(ANITSEMITISM IN AUSTRALIA)
INTRODUCTION
Things move fast these days. So fast that what you say today can be out of date the very next day. When this article was written the ‘new’ Trump-Israel-Hamas ceasefire had just broken down -and violence and killing in Gaza resumed. Since then, Trump’s tariff war against the world has distracted public attention. The Israeli government moved quickly to take advantage of the West taking its eye off the ball.
On April 2/3 the IDF moved to fully occupy large areas of Gaza by forcing Palestinians out of their territory (more formally described by Israel Defence Minister Katz as “incorporating (those areas) into Israel’s security zones”). The Trump-Netanyahu plan for appropriating Gaza has begun.
This event reinforces the conclusion presented in the following article.
If you lack perspective, the way you see things is warped. Your picture of the world is distorted.
We readily accept this as fact, true, when referring to our sight. It’s also true in relation to the opinions we form about matters social and issues political.
There are many, interacting, reasons why this defect is becoming both more widespread and serious. They range from a declining interest and or ability of voter/citizens to differentiate fact from fiction, truth from propaganda ….to the deleterious side effects of social media (side-taking, emotionalism, the fostering of fear, anxiety and divisiveness). Falling living standards in a society accustomed to enjoying ever greater prosperity… weak political leadership – and heightened individualism (‘me, my rights and entitlements first’) also play a role.
Describing the aetiology of the disease is way beyond us here. But we can look at its consequences.
BEING ONE EYED
Since Oct 7 2023 there’s been a rise in antisemitism in Australia. That’s undeniably true.
The media (especially Sky News favourites Sharri Markson, Andrew Bolt and The Outsiders) frequently reach a point of near incoherence in expressing their disgust for this trend, using of words like ‘revolting’, ‘disgusting’, ‘barbaric’, ‘cowardly’, ‘abhorrent’ and ‘vile’.
Our political class has adopted this lexicon of repugnance and exaggeration. The leader of the National Country Party has gone as far to repeatedly say “we are seeing the streets of Sydney and Melbourne burn”. The leader of the Opposition levers incidences of domestic antisemitism to justify his strident support for Israel (which he variously describes as an ally, a liberal democracy – a progressive, peace-loving state).
Australia’s Jewish organisations have been hugely effective in creating the impression that their people are the victims of terrible prejudices and injustices both locally and in Israel. They have done a wonderful job. If you say anything critical of Israel you risk being branded antisemitic and therefore automatically hostile to Australian Jews. You are branded a racial monster. You’re behind the eight ball before you open your mouth, so safer not to speak at all.
Let’s look at the evidence.
WHAT AUSTRALIAN JEWRY SAYS
– “LOOK WHAT HAPPENED IN ISRAEL IN 2023 ……
• 1200 peaceful, unarmed Israeli civilians were murdered, raped, tortured or abused – most at a music festival, others in their homes.
• most of those killings were not only barbaric, they were indiscriminate; babies, women and the aged fell on that day.
• the killers were cowards, taking pleasure in the killing of unarmed Innocents whose only crime was to be Jews.
• 250 Israeli’s were taken hostage by the terrorists to use as future bargaining chips in negotiations with the Israeli Government. These hostages were abused, tortured or killed.
• Oct 7 was a second Holocaust, a repeat of the ultimate sin of modern times.
– “ISRAEL HAS TO DEFEND ITSELF……
• this is a battle for our survival- an existential fight.
• Israel has every right to use its overwhelming military might to cut out ‘terrorist’ cancers wherever they exist, irrespective of state borders.
• civilian casualties, while regrettable, are a price Israel’s enemies (Palestinians et al) just have to pay. In Israel’s case the ends do justify the means
• the IDF works diligently to keep collateral damage to an absolute minimum. The IDF is the most ethical military force in the world.
• if Israel needs to occupy and control other territories to protect itself it is justified in doing so.
• Israel is a progressive, liberal democracy – an ally of the West – one of the ‘good guys’.
• Our God gave us this land three and a half thousand years ago – the whole of Palestine, from the River To The Sea. That title trumps any ‘land rights’ others might claim .
• what happened in the Holocaust justifies all that needs to be done for us to secure a homeland and our human rights, even if it involves denying those same rights to others.
