s call for preventive security measures leaves open the question of whether governments will shift their approach; the dossier remains deeply interwoven with the unresolved cycle of violence in the occupied Palestinian territories.