Aussies in Tel Aviv rally against Australian Palestine recognition
“This is a protest for all Aussies, no matter where you are,” said Michael Frum, one of the organisers.
(THE TIMES OF ISRAEL) Some three dozen Australian–Israelis and their supporters rallied outside the Australian embassy in Tel Aviv to protest what they described as Canberra’s complacency towards antisemitism and appeasement of terrorism.
Protesters cited a series of violent incidents against Jews in Australia and accused Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong of giving a reward for the Hamas-led onslaught of 7 October 2023 by announcing plans to recognise a Palestinian state this month.
Bearing Australian and Israeli flags, protesters chanted “Am Yisrael Chai” and “Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi Oi Oi,” as well as “Protect your mates, no terror state.” Some passing drivers honked in approval.
“This is a protest for all Aussies, no matter where you are,” said Michael Frum, one of the organisers.
Lisa Segelov, who had engaged in pro-Israel public diplomacy in Australian media since the 7 October attack, said there had been an “infiltration and normalisation of terror in Australia,” and that the relationship between Israel and Australia had “hit an all-time low.”
Jews in Australia were now “afraid to wear a kippa, afraid to wear a Magen David, afraid to put a mezuza on their door, afraid to walk their children home from Jewish day school,” said Segelov, describing the situation as a departure from the “Australian values” of mutual respect that she and her classmates were taught decades ago.
Segelov and Frum both cited the arson attack at the Adass Israel synagogue in Melbourne last year, which Albanese, Wong and the Australian intelligence chief condemned and blamed last week on Iran.
Frum, clad in an Australian cricket jersey, told The Times of Israel that he thought the Australian government had known for some time about Iranian antisemitic plots, and went public with the accusation only after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “called out” Albanese for being “weak.”
Frum also accused the Albanese government of having failed to arrest people who allegedly chanted “gas the Jews” at an anti-Israel rally outside the Sydney Opera House on 9 October 2023, two days after the Hamas-led attack.
In February 2024, Australian police said analysis of footage from the protest indicated there had been no such chant by protesters. The Zionist Federation of Australia responded at the time that, in any case, other antisemitic chants were heard at the rally.
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