Erin Molan on standing up for Israel

Journalist Erin Molan delivered a powerful address at St Kilda Shule on September 14, where she was warmly received by the crowd of over 500 with standing ovations. Molan has become a leading advocate for Israel and against antisemitism in the wake of the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks.

Molan said this journey began for her when she spoke out against the October 7 Hamas attacks as a presenter on Sky News Australia, and was shocked by how many justified the attacks as ‘resistance’ or were silent.

“When October 7 happened, I was… absolutely appalled and sickened beyond comprehension. But I wasn’t as worried until I saw what happened on October 9 here in this country, because I knew the evil that existed within extremists… we will always have a few bad eggs… But what terrified me was the silence that followed, not just from our leaders, who were weak and who were pathetic in the aftermath of that, because that was our moment. That was our moment as a country, to stand up and say, ‘We do not accept that, not on this land, not on my watch’.”

On October 9, 2023, an anti-Israel crowd gathered at the Opera House to celebrate the Hamas attacks and yelled ‘Where’s the Jews?’.

“It was those days in the aftermath when I heard our police tell the Jewish community to stay home rather than protect them”, who, “provided a safe space for people celebrating not free speech, [but] incitement to violence, hate speech,” she said.

Molan said she was shocked by the public reaction not only in Australia but around the world.

“The reaction of the world, not just here but all over, terrified me… There is absolutely nothing complex about this issue. It is good versus evil, and the willingness in which people jumped onto a side that murders, slaughters, rapes, kills, kidnaps, and not only do they do that… but the joy they derive from doing that, is another element that is so sadistic and sick. When I saw people who I had once thought to be decent…suddenly coming out with ‘resistance’ was beyond comprehension.”

Molan has visited Israel several times since October 7, 2023.  In December 2024 she visited the sites of the atrocities and saw the raw footage of the Hamas attacks.  In May this year she received the Atlas Awards for Moral Courage, and in June she was in Israel during Iran’s missile attacks on Israel.  She reported live from Israel about the war interviewing Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar and Israel’s President Isaac Herzog.

Molan told the audience, “It is a privilege and such an honour to stand up for your people. It is the greatest purpose I’ve ever felt, and I will do so for the rest of my life, and I will do so proudly.”

But Molan noted her support came with a cost, “I had to give my little girl to her father, who is a policeman, for a period of time because the police were worried about the validity of death threats that were coming in.”

She praised her late father Liberal senator and Major General Jim Molan, a friend of the Australian Jewish community, for teaching her how to stand up for what is right, “Dad always raised us kids to do what was right even when it was difficult… and Dad lived his entire life in that way… And in some way, I feel as close to him as I ever have, and I feel like he’s on this journey with me.”