Alarming spike in anti-Semitism

WHILE some forms of anti-Semitic abuse waned in the past year, alarming spikes were recorded, with overall reported incidents of violence, vandalism and intimidation up by almost a third of the previous average.

In his yearly Report on Anti-Semitism in Australia to the annual meeting of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ), Jeremy Jones, director of international and community affairs at the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, portrayed a disturbing picture of trends for the 12 months to September this year.

The ECAJ report found graffiti was on the rise – more than a fifth above the average for the 21 years the report has been compiled – and at the highest rate in five years. Incidents included messages such as “Jews did 9/11” scrawled on the wall of a Sydney shopping centre and swastikas spray-painted on cars parked in a suburb with a high Jewish population in Melbourne. Hate email also crept up, five per cent over the average.

And while other forms of anti-Semitic abuse declined from the previous average, there were many despicable incidents. Violent attacks included the attempted arson of a Jewish educational institution in Sydney, the harassment of an elderly man entering a Sydney synagogue and eggs hurled at congregants outside Melbourne synagogues.

Two men repeatedly screamed abuse, including “f******g Jewish c***s”, at rabbis and worshippers walking home from a Sydney synagogue, the report stated.

Phone intimidation and hate mail were significantly lower this year, but there were incidents such as a letter containing white powder and the word “Jew” and a picture of a coffin sent to a Jewish home in Perth.

Anti-Semites have taken to new media – an anti-Semitic SMS sent to a Jewish man in Melbourne proclaimed: “No wonder they [sent] you lot to the gas chambers …,” while traditional communications were also abused – with anti-Semitic leaflets placed in letterboxes.

Jones noted the continuing trend by anti-Semites – including fringe right-wing groups and Islamist organisations in Australia – to use the internet, where conventional curbs on comment, such as the requirements of truthfulness and accuracy, were far lower. But disturbingly, he also found a tendency in the established media to increasingly neglect these standards as the race to publish news online and in print accelerates.

Of particular concern in his latest report was the rise of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement in Australia. Jones noted the Australian Greens’ support for BDS activities, but also the party’s offence at News Limited commentator David Penberthy’s description of blacklists as “a polite modern rendering of Kristallnacht”.

But he was generally upbeat about Australian society’s ability to withstand anti-Semitism. “There is no evidence to suggest that Australians in general think of Jews in negative terms. Australia does not have a past to which anti-Semites can comfortably look with nostalgia, which distinguishes it from many other countries.”

PETER KOHN

AIJAC’s Jeremy Jones compiled the report.