–“ANTISEMITISM IN AUSTRALIA ……
• Let’s start with the Opera House Oct 9 2023: Pro-Palestinian demonstrators march from the Sydney Town Hall to the Opera House where the blue & white colours of Israel’s flag illuminated its sails.
The crowd of around 1000 had mixed motives. Some were protesting apartheid in Israel, some celebrating Hamas’ strike-back against Israel, others their long-term resentment of a State which continues to push Arabs out of their ancestral homelands, treating them (and their religion) as second class. Cries of “fuck the Jews” and “fuck Israel” and – most upsetting of all – “gas the Jews” were reported.
The whole event lasted around three hours.
There were no major injuries. There were three arrests (two protestors and an anti-protestor). Property damage was minimal. Police investigations eventually concluded that the phrase “gas the Jews” was not used (lip reader evidence reported the chant was “where’s the Jews”).
This was no big event in the long, long history of this fractious and bloody Middle Eastern conflict. But a fuse had been lit. It was followed by a big bang, and a tsunami of outcries from the Australian Jewish community… directed by a skillful phalanx of Jewish spokesman and organisations.
Antisemitism is rife (they claim), more intense than ever before in this Country; more unfair than ever before. Here is the only democracy in the Middle East, Australia’s ally, being castigated for fighting for its very survival. Australian Jews were living in fear of discrimination and violence. Jewish schoolchildren, and their schools, are under threat. Jewish students are too afraid to attend university classes because of pro-Palestinian protests on campus. Places of worship have been firebombed. Businesses boycotted…property damaged.
State and Federal Authorities are accused of negligence for not moving fast enough to snuff out this wildfire before it spreads. Antisemitism is not being punished severely enough by the law. The police are not proactive enough. Our political class talks a lot but does little, we are being abandoned to the wolves.
The demands for protection came thick and fast.
Conspiracy theories started to circulate. Is the Labor Government going soft on ‘muslims’ because they need their votes to hold critical seats in the upcoming elections? Worst of all, why not clamp down on actions that terrify victims of The Holocaust, actions that trigger anxieties associated with even the remotest possibility of such hatreds resurfacing here in this haven of safety, our new home, Australia.
THE EVIDENCE?
• In Sydney, antisemitic graffiti sprayed on MP offices and homes in suburbs of Jewish concentration – 8 episodes reported in main media (up to Jan 25, 2025): unknown number of unreported incidents.
• number of cars burnt (3), number of cars sprayed (rough estimate, less than half a dozen).
• number of synagogues sprayed with antisemitic messages (mainly on external boundary walls (3).
• number of synagogues ‘firebombed’ one; damage minor
• A caravan in outer Sydney is discovered with significant amount sof high explosives-and the address of a Sydney synagogue on notepaper – inside. Initially reported as a suspected terrorist plot nipped in the bud by Police and Security Services. (Subsequent investigations found explosives stolen from a mine around 40 years ago, no detonators found: further Police investigation conclude organised crime figures ‘set up’ the whole thing in an attempt to win sentence reductions for assisting police).
• Two, public hospital nurses (with Muslim names) were caught (on social media) saying they would not treat Jewish patients if they came to the hospital and had already killed some. Further investigations suggest theirs might have been ‘tongue in cheek’ responses to a Jewish podcaster in an entrapment attempt. Both nurses dismissed and charged awaiting trial.
• A similar ‘sting’ was reported where a provocateur (wearing a cap with the Star of David) bought coffee at a well-known hang out for pro Palestinians. Investigation showed no symptoms of disrespect in the café – service was civil; incident exposed as a press gimmick.
• Other incidences (such as the throwing of eggs at a group of ‘Jewish’ women, extensive fire damage to a non-Jewish child daycare centre which was sprayed with antisemitic graffiti, boycotting /damage of Jewish businesses) – total numbers unknown.
Over the same period,
• The NSW Police established a dedicated task force (Operation Pearl) of 80 people to find and charge offenders. People have already been prosecuted and found guilty. Those charged have mostly been individuals, some attention seeking thugs/criminals. Links with terrorist organisations have been mooted and are under active investigation, but so far, no links to terrorist organisations have been found.
