Australia marks anniversary of October 7 attacks
Anthony Albanese has made a vow to Jewish Australians as the world marks the anniversary of Hamas’ brutal October 7 terrorist attacks.
The Jewish community says “we have seen darkness in Australia” with the rise of anti-Semitism in the year since the deadly Hamas terror attack on Israel.
Thousands have gathered at vigils in Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra to mark the October 7 anniversary of the Hamas slaughter of 1200 Jewish people in Israel.
Anthony Albanese attended the Illuminate October event in Melbourne on Monday
“Our hearts are broken today,” Zionism Victoria President Yossi Goldfarb told the event.
“We grieve for the 1200 souls who perished one year ago.
“We cherish the sacrifice and mourn the losses of Israel’s soldiers who have courageously fought against manifest evil, and we weep for Israeli civilians murdered by terrorists.”
He said in the year since, anti-Semitism in Australia had become “simply out of control”:
“(It is) a threat to everything that makes our country unique and great. There is a permissiveness that has led anti-Semitism fester, a permissiveness encouraged by weak and ambiguous expositions of our foreign policy.
“In our community’s view, they have weakened our social cohesion, leaving us to feel the state of Israel has been abandoned as a natural ally of the Australian people.”
He said Australia’s social cohesion had been weakened.
“We have seen darkness in Australia,” he said,
“Darkness underpinned by virulent and dangerous antisemitism that is in the view of our community – simply out of control, a threat to everything that makes our country unique and great.”
Mr Albanese attended the event alongside Labor MP Josh Burns, Victoria’s Premier Jacinta Allan, and opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson .
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has spoken of the “anti-Semitic rot” affecting Australia that was exposed on October 7.
“Israel was at the epicenter of Hamas’ evil on October 7 last year. The shockwaves of that terrorist attack resonated around the world,” he told a Jewish vigil in Sydney to commemorate one year since the Hamas massacre.
“That day of depravity, the greatest loss of Jewish life on a single day since the Holocaust, awoke and exposed an anti-Semitic rot afflicting Western democracies.”
OCTOBER 7 WOKE ‘ANTI-SEMITIC ROT’
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton attended another large Jewish event in Sydney.
He told the crowd in Vaucluse that anti-Semitism had taken grip since the “horrors and heartbreak” of October 7.
“That day of depravity, the greatest loss of Jewish life on a single day since the Holocaust, awoke and exposed an anti-Semitic rot afflicting western democracies,” he said.
Mr Dutton said the anti-Israel protest at the Sydney Opera Hous last October 9 had opened the way for further anti-Semitism.
“Following the shocking events on the steps of the Sydney Opera House, there’s been a vacuum of leadership,” he said.
“In that vacuum, intolerable incidents have been tolerated, and each intolerable incident has emboldened the next.
“The last 12 months constitute one of the most difficult periods for Jewish Australians in our nation’s history.”
Cabinet minister Mark Butler told the crowd Israel had the right to defend itself and respond to terror attacks.
“Co-ordinated attacks from her south, north and east by terror groups and a state openly committed to the destruction of Israel, the only Jewish state on the planet. Of course, Israel has the right to defend itself and respond to these attacks.”
Mr Butler said “history’s oldest prejudice – its oldest hatred, anti-Semitism – is growing and spreading here in a way we’ve never seen before” and “it must stop”.
JEWISH COMMUNITY FEELS ‘TARGETED’
Pledges from both the Albanese government and the Coalition to fight anti-Semitism have done little to reassure Jewish Australians feeling “targeted”, community members have said on the anniversary of the horrific October 7 terrorist attacks on Israel.
Vigils are taking place across Australia to mark a year since Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group that runs Gaza, killed 1200 in the worst loss of Jewish lives since the Holocaust.
Militants took hundreds more hostage as they retreated into Gaza. A year later, more than a hundred remain held by Hamas in its vast tunnel network that riddles the densely populated Palestinian territory.
October 7 sent shockwaves around the world, including in Australia, where social friction has played out at universities and on the streets.
