Jewish groups slam minister’s delay on antisemitism plan

Jewish community leaders have expressed disappointment after Education Minister Jason Clare indicated he would delay implementing recommendations from the government’s antisemitism plan until receiving a separate report on Islamophobia.

Clare told reporters he would not look at antisemitism envoy Jillian Segal’s plan “in isolation”, saying the government would wait for the special envoy on combatting Islamophobia to deliver his report next month before considering recommendations.

Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council executive director Colin Rubenstein said the minister’s approach was “flawed” and showed a “lack of seriousness” in tackling the antisemitism crisis.

“There is absolutely no reason to conflate the antisemitism crisis with this separate issue,” he said. “Doing so risks giving the impression that politics, not best policy outcomes, are motivating the Government’s response to the antisemitism plan.”

Rubenstein said the antisemitism crisis remained urgent, as demonstrated by hate crime statistics and recent events in Melbourne. He said any delay in implementing Segal’s plan suggested “hesitation that neither the Australian Jewish Community nor broader Australian society can afford”.

He said the government should adopt the antisemitism report’s recommendations “in full” and implement them “rapidly and vigorously”, warning that any suggestion it might not do so would be “deeply disappointing” and “profoundly worrying” for both national social cohesion and the Australian Jewish community’s security.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-CEO Alex Ryvchin said Jewish Australians wanted swift action. “Regardless of what reports on other issues may be presented in coming months, we expect progress in the implementation of Ms Segal’s plan,” he said.

“Ms Segal is the government’s expert adviser on addressing the specific problem of antisemitism and, after deep consultation, she has produced a clear and practical road map for ending a crisis of more than 21 months and counting. This is something that cannot wait.”

Segal’s plan contained almost 50 recommendations, including stripping universities and arts festivals of public funding if they failed to stop antisemitism, training migration officials to screen for extremists, and implementing a nationwide definition of anti-Jewish hate for all levels of government and public institutions.

Clare said he wanted to see reports from Islamophobia envoy Aftab Malik and the Race Discrimination Commissioner before the government considers “those recommendations to their final conclusion”.

Labor backbencher Ed Husic has cautioned against being “heavy-handed” and rushing to adopt Segal’s recommendations, saying the government should focus on “what brings us together” rather than using “sticks and threats of funding”.

Rubenstein expressed concern about Clare’s promise to consider Husic’s criticisms of Segal’s plan, saying some of the backbencher’s comments were “the result of factual misinformation or misunderstandings”.

“While Mr Husic is entitled to his opinion of the plan, he is not entitled to misrepresent either what the IHRA antisemitism definition, which is a key part of the plan, says, or what the research shows about growing antisemitism among young Australians,” Rubenstein said.

Ryvchin said Husic was entitled to his opinion but not “his own facts”, pointing to research showing antisemitism was becoming “more entrenched among young people”.