• In 2023 the Federal Government allocated $25 million, distributed through the Council for Jewish Community Security. An additional amount of $32.5 million to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry in late 2024. More Federal monies have been given to NSW to expand its protection services.
• Legislation is proposed for heavier penalties for hate-crimes, including gaol sentences of up to 5 years.
• The Commonwealth Government funded an Antisemitism Envoy who has quickly developed a high public profile.
Sydney is a city of 5.5 million people.
• In Melbourne, the US Consulate and ‘several’ MP offices were subjected to antisemitic graffiti attacks.
• significant fire damage to a synagogue, one person injured (severity of injuries unknown).
• the nature of antisemitism activities in Melbourne pretty much follow the same pattern as in Sydney – ie mostly graffiti, rare arson attacks etc. The frequency of such events is, however, lower.
Melbourne is a city of 5.3 million.
OTHER PERSPECTIVE INFLUENCING FACTS
• The Jewish population of Australia is around 120,000 (less than 0.5%). The Muslim population is seven times as big.
• Jews have occupied some of the most senior positions in the land. Australia’s most famous general was Jewish. One has been Governor General. Many have been MPs – currently one is Attorney General, another Treasurer in a previous government. Another represented Australia at Ambassadorial level. Jewish people are well represented in intellectual and academic circles, science, medicine and law, the arts, business and politics.
The Jewish community has served Australia and Australians well – and been recognised and well rewarded for that service. The Jewish community in Australia punches above its weight.
• Israel supporters (in Australia as elsewhere) often frame their dialogue as if the war started in 2023 – as if the history of what happened before October 7 2023 is of no significance. That is a smart tactic because it positions Jews as the – again – victims of barbaric forces – and it justifies massive, military retaliation in the name of both justice and security.
The longer the war continues, and the more Israel succeeds in destroying any prospect of a viable ‘two state solution’, the more the pursuit of that tactic will prove a strategic mistake. Israel may well win the war but end up losing the peace by positioning itself as a pariah state that denies others the same rights it demands for itself.
• Hyping a threat often backfires. Chicken Littles are most effective the first time they run into town screaming the sky is falling! The hundredth time they do that they might meet with no response at all.
Since Oct 7 the scoreboard of antisemitism in Australia is one physical injury and (thankfully) no deaths. This compares with 410 murders in the general population (2023), 1,300 road deaths (2024) and approximately 200,000 incidents of domestic violence (2024).
• A 2023 survey of 1,200 Australian Jews by The Jewish Independent showed that a majority of Australian Jews supported Israeli actions. The dominant sentiment in relation to Israel was “support in every way, no public criticism”. This has been the line taken by peak Jewish organisations in their dialogue with other Australians. This ‘solidarity with Israel, no matter what it does’, explains why so many Australians conflate being Jewish with being a supporter of Israel’s destruction of Gaza and Palestinian genocide.
That association does not serve Australian Jewry well. It goes a long way to explaining the rise of antisemitism in this country.
NOW CLOSE THAT EYE – AND OPEN THE OTHER
To date we’ve been looking at what’s been happening in Australia largely in response to what our Jewish community has been experiencing and saying. Let’s reverse that process – and look at what’s been happening from a Palestinian point of view.
Go back to the evening of Oct 9 2023, (the pro-Palestinian march from the Town Hall to the Sydney Opera House). It is hardly surprising (in view of what happened two days earlier in Israel) that observers (particularly Jewish observers) thought the demonstrators were chanting “fuck the Jews”. What else would they expect to hear?
A little history explains why this is so.
LONG AGO
At the turn of the century (the 20th not 21st) the population of Palestine was less than 4% Jewish, around 6% Christian and about 90% Muslim. For tens of hundreds of years this, roughly, had been the case. Jews have not been a majority in ‘Palestine’ since the 5th century.
ABOUT A CENTURY AGO
After WW1 The League of Nations mandated British control over Palestine. The British Mandate lasted from 1923 to 1948. Ironically perhaps, the core mission of the mandate (as outlined in the Balfour Declaration of 1917) was to honour Britain’s promise to support the establishment of a “Jewish homeland”.
