Education on the ‘root cause’
Leach was speaking at a WIZO Australia lunch in Sydney on Sunday, where he detailed parts of his 20-year plan to educate Australians.
Mark Leach has left his role as a pastor to focus on the Christian movement he founded, Never Again is Now, and aims to further mobilise the Church against antisemitism.
Leach was speaking at a WIZO Australia lunch in Sydney on Sunday, where he detailed parts of his 20-year plan to educate Australians.
“The antisemitism we’ve seen since October 7 is just a symptom of what’s happened and what’s gone wrong in our culture, it’s not the root cause,” Leach said.
“What we have to do is address the root cause.
“We need to understand, expose and push back against the radical left – the idea that all of life can be understood in simple binary terms – the oppressed and the oppressor. We have to push back against jihadist Islam.
“We need to understand there’s a difference between religious Islam and political Islam.
“Over the next 20 years we need to educate Australia.”
Leach, whose mother fled Nazi Germany in 1938, maintains the silent majority in Australia supports Israel, telling guests “you need to know you’re not alone”.
Leach’s daughter Freya also spoke at the event and described navigating the pro-Palestinian encampments at the University of Sydney, where she is a student.
She has been outspoken in her support of Israel and the Jewish community and believes vice-chancellor Mark Scott should resign for not doing enough to address antisemitism on campus.
“These protests that are there now, they’re not about creating discussion, they’re not even about convincing students that we should support a Palestininan state,” Freya said.
“It’s about occupying space to intimidate and threaten other students into silence and when challenged, they don’t engage.
“I tried to have a conversation, but no one would talk to me. Not a single person in the encampment would condemn Hamas, not a single person would even admit that October 7 happened.”
AUJS NSW co-president Danielle Tischmann, a USYD student, said it has been hard to articulate just why walking to class and hearing calls for “intifada” has been troublesome for Jewish students.
“To the university administration, ‘intifida’ has been labelled as revolution,” Tischmann said.
“Our work with AUJS is focused on creating a safe space for Jewish students to feel proud of their Jewish identity on campus.
“That’s where universities need to take responsibility.”
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