Anti-Semitism rife as Hamas exploits its human shields

Members of Australia’s Jewish community have “never felt less safe, and that is a problem’’, as Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said on Sunday. Violent, hate-filled scenes from the pro-Palestinian protest in Princes Park, Caulfield South, a Jewish enclave in Melbourne, on Friday night, opposite the local synagogue during a Shabbat service, were something most Australians never expected to see on our shores. Hundreds of protesters gathered during the service. They were later met by about 200 attendees from the synagogue who tried to yell them down. A police probe has been launched after footage captured violent scenes between protesters and police and rocks were allegedly thrown. Tensions were running high after a nearby burger store, operated by pro-Palestinian advocate Hash Tayeh, was severely damaged by a suspicious fire early on Friday morning.

Until the unprovoked mass slaughter of innocent Israeli civilians, including babies and Holocaust survivors, on Saturday, October 7, by Hamas terrorists, anti-Semitism in Australia had lurked mainly below the fringes of our society. It was rife in radical mosques and in the retrograde boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, including in universities. Its ugly face surfaced near the Sydney Opera House on Monday evening, October 9, when the building’s sails were lit in blue and white. Pro-Hamas protesters screamed “gas the Jews”. Such vile protests, well before Israel responded militarily to the Hamas attacks, expose the falsehood that current protests have been triggered by Israel’s operations in Gaza. The vehemence of the early protests suggested extremists were spurred on by the original Hamas attacks, before the Jewish state retaliated to defend itself. After the abhorrent scenes in Caulfield on Friday night, dangerous anti-Semitism was also clear in offensive placards at weekend rallies in Sydney and Melbourne. Signs read “Hitler = Netanyahu, Nazism = Zionism, Nazis = IDF”, “Gaza looks like Auschwitz’’ and “Nazi Netanyahu”, depicting the Israeli Prime Minister with a Hitler-style moustache. The jihadist flag was brandished at a demonstration in Sydney. Organisers of Friday night’s “Free Palestine” rally in Caulfield, fortunately, have apologised.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong is right when she says all Australians, including our Jewish community, have a right to be safe and to feel safe: “No one in this country should be fearful because of who they are or their faith.” But her revelation that the Albanese government is pushing for a ceasefire in the Middle East conflict and her call for Israel to stop “the attacking of hospitals” drew condemnation and concern. “How Israel defends itself matters,” Senator Wong said. “When we affirm Israel’s right to defend itself, what we are also saying is Israel must comply with and observe international humanitarian law.” While the Albanese government is far removed from having any real influence on the crisis, Senator Wong needs to be careful about getting Australia caught up in what is likely to be a pointless demand for a ceasefire that naively plays into the hands of the Hamas terrorists. Calls for a ceasefire will go nowhere as long as the terrorists continue holding the hostages they seized on October 7 as human shields.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said repeatedly the Jewish state’s bombardment of Gaza would cease if Hamas gave up the hostages, as it should. Senator Wong’s reiteration of Australian support for a two-state solution to the interminable crisis was fair enough. But she overlooked the fact there is not the slightest chance of such a solution being realised while terror groups such as Hamas, which is supported by Iran and hellbent on the annihilation of Israel and the slaughter of all Jews, remain in control of Gaza. With Israeli forces making rapid gains, especially in Gaza City, a ceasefire would be of immense benefit to the terrorists, especially if it meant – as it would – that pressure on them in their command centres under the big Al-Shifa and other hospitals would be relieved. But a ceasefire would do nothing to achieve the one thing that would bring about the quickest and best outcome for Gaza’s civilians caught in the crossfire – the swift destruction of Hamas that would end the terrorist scourge, end the war and enable Gaza to be opened up to international aid for its long-suffering people.

Senator Wong said the Albanese government was particularly concerned with what is happening with medical facilities. International humanitarian law, she said “required the protection of hospitals, of patients and of medical staff’’. She acknowledged that Hamas was burrowed into civilian infrastructure. But, she said, many friends of Israel around the world and in Australia were saying that civilians and hospitals should be protected. In a normal theatre of war, in so far as that exists amid today’s conflicts, that is true. But as the Executive Council of Australia Jewry and the Zionist Federation responded to Senator Wong on Sunday: “We remind the government that Article 19 of the Geneva Convention explicitly states that hospitals lose their protection if they are used for military purposes. It is incontrovertible that Hamas uses Shifa and other hospitals for military purposes.’’

The libel that an attack on Gaza hospitals from which Hamas operates would amount to war crimes, the Jewish representatives said, was central to Hamas’s objectives and was “reverberating across the world in a new wave of anti-Semitism’’. If Hamas is to be defeated, that propaganda ploy must be resisted, including by French President Emmanuel Macron, who, as Senator Wong said, has also demanded a ceasefire, declaring there was no “no justification” for Israel to continue killing “these babies, these ladies, these old people”. It is Hamas’s disregard for the lives of Palestinians, however, that has made those tragic losses, and widespread suffering in Gaza, inevitable. Mr Macron should understand the dire consequences the world – not just Israel – faces if the Jewish state fails in its aim of destroying Hamas. He should not forget the destruction in November 2015 in the face of an Islamic State onslaught. Demands for a ceasefire were also made at the weekend when Arab leaders met in Riyadh. With the moral authority of a group that included the “Butcher of Damascus”, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, head of the murderous Iranian regime President Ebrahim Raisi, and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whose foe, journalist Jamal Khashoggi, ended up carved into pieces in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018, the summit demanded an end to Israel’s bombing of Gaza. At this critical point, Israel deserves its allies’ support in destroying Hamas as soon as possible. Pointless grandstanding that plays into the terrorists’ hands will make a tragic situation worse for far longer, across the world.