After the rise of Hitler, many European Jews migrated to Palestine and sought to make it a safe haven, a sanctuary, a homeland in a world that was becoming ever more hostile to Jews. Supporting a larger population required more land – and achieving that objective was pursued by means fair, questionable and foul.
To accelerate the acquisition process (in face of overwhelming odds) Israelis resorted to the use of paramilitary organisations. Some defensive (Haganah), others assertive (Irgun) or violent (Stern). Irgun and Stern were classified by the powers that then were as terrorist organisations.
Conflict between the British, Jews and Arabs over land, immigration numbers and many other issues intensified and increasingly involved violence. Stern was shot in 1942, Lord Moyne (British Minister of State in the Middle East) was assassinated in Cairo in 1944 by the Jewish terrorist group Lehi. By 1947 Britain had lost 800 troops and wanted out. Its mandate buckled and then collapsed.
THE BIRTH OF ISRAEL
The newly formed UN (with Australia’s Dr Clive Evatt as Chairman of the ad hoc Committee on Palestine) played midwife to the birth of the sovereign state of Israel. The UN suggested a two state solution (resolution 181) where Palestinian Arabs ( the majority: around 2/3rds) would get 44% of the mandated area, Israel (a minority; around 1/3 rd.) 56%. But before this plan progressed Israel moved, unilaterally declaring its sovereignty. Palestinian Arabs rejected this unilateral move .
The war of 1947-49 began. In spite of the involvement of five Arab nations, Israel won the war and ended the war with 77% of the mandate’s land. Over 80% (700,000 +) Palestinian Arabs left or were forced out of the new Jewish state; without the right of return. They became refugees. Palestinians refer to this time as the Hakba, the Catastrophe. Gaza in 2024 became a second Hakba.
There have been several Arab-Israeli wars between 1948 and 2023. Israel won all of them.
Israel’s IDF is one of the most technologically advanced and powerful militaries in the world, its intelligence forces are world renowned. It also has nuclear weapons. Palestinian forces are weak.
That’s why Palestinian Arabs have no option but to fight as guerrilla forces – freedom fighters – just as Irgun (et al) did in times past when they too were classified as terrorist organisations. It would be suicide for the Hamas to try and fight a conventional war with Israel.
The leader of Irgun (Begin) went on become PM of Israel and the founder of the Party which Netanyahu now leads. The ‘terrorists’ of yesterday invariably become today’s ‘heroes’ – if and when they win and hold power. To call those Arabs fighting for their people’s rights ,‘terrorists’, is to add insult to injury. You can complain about the viciousness of their tactics but not deny their right to fight for survival.
By 2022 Israel effectively controlled Gaza.
The territory’s banking, power, fuel and water systems were under Israeli control as was the economy. Israel restricted free movement in and out of Gaza and movement between Gaza and the West Bank. In the West Bank Israel encouraged the growth of Jewish settlements in spite of UN injunctions. The living standards of Palestinians were low and falling. Unemployment high, around 25%, and rising.
Given this history, why wouldn’t Palestinians dislike, if not hate, Jews?
Maybe that hundred years of dispossession and discrimination explains why Palestinian Arabs around the world felt exalted when their people hit back against Israel in 2023. Maybe that’s why observers at the Sydney Opera House assumed the demonstrators were chanting ‘gas the Jews’?
Is it so hard to understand that Arabs are no different to Jews?
Diaspora Jews take great pride in identifying with and supporting Israel. Why shouldn’t diaspora Arabs feel the same way about their homeland? When you look at, and listen to, both sides, you can’t remain one-eyed unless you are a racist yourself.
POST OCTOBER 2023
Israel’s retaliation to October 7 has been swift and devastating.
The facts below relate to what has happened in Gaza. Similar, if less dramatic, stories can be told re The West Bank and Lebanon .
Within a period of fourteen months,
• somewhere around 45,000 Gazans have been killed (and another 500+ since the breakdown of the ceasefire in February 2025).
• somewhere around 250,000 injured or wounded by military ordinance/IDF troops.
• somewhere near 2 million+ civilians forced from their homes. Many of these have been forced to ‘relocate’ several times.
• the education system has been destroyed. Israa, the last remaining university in Gaza was demolished by the IDF on January 17 2024.
