Our say

Hoax v hate

We have lived through Australia's crisis of hate against Jews.

NSW Premier Chris Minns and NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb. Photo: AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts
NSW Premier Chris Minns and NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb. Photo: AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts

How dare anyone, especially the Greens, declare that the findings that the Dural caravan threat was a hoax mean that there is no problem with antisemitism in this country?

We have lived through Australia’s crisis of hate against Jews. It is not up to a senior member of a party that has constantly baited and gaslit our community to decide that this crisis is not real.

Notwithstanding the history of antisemitic comments by Dural plot criminal mastermind Sayet Erhan Akca, there is ample evidence, which Mehreen Faruqi has selectively chosen to ignore, that there is still a very real problem with widespread antisemitism in Australia.

The doxxing of 600 Jewish creatives was not the work of organised crime gangs. Neither was the torching of a Jewish leader’s former house or that of a Maroubra day care centre. Organised crime gangs did not scrawl “Jews die” on the wall of Mount Scopus College.

Nor did they firebomb the Adass Israel Synagogue, which we are grateful to both the government and opposition for pledging significant funds to rebuild this week.

Then there is the just-released online survey from the Australian Academic Alliance Against Antisemitism (5A) where 67 per cent of respondents had personally experienced antisemitic comments at university, and only 38 per cent of students and 36 per cent of academic staff felt safe on campus. Last time we checked, while extremist Islamist groups are active on campus, bikie gangs are not.

We shouldn’t be surprised to see the Greens play politics with the wellbeing of our community by demanding the repeal of laws meant to keep us safe. But it seems the rest of Australia has woken up to the extreme left party’s grubby tactics, with a new poll predicting it will go backwards at the next election.

On a positive note, it was a pleasure this week to listen to a speaker not from our community who understands completely what is happening in Australia, and indeed, around the world.

Elica Le Bon is a rare voice of courage and clarity in a world gone mad who understands the importance of standing up for what is right.

The world, and for that matter Australia, needs more voices like hers.

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