OHPI: ‘Normalisation of antisemitism’ in Australia
Report finds over half of analysed comments on London ambulance attack were antisemitic.
The Online Hate Prevention Institute (OHPI) released a report on Monday examining Australian responses to the attack on four Hatzola ambulances in Golders Green, London, on March 23, with its findings demonstrating “the normalisation of antisemitism in Australian society”.
The OHPI looked at a Facebook post by the Australian Financial Review (AFR) linking to their article about the attack, which stated, “Iranian sleeper cells ‘activated’ for London Jewish ambulance bombing”.
It found most people reacted with laughter to the news of the attack. An analysis of the first almost 600 comments showed that about 10 per cent had been removed by moderation, and of the remaining 523 comments over half were considered antisemitic.
“The nature of the antisemitic content was similar to what we saw after the Bondi attack, and after the attacks on synagogues in Melbourne. A dominant theme was that it was a ‘false flag’ attack and 30 per cent of all the comments (153 comments) claimed Israel (or specifically Mossad) was behind the attack.
A further four per cent of all the comments (22 comments) blamed the Jewish community itself for the attack,” OHPI stated.
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