Rita Panahi: Albanese government finally gets serious about tackling anti-Semitism crisis it helped create

The Albanese government at last appears serious about confronting the growing scourge of anti-Semitism it has helped fuel through its ineptitude and weakness.

It took 21 months but finally Prime Minister Anthony Albanese appears to understand the magnitude of the problem before him. The PM’s belated moral clarity on the issue of anti-Semitism is a positive step forward but the task ahead has been made that much harder due to a mixture of ineptitude and cowardice from the federal governments as well as state and local governments.

Australia’s anti-Semitism crisis was apparent on October 9, when authorities told members of the Jewish community to avoid the Sydney Opera House as hordes of extremist activists brought infamy to the country by gathering at our most globally recognisable landmark to chant vile things about Jews.

Those horrible scenes went around the world and it’s worth remembering that this orgy of hate and hostility occurred before Israel had commenced its military response to October 7, the biggest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. That would’ve been a fine time for the PM to announce the type of measures floated on Thursday during a press conference with Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke and special envoy on anti-Semitism Jillian Segal.

Anthony Albanese finally seems to understand the magnitude of the problem before him. Picture: Nikki Short

Since the infamous scenes at the Opera House, the anti-Semitic sentiment in this country has only escalated further with regular anti-Israeli marches in our capital cities, attacks against Jewish businesses, the doxing of Jewish creatives, arson attacks against synagogues, protest encampments on university campuses and extremist rhetoric from a number of activist academics.

Only in the past weekend we saw Leftist agitators blocking traffic in Melbourne’s CBD while chanting “death to the IDF”, we saw a Synagogue set alight and an Israeli restaurant attacked by a violent mob.

Australians are in danger of becoming desensitised to this depravity. We need leaders to take meaningful action rather than engage in performative compassion.

And, on Thursday we finally heard some concrete plans to tackle this growing scourge.

The Albanese government at last appears serious about confronting the anti-Semitism it has helped fuel through its ineptitude and weakness.

Anti-Israeli protesters outside Israeli restaurant Miznon on Hardware Lane in Melbourne. Picture: AAP/Josh Stanyer

Ms Segal’s report recommends universities and arts bodies lose public funding if they fail to combat anti-Semitic bigotry from staff, students and artists. Australia’s special envoy to combat anti-Semitism warned that we are on a dangerous trajectory and that ugly sentiments that were once “marginalised” have become normalised.

“Jewish parents fear sending their children to school. Holocaust survivors face renewed trauma,” Ms Segal said.

“Professionals report unjust scrutiny of their loyalty to Australia. Creatives who were doxxed find themselves ostracised. Once unthinkable discussions among Jewish Australians about having a ‘Plan B’ – ie, emigrating elsewhere in the event that Australia becomes an intolerably hostile environment – reflect the insecurity many of them now feel.

“Anti-Semitism is evident within schools and universities, and has become ingrained and normalised within academia and the cultural space. We need to resolve this urgently.”

The report also recommends removing the charity status of bodies that promote anti-Semitic acts or speakers.

“Funding agreements or enabling legislation should be drafted to ensure that public funding can be readily terminated where organisations or individuals engage in or facilitate anti-Semitism,” the plan said.

Religious leaders gather at the Synagogue in East Melbourne in a show of support after a firebombing of the front door last weekend. Picture: David Crosling

The plan to encourage some accountability in our bloated university sector will be enormously popular.

The report recommends: “The envoy will work with government to enable government funding to be withheld, where possible, from universities, programs or individuals within universities that facilitate, enable or fail to act against anti-Semitism.”

The plan also extends to screening people entering Australia for anti-Semitic views or affiliations.

The list of measures has been widely welcomed by the Jewish community.

The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council Executive Director Dr Colin Rubenstein said Ms Segal has provided concrete ideas to tackle “this grave threat to Australia’s multicultural cohesion” and that her plan should be implemented as a matter of urgency.

“Hopefully, the government will consider the report as quickly as possible and adopt its recommendations in full. The heightened anti-Semitism crisis in this country has now persisted for some 21 months, at terrible costs to national social cohesion, so there is no time to waste. The recommendations in the Envoy’s report should not only be adopted in full, but then acted on with all possible vigour by the government,” he said

One sign that the Prime Minister is finally serious about facing this issue head on is the absence of “Islamophobia” talk during the announcement.

Last year when he appointed Ms Segal as Australia’s first anti-Semitism envoy, he was at pains to point out that an envoy to deal with “Islamophobia” would soon be announced, too. The time for both-sideism is well and truly over.

Rita Panahi is a Herald Sun columnist

Originally published as Rita Panahi: Albanese government finally gets serious about tackling anti-Semitism crisis it helped create