Antisemitism Report 2009 - World Jewish Congress

the voluntary nature of the complaints system, the confidentiality of material they receive
and many other factors result in the need to treat many such statistics with caution.
It is the informed view of the writer of this report that there is often a link between racism
against other sections of the Australian community and antisemitism, as reports of physical
manifestations of antisemitism have increased at times of harassment of Asian Australians
after Professor Geoffrey Blainey's claim of the imminent Asianisation of Australia in 1984,
when Indigenous organisations and individuals were facing intimidation in 1988 and when
the anti-immigration One Nation Party enjoyed short-lived electoral success in the late
1990s. The difficulty is in determining the extent of the overlap.
1.3 Forms of Antisemitism
When attempting to understand the extent of antisemitism in Australia it is important to bear
in mind the following:
(i) Anti-Jewish comments made by public figures, the decision of editors and producers
to publicly air antisemitism, and the failure of individuals who occupy positions of moral or
political authority to respond to racist activity provide evidence there is a culture tolerant to
antisemitism in Australia or that there is a potential for antisemitism to impact on a level
which potentially harms Australian Jewry. This situation has been exacerbated with the
growing phenomenon of antisemitism purporting to be representative of a left-wing or
―antiracist‖ opinion. It is extremely difficult to measure or assess this phenomenon and
virtually impossible to do so on an annual comparative basis.
(ii) The volume of physical attacks on community members and communal institutions is a
measure of one aspect of anti-Jewish behaviour, but needs to be considered in the broad
context of the daily experiences of Jewish Australians.
(iii) The activities of anti-Jewish organisations may constructively be compared with
previous behaviour from the same sub-culture, but should not be taken as a key indicator of
the extent to which antisemitism threatens the well-being of Australia's Jewish community.
Within this report, as far as practical, the different manifestations of antisemitism appear
within separate sections. These are:
Anti-Jewish rhetoric which may inform different aspects of anti-Jewish behaviour
The physical manifestations of anti-Jewish violence, vandalism and intimidation
Antisemitism in mainstream public debate and problematic media coverage of matters
affecting the Jewish community
Anti-Jewish organisations and publications.
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