OPINION: When inaction allows incitement
"History has shown us; persecution does not begin in a vacuum... Our governments and law enforcement must send a clear message – and act with firmness."
“Gas the Jews!” “F*** the Jews!”
No, these aren’t chants from Germany, 1938; this is Sydney, Australia, 2023.
And please, tell me how this is okay? How is it seemingly acceptable for a violent protest of pro-Palestinian supporters to launch flares and burn Israeli flags and scream for Jews to be exterminated – with no recourse?
And how did it occur at Sydney Opera House; our iconic landmark, a source of national pride lit up in blue and white in a show of solidarity with Israel in the wake of the Hamas-perpetrated massacres?
This is not my Australia. The Australia to which so many of us, or our parents or grandparents or great-grandparents fled; eyes wide with optimism, its distant shores a beacon of promise, of new beginnings – far from old hatreds.
It’s not my Australia when hordes of NSW Police stand back and allow these scenes to unfold, without even so much as an attempt at intervention.
And it’s certainly not my Australia when instead, the one pro-Israel supporter clutching an Israeli flag, is arrested and dragged away by three police officers.
Indeed seemingly, the onus for the safety of the Jewish people was on … the Jewish people.
Late Monday afternoon, NSW Police in consultation with the NSW government and CSG urged the community not to attend the Sydney Opera House precinct or the Town Hall (where the protest began).
Jewish people were warned to stay away from the landmark that was illuminated in unity with Israel, our ancestral homeland and home to many of our loved ones.
Loved ones who are mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers and grandparents and children, unified as victims of terror.
They are victims of terror who have had their lives snatched in grotesque barbarity. Victims of terror who are captured, minutes ticking away in the ruthless hands of a savage enemy. And they are victims of terror who remain suspended in the agony of limbo and unknown fates; and fear of what they may be faced with on the next refresh of their social media feed.
Have they taken her? Is it him?
Please tell me why our Australian streets were surrendered to Islamic radicals spewing hate in support of the acts of Hamas?
This is an organisation whose identity is centred on the erasure of ours; who beheads babies and rapes women and parades dismembered bodies in the street and burns families alive – just like ISIS.
Perhaps this passivity is a symptom of wokeness? The NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley and the force reticent to act, more concerned with the potential of being perceived as Islamophobic?
Instead, inaction allowed for antisemitic incitement.
And that is what it is.
History has shown us; persecution does not begin in a vacuum.
It starts with words – and dehumanisation – and it is enabled by silent bystanders.
This is not an antiquated theory from a dusty history book, it’s lived experience from the lips of our parents and grandparents.
And so our governments and law enforcement must send a clear message, and act with firmness.
Never again is such rhetoric and incitement to be tolerated.
Never again.
Rebecca Davis is The AJN‘s Head of Content.
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