There is no place to wage a foreign war on the streets of Australia

The firebombing of a Dover Heights home early on Friday morning is a major escalation in local antisemitism and a jarring counterpoint to hopes for a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, which is now edging towards reality in the Middle East.

To our country’s shame, there has been a gradual rise in the number and extremity of hate attacks across Australia on schools, synagogues, homes, offices, property and cars since the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7, 2023. Amid the almost weekly demonstrations against the Gaza war, some antisemitic attacks were haphazard and carried out under cover of darkness. But the Dover Heights incident is different. It clearly targeted a home previously owned by co-chief executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry Alex Ryvchin, and that fact now forms the basis of a NSW Police criminal investigation.

Alex Ryvchin, co-chief executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, outside a home in Dover Heights that he owned until 2022. It was vandalised overnight. Credit: James Brickwood

The antisemitism that has driven these local attacks is the same disease that provoked the latest Middle East war. In the 15 months since it began, more than 1200 Israeli civilians, an unknown number of Israeli soldiers and an estimated 46,000 Palestinians have died.

We welcome the mooted ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas. It has been a long time coming and there have been several false starts. We can only imagine the fear and joy it brings to Palestinians trapped in the war zone, and the families of remaining Israeli hostages.

The hostages will be gradually released over the 42-day truce. In return, Israel is withdrawing troops from part of Gaza and returning 1000 prisoners.

The ceasefire might reduce tensions, but while Hamas has emerged battered and decapitated, the situation in Israel is quite fragile and if not handled with dexterity could well unravel. And as the politicians again prevaricated this week, Palestinians reportedly were killed in Israeli airstrikes.

Huge questions remain over what will happen after the deal lapses. It must lead to lasting stability or risk a return to the cycles of death and devastation. Lasting peace is difficult to envisage. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent business has been war, and the changing political situation in the United States makes predictions about the Middle East a fraught undertaking.

But from an Australian perspective, the latest Middle East conflict marks the first time a foreign war has started being waged on our streets. Premier Chris Minns said Friday’s appalling attack in Dover Heights flew in the face of Australia’s welcome to Jewish people fleeing the Holocaust, and was against true community sentiment about what living in Australia was all about.

“I never thought I would see this kind of naked racism and antisemitism repeating itself on the streets of Sydney in such an organised and horrifying manner,” Minns said.

The war in Gaza involves ancient hates and rivalries and contemporary exploitations. But the outbreak of domestic terrorism targeted at Australia’s Jewish community is cruelly designed to intimidate, harass and menace. There is no place for it here.

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