WASHINGTON: Discrimination and attacks against Muslims and Palestinians rose by about 70 per cent in the United States in the first half of 2024 amid heightened Islamophobia due to Israel’s aggression in Gaza, the Council on American-Islamic Relations advocacy group said on Tuesday.

Human rights advocates have reported a global rise in Islamo­phobia, anti-Palestinian bias and antisemitism since the eruption in October of the Israeli invasion which has killed tens of thousands and caused a humanitarian crisis.

In the first six months of 2024, CAIR said it received 4,951 complaints of anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian incidents, a rise of nearly 70pc compared with the same period in 2023.

Most of the complaints were in the categories of immigration and asylum, employment discrimination, education discrimination and hate crimes, CAIR said.

In 2023, CAIR documented 8,061 such complaints in the whole year, including about 3,600 in the last three months after Israel invaded Gaza.

Alarming US incidents in the last nine months include the fatal October stabbing of a 6-year-old Palestinian-American child in Illinois, the February stabbing of a Palestinian-American man in Texas, the shooting of three students of Palestinian descent in Vermont in November and the attempted drowning of a 3-year-old Palestinian-American girl in May.

There have been numerous protests in the US, Israel’s key ally, against brutalities in Gaza since October. The CAIR report noted the crackdown by police and university authorities on pro-Palestinian protests and encampments on campuses.

CAIR says it compiles numbers by reviewing public statements and videos as well as reports from public calls, emails and an online complaint system. It also contacts people whose incidents are reported by media.

Published in Dawn, July 31st, 2024