Frydenberg: This disharmony and division is not simply a Jewish problem, it’s Australia’s

Our nation’s leaders have failed us with inaction, silence and an inability to enforce red lines which has emboldened activists and led to violence. It’s a dangerous development that should be a wake up call for all Australians.

Today is a solemn day.

It is one year on from Hamas’s barbaric attack on October 7.

Beheadings, gang rapes and the burning of families were all part of a sadistic slaughter that saw more than 1200 innocent people murdered and more than 250 taken hostage, many of whom are yet to return.

It was the greatest loss of Jewish life since the Holocaust.

One would expect that in the face of such evil we would see widespread condemnation without equivocation.

And that the victims, namely Israel and its people, would be warmly embraced.

But this has not been the case.

A visitor mourns at a memorial for people who were taken hostage or killed in the Hamas attack on the Supernova music festival on October 7. Picture: AFP

Instead what we have seen over the past 12 months is Israel abandoned in its hour of need and an explosion of anti-Semitism, that threatens Australia’s social cohesion, undermines our democratic values and leaves us less secure.

Jews have been in Australia since the arrival of the First Fleet and have risen to the highest offices in the land. From our greatest citizen soldier Sir John Monash to High Court Chief Justice and Governor-General Sir Isaac Isaacs to modern day champions like AFL Rising Star Harry Sheezel it is a community that has contributed greatly but now feels under threat.

Our country’s leaders have failed us. Not just in our Parliaments, but across our civil institutions, at our universities and the so called Human Rights Commission.

Their inaction, their silence, their inability to enforce red lines that are not to be crossed has emboldened the activists fostering hate and leading to violence.

It is a dangerous development that should serve as a wake up call for all Australians.

The loss of innocent lives on both sides of this conflict is tragedy but in no way can it justify the behaviour we have subsequently seen.

Consider this.

More than 1200 innocent people were killed in the October 7 attacks. Picture: AFP

In the hours after the October 7 attack people were celebrating the violence on the streets of Sydney with a local leader telling the crowd “I’m smiling and I’m happy. It’s day of courage. It’s a day of pride. This is the day we’ve been waiting for.”

On October 9 well before Israel had even initiated its military response a rampaging mob had gathered on the steps of the Sydney Opera House to chant ‘f--k the Jews’ as they burnt the Israeli flag.

Ever since we have had regular protests where you can see Hamas and Hezbollah flags but rarely an Australian one.

These demonstrations can turn violent as they did one night in the predominantly Jewish suburb of Caulfield as false rumours spread that Jews were responsible for burning down a burger joint.

Pro Palestinian activists have disrupted our major events from the Australian Open to the Melbourne Cup, from Carols by Candlelight to the recent Land Force conference where acid was thrown on police.

Jerry Seinfeld’s shows were not even spared.

While the agitators went to great lengths to block the entrance to Australia’s most sensitive military facility at Pine Gap.

Our universities have become battlegrounds with houses of learning turned into incubators of hate. Encampments have been established, classes disrupted and students harassed as demonstrators call for the abolition of Israel with their vile chant ‘From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free.’

A protester holds a placard of Benjamin Netanyahu during a pro-Palestine rally in Melbourne on October 6. Picture: Getty Images

Art patrons hoping to see a show or concert were bombarded with performers’ personal views on the conflict while 600 Jewish artists were doxxed leading some to be cancelled and others subject to death threats.

Jewish owned businesses have been boycotted and vandalised, while Jewish politicians from both sides of the political aisle are targeted.

How did we let it get to this and why are these people avoiding criminal sanction?

It is a question that must be asked and an answer we all deserve to be given. A year on, enough is enough.

Now if you have been sitting at home having a beer or out watching the footy, you might be forgiven for asking yourself why does this all matter, what does it have to do with me?

A year on from the October 7 massacre, enough is enough. Picture: Getty Images

The answer is it matters because the disharmony and division we now see in our country is not simply a Jewish problem, it’s Australia’s problem.

American author and journalist Bari Weiss put it well when she said ‘when anti-Semitism moves from the shameful fringe into the public square, it is not about Jews. It is about everyone else. It is an early warning system that the society itself is breaking down.’

It simply cannot be OK in a tolerant, freedom loving democracy like Australia for people to celebrate terrorist leaders, waive their flags and promote their crimes. It cannot be OK for people to tear down the posters of children being held hostage in the tunnels of Gaza or to hold demonstrations on Oct 7, the very day they were kidnapped.

Yet this is what is happening and in the process tensions are rising with real consequences including the security agencies lifting the threat level for Australia earlier this year.

Australia is a great country and one that provided my family like so many others with a safe refuge after the horrors of World War II. Part of what makes us so special is that we have proudly practised our different faiths and traditions but at the same time recognised what unites us matters far more than what divides us. That compact is now under threat making it important than ever that we all remember and assert: “We are one. But we are many. And from all the lands on earth we come. We’ll share a dream and sing with one voice. I am, you are, we are Australian.”

Josh Frydenberg is the former federal treasurer and together with Sky produced the documentary Never Again: The Fight Against Antisemitism.