ECAJ
Report on Antisemitism in Australia 2015
The period in review was much quieter than the previous twelve month
period. This was not unexpected, given that the Gaza war in 2014 played a major
role in eliciting a spike in antisemitic incidents and discourse. In 2015, the
number of antisemitic incidents was about the same overall as in 2013.
However, public debate in Australia about several events and issues
generated high levels of antisemitic discourse within mainstream society and
beyond which, whilst not as serious as actual incidents, nonetheless were of concern
to the Jewish community.
The Jewish community is the only community within Australia whose places
of worship, schools, communal organisations and community centres are required
for security reasons to operate under the protection of high fences, armed
guards, metal detectors, CCTV cameras and the like. The necessity arises from
the high incidence of physical attacks against Jews and Jewish communal
buildings over the last three decades, and continuing threats.
During 2015, Jews continued to be targeted for harassment, abuse and
threats at synagogues and other Jewish institutions, including schools. Because
these incidents occurred on days and at times when these institutions were in
high use, the specific association of these institutions with the Jewish
community cannot plausibly be regarded as coincidental. Nor, therefore, can the
incidents themselves plausibly be regarded as random or opportunistic.
While ever antisemitism has been confined to the fringes of society,
that is, to the far Right and far Left of politics, and to bigoted religious
extremists within Christianity or Islam, the situation for Jews has been
manageable. Antisemitism will never disappear or be destroyed. The best that
can be achieved is that society as a whole deems antisemitism, and other forms
of racism, to be socially unacceptable and not to be tolerated, and to be
actively countered. Such an atmosphere gives Jew-haters very little breathing
space from which to launch their hate propaganda and activities. The danger
arises when antisemitism moves from the margins into the mainstream of society.
