This anti-Jewish conduct must be stopped for all our sakes

Damaged books in the library of the firebombed Adass Israel Synagogue. Picture: David Caird

Anthony Albanese must call a meeting of national cabinet to deal with the near daily anti-Semitic incidents currently terrorising Australia’s Jewish community.

The events across the past few months are a direct challenge to the law and order that underpin our democracy.

All citizens, Jewish or not, deserve to feel safe in our country. A national cabinet will allow state governments (principally NSW and Victoria) to get on the same page as the federal government.

National cabinet must address the systemic, organised, deliberate and cultural nature of these repeated incidents and the need to ensure that the appropriate message is sent through strong penalties across jurisdictions.

In recent weeks we have witnessed the shocking firebombing attack on the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne; the vandalism of and attempt to set alight the Newtown synagogue in Sydney; anti-Semitic graffiti on the southern Sydney synagogue at Allawah; repeated cases of hate-filled damage to houses and cars at Queens Park and Woollahra in Sydney; and the list goes on.

The Southern Sydney Synagogue was vandalised with anti-Semitic graffiti. Picture: Tom Parrish

As NSW Premier Chris Minns says, these are acts intended to intimidate and divide. Seeing the charred remains of Melbourne’s Adass synagogue, surrounded by burnt holy books and with soot still heavy in the air, the resemblance to photos we have all seen of burnt synagogues in Germany during Kristallnacht in 1938 is chilling.

Sadly, these are not isolated incidents but a systematic pattern of intimidation that threatens the foundations of our way of life; it must be stopped. These incidents may have started with the unchecked calls at the Sydney Opera House forecourt on October 9, 2023 to target Jews, but they have gathered momentum with each unprosecuted incident.

Even seemingly serious incidents that have been prosecuted, such as setting fire to a Jewish politician’s office or breaching security to protest on the roof of Parliament House, have gone unpunished following judicial decisions to not even record a conviction.

Prosecutors and magistrates and judges need to understand that these are not isolated incidents but a growing campaign of intimidatory, aggravated anti-Semitism, and these crimes must be viewed in that context when considering punishment.

Recently, walking down a street in Melbourne’s southeast with many Jewish store owners, I was upset to hear their stories of harassing phone calls, BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) stickers plastered on their shop windows, confected negative Google reviews, only occasional police presence and a resignation that increasingly violent attacks are inevitable. Surely this is not the Australia we want.

Clearly, political condemnation, while welcome, is insufficient. Bright lines need to be set that make it clear that this intimidatory and violent conduct is not only unacceptable but also is illegal. It must be made clear that these crimes will be prosecuted and will result in the highest penalties. National cabinet must send the message to the community and to judicial officers that this is systemic and must be treated as such.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visits the destroyed Adass Israel Synagogue. Picture: Instagram

At both state and federal levels, police taskforces must be sufficiently resourced to find the perpetrators of anti-Semitic offences, prosecutions must be initiated and judicial officers must understand what is at stake. The community must be kept informed to maintain confidence that action is being taken and their intimidation is understood.

These are not ordinary graffiti incidents by naive offenders (as we saw in a recent case that was waved away in Melbourne) but incidents that feed off each other, gathering momentum with each declaration of effective impunity.

Unless the message is sent that our society will not tolerate this, we are all undone.

At last it seems to be dawning on police that this is serious and these incidents – across state borders – must be addressed comprehensively. Those engaged in a campaign of intimidation against Australia’s peaceful Jewish community need to understand they cannot keep pushing the envelope further, before things spiral further out of control and people are seriously injured and possibly killed.

My office has undertaken a desktop review of the patchwork of the relevant state and federal laws and they are not easy to navigate.

If there is a lack of clarity about the current laws, they must be tested through prosecutions at both a state and federal level. Those handing out penalties need direction that this is a broader, serious issue of an attack on a minority.

If existing laws are not up to the task, our politicians must commit to correct the situation and amend them to deal with current challenge.

We need leadership from our political leaders and our police commissioners but we also need our law enforcement officials and our judges and magistrates to understand what is at stake here.

Jillian Segal is Australia’s special envoy to combat anti-Semitism.