Report exposes shocking online hate following shule arsons
There have been efforts to deny there is a problem, blame the Jewish community for incidents that have occurred, and to attack the Special Envoy and her Plan to Combat Antisemitism
Online responses to antisemitic arson attacks on Melbourne synagogues have included celebration of the violence, conspiracy theories blaming the Jewish community itself, and posts declaring there should be no synagogues in Australia, according to a new report.
The Online Hate Prevention Institute study documented over 100 examples of harmful online content following two attacks – the recent fire at East Melbourne Synagogue and the late 2024 attack that gutted the Adass Synagogue.
One commenter used Hamas symbols in a post declaring “Never Forgive”, “Never Forget” while advocating “resistance” and calling for “Death, death to the IDF”. The post not only supported terrorism but also targeting places of worship in Australia.
Other users suggested Jews were responsible for the attacks themselves, with some deploying the antisemitic “Happy Merchant” meme – an image traced back to 2004 when it appeared on a white supremacist website’s section promoting antisemitism.
One account, created earlier this year with a username including “zero sympathy”, framed the attacks by saying there should be no synagogues in Australia and declaring there are no good Jews. The account’s profile picture depicted a Jew poisoning a well, referencing an ancient antisemitic trope.
The report highlighted how conspiracy narratives blamed either Israeli or Australian intelligence services for the fires, while other posts welcomed the attacks or sought to justify them and encourage further incidents.
Online Hate Prevention Institute chief executive Dr Andre Oboler said these responses reflected how antisemitism had become normalised in Australia.
“They deny and deflect from what has become an antisemitism crisis,” Oboler said. “By claiming the antisemitism isn’t real, and that serious and high-profile incidents are simply hoaxes, and many claim these are hoaxes perpetrated by the Jewish community itself, they seek to build a tolerance for antisemitism within Australian society. This creates space for the crisis to worsen.”
The report found that social media posts condemning antisemitism by politicians and journalists were targeted with hate-filled comments spreading conspiracies, which then “ride on the coattails of the viral posts, accelerating the spread of hate”.
Responses to the recent release of Australia’s Plan to Combat Antisemitism included material directly from the antisemitic forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, along with continued denial of the antisemitism crisis.
“Rather than acknowledging the antisemitism crisis in Australia, there have been efforts to deny there is a problem, blame the Jewish community for the antisemitic incidents that have occurred, and to attack the existence of the Special Envoy, her Plan to Combat Antisemitism, and the IHRA Working Definition to Combat Antisemitism,” the report stated.
The study provided eight recommendations to address the documented antisemitism crisis, strongly supporting the Special Envoy’s call for greater education and efforts to create a handbook explaining the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism within the Australian context.
It called on the government to take ownership of the handbook, as the Canadian government did when their Special Envoy produced a similar document in 2024.