• the hospital system has been destroyed. It is reported approximately 1000 doctors and nurses have been killed.
• agricultural land has been laid waste, causing near famine like conditions. Malnutrition is rampant
• over 70% of domestic dwellings have been rendered uninhabitable or destroyed.
fresh water supplies are non-existent in many areas.
• the sewerage system is broken.
• power (electricity) and fuel supplies have dwindled.
• 117 mosques and 10 churches are said to have been severely damaged or destroyed.
• Israel has consciously and severely restricted the inflow of UN (and other) aid into Gaza. Critical food, medical and fuel supplies have been blocked, and trucks attacked to stop aid getting through.
• Hamas (Hezbollah and other) leaders have been assassinated.
• Israel has ignored General Assembly Resolutions of the UN. Ditto admonitions from International Courts.
• 70% of Gazans are unemployed. Even where employed, per capita income is around US$850 per annum and rapidly falling.
And to top it all off,
• Trump announces his crazy plan to permanently clear this ‘demolition site’ of its people to build an American owned new ‘Riviera’.
If you were of Arab descent why wouldn’t you protest against these outrages?
WHAT DO PALESTINIANS WANT
Israel’s blind, moralistic revenge-taking for Oct7 is but another chapter in Israel’s long held and cooly, determined intent to take control of the whole of Palestine, from the river to the sea.
An exaggeration? I don’t think so.
The day after Trump announced his Gaza-without-Gazans plan (in the White House sitting in front of a cosy fire alongside a beaming Netanyahu) a survey in Israel showed upwards of 80% of Israelis approved the Trump vision. I don’t know how credible that study is. But if it even is half right there’s no exaggeration in what I said above.
That the Israeli policy of using ‘overwhelming force’ (of ‘mowing the lawn’ every now and to keep things neat and tidy) doesn’t work is shown by a different survey (Artis International, Oxford University: Changing Nature of war Centre, PSR-Jan 2025).
That study of Palestinians concludes that what happened over 2024 has reinforced, not weakened, Palestinians resolve to resist Israel.
That shouldn’t be a surprising result. It’s basic psychology. Push someone far enough, denigrate them enough, abuse them enough and they’ll not only hate you, they’ll strike back. Israel has just sowed the seed for future terrorist attacks against itself. Guaranteed.
Three survey highlights prove the point.
• Palestinians support for ‘two state solution’: pre Oct 7-60% – Jan 2025-48%
• Palestinians support for dissolution of Israel: pre Oct 7-20% – Jan 2025-47%
• support for variants of living in the one state (and other solutions): pre Oct 7-20% – Jan 2025-5%.
There are no signs of capitulation here.
Practitioners of Realpolitik in Israel know this, hence their policy of ethnic cleansing.
The only way to remove future threats is to annihilate your opposition by using all means necessary. When Israel says total war it means it. Morality, justice and fairness don’t factor in the equation. All that matters is winning. And that, unfortunately, is very bad news for Palestinians everywhere…and for Israel itself because, in the long run, it means Israel runs the very real risk of being shunned by the world’s democracies, not just Arab countries.
IN CONCLUSION
One can understand the alertness and sensitivity of Jews given their long history of oppression, a history which only recently culminated in that most horrific of inhumanities, the Holocaust. No people could better understand the full meaning of the word ‘persecution’.
But if Australian Jewry, persists in always positioning itself as the eternal blameless victim, a small minority of ‘good guys’ that is forever being unfairly treated because of religion and racism; a community that always gives unqualified support to Israel, no matter what – it can only expect antisemitism in Australia to grow.
I neither love nor hate Jews. I neither love nor hate Palestinians, or any other peoples for that matter. People and Governments need to be judged by the truth in what they say -and even more importantly – by the truths revealed in what they do.
And by those criteria Israel does have a case to answer.
Why has Israel persistently, since its inception, denied Palestinians the same rights it so forcibly demands for itself? Avoiding that question only serves to weaken Israel’s standing and the reputation of Australian Jewry. Failure to answer this question, is an indictment.
It’s a wonder that, in spite of the immense sufferings visited on Gaza, Lebanon and the West Bank in the past sixteen months, antisemitism hasn’t risen more in this country.
And that speaks well for the future of a multicultural Australia.