A ‘turning point’ in the fight against hate
"We are appalled, and we are heartbroken," said NSW Premier Chris Minns.
“Today is a day of action,” declared Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) co-CEO Alex Ryvchin at last Thursday’s Sky News Antisemitism Summit as leaders from across politics and civil society gathered at Central Synagogue in Sydney.
“We face a crisis that has brought open support for terrorism to our streets … a crisis that has undermined the effectiveness and public confidence in our universities, schools, hospitals and cultural festivals,” Ryvchin said.
“We are determined that this [summit] will mark a turning point in the battle for our country.”
Co-organiser Sharri Markson said that just two years ago, “We never could have imagined we’d all be here convening an antisemitism summit … we will not accept this as our new reality.”
While expressing gratitude to government and law enforcement for their response to specific incidents, special envoy to combat antisemitism Jillian Segal lamented that it “has been reactive”.
“We must become proactive, identifying and dismantling the underlying sources of antisemitism before they manifest and before they become totally normalised,” she said.
Introduced to a standing ovation, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said ASIO director-general Mike Burgess’s assessment that tolerating hate speech had led to violence should be taken “very seriously”.
“The law hasn’t been enforced and there has been no deterrent, and therefore people continue to march across the red lines,” he said, adding it was a problem for “every Australian”.
Former federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg said if antisemitism is left unchecked, “The wall in our society which keeps the mob at bay will come crumbling down.”
Speaking on a law and order panel, former home affairs secretary Mike Pezzullo said that while the Jewish community “is feeling this viscerally, this is actually an attack on Australia’s national security”.
He catalogued three networks, “which are actually quite disparate, all hating Jewish people”, including hard-left campus-based activists, white supremacists and neo-Nazis, and hardcore Islamists “who are looking to attack Jewish people”.
“It’s actually very hard to attack Israel, Israeli airlines, Israeli assets and people,” he said, and instead they attack “what is perceived to be a weak spot”.
NSW Premier Chris Minns also received a standing ovation for a speech in which he expressed that “we are appalled, and we are heartbroken” at the antisemitism scourge, and again said he was “deeply ashamed” that the October 9 Opera House riot happened on his watch.
Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, however, was jeered when he defended the Albanese government’s record on dealing with antisemitism and assessed the Opposition of sowing division and weaponising antisemitism, a charge repeated by Foreign Minister Penny Wong this week.
Former prime minister John Howard, Member for Berowra Julian Leeser, musician Deborah Conway and Israeli ambassador Amir Maimon were among other speakers at the summit, which also included a panel comprising Holocaust survivors.
Concluding the summit, Ryvchin presented an action plan.
Among other points, he called for a national emergency to be declared and a joint counterterrorism taskforce established. Antisemitism education should be included in the national curriculum with more public awareness campaigns, especially for youth.
On campus, he called for a national ban on encampments, on protesters disrupting lectures, a judicial inquiry into antisemitism and for universities to disclose all sources of foreign funding.
Charity status and funding should be repealed from religious and charitable institutions if they promote racism or display terrorist symbols, Ryvchin said, while there should be greater scrutiny to ensure charities do not support terrorism.
He said antisemitic conduct should be grounds to reject or cancel a visa, with immigration officers trained to recognise it.
Finally, Ryvchin said, there should be laws to regulate social media algorithms, government grants to cultural organisations should be conditioned on them not spreading racism, and there should be a balance of representation on literary and cultural festival boards.
Ryvchin also noted that the summit should have been hosted by public bodies “who are funded to fight racism, defend human rights and maintain societal harmony”.
“They have failed us. Through their indifference to Jewish human rights they have betrayed the ideals they claim to uphold,” he said.
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