NewsWire spoke to attendees of an October 7 vigil on the lawns of Parliament House, all of whom said they were for the same reason: “Rising anti-Semitism.”
Leela Ross told NewsWire it has been “very noticeable to us that both the amount and varieties of anti-Semitism have been increasing” since Hamas’ attacks.
“What we’re feeling, what we’re seeing, is that anti-Semitism has been deeply ingrained for a very long time, and it’s now we’re just seeing it come out,” she said.
“It’s almost as if people feel like they are free to voice these opinions and thoughts without repercussion.”
Reports of anti-Semitic incidents have skyrocketed over the past year, with Jewish students saying they do not feel safe at Australia’s universities and flags of terrorist group Hezbollah, which Israel is fighting in Lebanon, appearing at recent pro-Palestine protests.
Ms Ross said October 7 “definitely appeared to have been a start to this”.
She said the attacks “were terrible”, but that subsequent celebrations and denial of them compounded the pain.
“What happened a year ago was very difficult,” she said.
“When I first learned of it, I didn’t have words I felt sick to my stomach when I saw the videos.
“I saw people celebrating such horrific attacks, and then not only celebrating but minimising and denying what had happened, even though there were video recordings done by the attackers.”
In a video statement, Anthony Albanese vowed to Jewish Australians to never let history repeat itself, calling the anniversary “a day that carries terrible pain”.
“On the first anniversary of the October 7 attacks, we pause to reflect on the horrific terrorist atrocity that reverberated around the globe,” Mr Albanese said.
“We unequivocally condemn Hamas’ actions on that day.”
He acknowledged that that anti-Semitism had spiked over the past year.
“Since the atrocities of October 7, Jewish Australians have felt the cold shadows of anti-Semitism reaching into the present day and as a nation, we say, never again,” Mr Albanese said.
“We unequivocally condemn all prejudice and hatred. There is no place in Australia for discrimination against people of any faith.”
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton struck a more pointed tone, saying the day marked a “day of depravity”, and that the attacks “awoke and exposed an anti-Semitic rot afflicting Western democracies”.
He pledged to “support Australians of Jewish faith” and said “enemies of Israel and the peddlers of Jewish hate will never win.”
The last 12 months constitute one of the most difficult periods for Jewish Australians in our nation’s history.
— Peter Dutton (@PeterDutton_MP) October 6, 2024
Together today, we pay our respects to the memories of the 1,200 innocent people murdered on October 7.
We pray for the hostages still held by Hamas and we grieve… pic.twitter.com/f9f0OsAZKQ
Against pleas from the Jewish community, police and political leaders, organisers of pro-Palestine demonstrations said they were going ahead on Monday, arguing that they deserved to express their grief and anger over those killed in Israel’s military action in Gaza following October 7.
In Melbourne, protesters were set to march in the CBD. Meanwhile, in Sydney, activists said they were going to hold a vigil after cancelling plans to rally in a deal with NSW Police.
Upward of 40,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s invasion of Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
With 1.9 million people displaced and facing disease and constant bombardment, independent monitors and aid groups have been warning for months that the situation is dire.
The Albanese government has sought to strike a balance in navigating the tensions, warning against the conflict in the Middle East being imported to Australia.
“Every innocent light matters, sorrow knows no boundaries and recognises no differences,” Mr Albanese said in his statement.
“The number of civilians who have lost their lives is a devastating tragedy. Today, we reflect on the truth of our shared humanity, of the hope that peace is possible and the belief that it belongs to all people.”
But with anti-Semitic slogans being chanted at rallies, for many in the Jewish community attending vigils across Australia, the conflict is already here.
Ms Ross said it was “frustrating” to see protests becoming “increasingly anti-Semitic”.
“We’ve been seeing it in the displaying of flags for groups which have expounded hateful ideologies with the desire to eliminate all Jewish people everywhere in the world,” she said.
“But I do, I do understand the government’s limited ability to respond, as we are in a democratic nation, people are free to have the political views.
“But we would, we do feel that it would be nice if there was harder ethical and moral positions being displayed about this.”
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