Antisemitism Report 2009 - World Jewish Congress

http://www.aijac.org.au/?id=articles&_action=showArticleDetails&articleID=5313
The Last Word: Analysing Australian Antisemitism (previous 12 month period 07/08)
by Jeremy Jones
The raw data on anti-Jewish assaults, vandalism and harassment in Australia makes for sobering reading.
In the 12 month period concluding on September 30, 2008, Jewish communal institutions in Australia
received a total of 652 reports of incidents which unambiguously fall under the definition of "Racist
Violence" provided by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission.
Fifty-eight of these incidents were of assault of an individual or of damage to property. Overwhelmingly, the
victims of these incidents were Jewish Australians assaulted by unknown perpetrators in shopping malls,
main roads or other public places. Over the 19 year period I have been keeping records, this was the highest
total in this category. The previous worst period, at the height of the "Second Intifada", was 51 reports. A
disturbing percentage of victims were teenagers or families including young children.
One hundred and fourteen of the incidents involved Jewish individuals being subjected to face-to-face abuse
and insult, without physical assault. Nearly all of this was experienced by Jewish families walking to or from
synagogue or festive meals, generally by passing motorists. While this total was almost 20% below the
previous 12 month period, it was the second highest figure on record.
The remaining 480 reports were of telephone threats and abuse (now rare, due to the adoption of e-mail as a
common means of harassment); hate mail (at the third lowest rate in 19 years), faxes, stickers, leaflets,
graffiti and e-mail. Hate mail more often than not referred to "greedy" Jews, graffiti-daubers found perverse
pleasure in adorning synagogues and other Jewish sites with swastikas, while e-mailers bombarded
individual Jewish Australians with a litany of accusations, complaints, and insults.
The physical incidents listed above took place in a social and political context which does not indicate
Australia is a society which is in any form hostile to Jewish people. But it does demonstrate both the
existence of antisemitism and a lack of consistent, widespread concern at its presence.
Australia is host to a plethora of racist organisations which include antisemitism in their armoury; to
Muslims and Christians who disguise their hostility to Jews in religious garb; to bigots employed in the
media who from time to time promote anti-Jewish stereotypes; to fanatics and extremists who adopt attacks
on Jews as means to promote broader agendas; to smug academics who abuse their power to further
personal prejudices; and to semi-educated conspiracy theorists who can't see a Jew without seeing an Elder
of Zion.
In addition, the globalised nature of information, and misinformation, in the online era, provides easy
resources to racists, confusion to students, and distress to those who chose to live in Australia due to our
unique blend of tolerance, liberal values, and lack of assumed hostility to a person based on ethnicity, faith,
or ancestry.
Mainstream Australian media outlets have republished offensive comments submitted from various points on
the globe, supplementing the locally generated bile most often sited on the weblogs of ABC and SBS, and
online feedback sections of newspapers. Meanwhile, the most offensive Islamic-based and Christian hostility
towards Jews comes in easy-to-use form from sources outside Australia to be resold or parroted here.
Perhaps it is no coincidence that many of the most vocal antisemites in Australia were either born outside
this country or feel a spiritual affinity with less tolerant societies.
One notable feature of antisemitism in Australia is that its increases and decreases have little or no apparent
relationship to behaviour of Jewish individuals, public positions of the community, or events in Israel or
elsewhere.
What is observable is that the physical incidents show increases when mainstream media outlets allow
themselves to serve as hosts of anti-Jewish bigotry and prejudice and/or on the rare occasions that public
figures make anti-Jewish comments.
This indicates that Australia's antisemites are as cowardly as they are unsavoury, and also that strong,
repeated, consistent condemnations of antisemitism are not only morally appropriate but provide a service
to this country's social well-being.
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