https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/anti-semitism/anti-semitism-in-the-antipodes/
The appearance of anti-Semitism in Australia, a country remarkable for its absence of anti-Semitism, raises several questions. Ignited by the Israel Gaza war and fuelled by a combination of ignorance, the current anti-Western zeitgeist of the Left, and some major failings by the Australian Jewish community and by Israel itself, the result has been an upsurge in anti-Semitism in social media, left-wing politics and the public domain. We have seen blatant breaches of the law by way of public demonstrations and damage to property both public and private. The encampments on Australian university campuses, aping those in the United States, and the damage caused to politicians’ electoral offices, have continued unabated since October 7, 2023.
Three fundamental propositions should be stated at the outset. First, we have a right of freedom of political expression which lies at the root of our democracy and, subject to well-established legal constraints, should never be interfered with.
Second, where the exercise of such legal expression contravenes the law, the perpetrators should be charged and prosecuted. The current public displays of support for Palestinian solidarity are notable for their blatant breach of state laws criminalising hate speech, unlawful assembly and causing damage to property, and also of section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act of the Commonwealth. It is beyond belief that no prosecutions have been instituted by state or federal police forces, which calls into question our faith in the rule of law.
Third, criticism of Israel, however ill-informed, is not anti-Semitic. We are currently hearing repetition of the words genocide and apartheid. Genocide has a specific meaning in law and its use to describe the horrific civilian deaths in Gaza is not accurate. Similarly, the use of the term apartheid to describe Israel, which has over two million Arab citizens enjoying full civil rights and an Arab justice on its supreme court is also not accurate. Both terms are pejorative and ignorant, but not anti-Semitic.
Perhaps more interesting is the relationship between Australian Jews and the State of Israel. The vitriolic debate between Sir Isaac Isaacs and his supporters and Professor Julius Stone over Zionism and a home for the Jewish people came to an end with the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. Jews have lived in Australia since the arrival of the First Fleet and numbered approximately 25,000 at the time of the Second World War. They were mainly born in Australia or Britain, and considered themselves Australians of the Jewish faith. Their Judaism centred on synagogue membership and religious worship in a country which was highly sectarian, with a division between Protestant and Catholic. Multiculturalism was a term as yet uninvented. Post-war immigration introduced large numbers of European immigrants including European Jews who were the survivors of the Holocaust. By the 2021 Census the Jewish population of Australia was estimated to be around 117,000 or roughly 0.5 per cent of the population. The existence of over 300,000 Australians who are not Jewish but have a Jewish ancestor indicates the extent of assimilation.
At the time of the 2021 Census 57 per cent of Australian Jews were Australian-born, which is smaller than for the general population, which was at 71 per cent. It follows that most Australian Jews are post-war immigrants or their descendants. This makes them conscious of a need for a Jewish refuge as a protection from anti-Semitism, an attitude embedded in their psyches. Some Jewish schools and Jewish youth groups foster a love of Israel as a central part of Jewish identity, which reinforces a cultural as opposed to a religious affiliation. It is not surprising, therefore, that a study carried out by Monash University in 2017 of 8621 Australian Jews found that 69 per cent identified as Zionist and that the security of Israel was the most immediate issue of concern unifying them. The fact that 81 per cent of respondents ranked Israel above a belief in God (46 per cent) demonstrates the move away from religion and towards cultural identity.
