FBI Director Christopher Wray testified at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the 5th that since the conflict between Israel and Hamas broke out, the number of reported hate cases has surged, and most of them cases against Jews .
“We’ve had, I think, a 60 percent increase in hate crime investigations after October 7th compared to before October 7th,” Wray said during his testimony .
“The biggest part of it is threats against the Jewish community, but of course there are attacks against other communities as well,” he said, referring to attacks against Muslims.
Wray, who earlier this year cited a surge in hate crime notifications and a disproportionate number of attacks against the Jewish community, said anti-Semitism in the United States had reached “historic” levels.
“The reality is that the Jewish community is disproportionately targeted by almost every kind of terrorist organization,” he told lawmakers in late October. “And when that’s referring to a group that makes up 2.4 percent of the U.S. population, that should make everyone uncomfortable. About 60% of all hate crimes are based on religion, so they need our help.”
He added that attacks on the Jewish community come from racially and ethnically motivated violent extremists, violent extremists inspired by the Islamic State (ISIS), and foreign terrorist groups.
The Anti-Defamation League, an American Jewish organization, recorded 312 anti-Semitic incidents in the first few weeks after the Israeli-Kazakhstan conflict broke out, a 388% increase compared to the same period last year.
Meanwhile, the Council on American-Islamic Relations said it received 774 reports of “bias-based incidents” from members, a significant increase from the 2022 average of 224 notifications over a 16-day period.
Rey repeatedly talked on the 5th about the negative impact of the conflict between Israel and Kazakhstan on October 7, pointing out the risk of this conflict triggering a domestic reaction in the United States.
