Alex Ryvchin: The anti-Semitic bullying of Jewish primary school students shames us all

Australian society has fallen another rung when high-school students old enough to know better think it’s acceptable to unleash vile abuse at 10-year-olds in one of Melbourne’s most prized cultural institutions.

Australians hate a bully — and with good reason.

It is perhaps the worst and ugliest form of human behaviour.

To identify those who are weaker and incapable of mounting a defence and to humiliate and denigrate them, just for kicks.

Two school groups visited the Melbourne Museum on Thursday.

Year 10 students from one school and year 5 kids from a Jewish school.

Some of the older students got the attention of the younger kids by tapping them on the shoulders and then the group broke out in chants of “free Palestine” directed at the younger kids.

What prompted this behaviour?

Why did the older students suddenly think they were at a political rally at Federation Square?

It was that the younger kids were visibly Jewish, identifiable by their uniforms and the head coverings worn by Jewish males.

Jewish primary school students were abused while visiting Melbourne Museum. Picture: Tony Gough

What connection do Australian kids nine and 10 years old on a school excursion have to the conflict with the Palestinians?

On what planet is it acceptable to direct political slogans at little kids simply because they are Jewish?

To alleviate any doubt as to the motives and intent, the year 5 kids were called “dirty Jews” by some of the older students, ably demonstrating how the political chants frequently mask racist motives.

The actions of the year ten students have brought shame to themselves, their school and our nation.

Ten-year-old kids can’t adequately rationalise why bigger and older kids would treat them in this way.

They will try to comprehend what they did to justify being mocked and taunted in this despicable way.

They will not grasp that the problem is not them but the bullies who targeted them.

There will be fear and tears from those children. Difficult conversations in homes and classrooms.

And from the parents there will be a white-hot rage that their children were subjected to this, and that our society has fallen another rung where students, old enough to know better, now think it acceptable to behave this way to those half their size simply because they are Jewish.

Alex Ryvchin is the co-chief executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry