‘Democracy is at stake’: SOS from Anthony Albanese’s anti-Semitism envoy Jillian Segal
Anthony Albanese’s hand-picked envoy on anti-Semitism has declared the nation’s judiciary is failing Jewish Australians with weak sentences for anti-Semitic criminals, calling on the PM to convene national cabinet to take immediate action.
The nation’s judiciary is failing Jewish Australians with weak sentences that are handing anti-Semitic criminals “effective impunity” and Anthony Albanese must convene national cabinet to take immediate action, the Prime’s Minister’s hand-picked envoy on anti-Semitism has declared.
In an extraordinary intervention after an explosion of anti-Semitic attacks on synagogues and family homes over the summer, envoy and Jewish leader Jillian Segal says Mr Albanese and premiers must meet urgently to ensure tougher sentencing and more prosecutions for anti-Jewish hate crimes.
With a ceasefire deal between Israel and terror group Hamas in Gaza possible within days, Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus landed in Tel Aviv on Tuesday to embark on a delayed trip to repair relations with the Jewish homeland and the government of Benjamin Netanyahu.
But as the anti-Semitism crisis escalates at home, Ms Segal writes in The Australian that a lack of enforcement and judicial punishment had allowed it to “gather momentum”.
“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,” Ms Segal writes.
“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.
“These are not ordinary graffiti incidents by naive offenders but incidents that feed off each other, gathering momentum with each declaration of effective impunity.
“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.”
Analysis from Ms Segal’s office has found a “patchwork” of state and federal laws supposed to deal with hate crimes against Jewish Australians lacked clarity, were complex and not easy to navigate.
Ms Segal warned if more prosecutions and tougher penalties for anti-Semites do not occur, then Mr Albanese and the premiers will need to act with new legislation as the nation’s democracy is at stake.
“If there is a lack of clarity about the current laws, they must be tested through prosecutions at both a state and federal level,” she said.
“If existing laws are not up to the task, our politicians must commit to correct the situation and amend them to deal with current challenges. But we need to see more serious penalties imposed.
She added that she had conversed with comparable envoys from other nations who said that their jurisdictions were “reviewing” legislation to better combat anti-Semitism.
Clear lines, Ms Segal said, needed to be drawn to show that intimidatory and violent conduct was “not only unacceptable but illegal”. “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,” she said.
Ms Segal, who was picked by Mr Albanese as his leading adviser on anti-Semitism in July, also said the Prime Minister must tell state and territory leaders to find a solution to the “near-daily anti-Semitic incidents currently terrorising Australia’s Jewish community”.
“The events over the past few months are a direct challenge to the law and order that underpins our democracy,” she writes. “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.”
The envoy’s call came amid a marked increase in anti-Semitism, which has escalated from words to attacks, first in November when homes in Woollahra – a notable Sydney Jewish suburb – were vandalised with anti-Semitic graffiti and before Melbourne’s Adass Synagogue was torched in a possible terrorist attack in December.
Mr Albanese this week has dismissed calls for a national meeting, and said state governments were primarily responsible for law and order and that he had established a national police task force on anti-Semitism last month.
But his office on Tuesday – after The Australian asked it about whether he would hold a national cabinet meeting – said he had held anti-Semitism talks that same day with Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan, Acting NSW Premier Penny Sharpe and federal police commissioner Reece Kershaw.
“The Prime Minister stated he will continue to work closely with Ms Segal, who in a conversation today supported this intergovernmental discussion,” his spokesman said.
“All three governments committed to regular conversations between leaders and agreed on the value of federal and state police commissioners engaging directly with the community.
“The rise of anti-Semitism is abhorrent and there is no place for the kind of hate speech and attacks we have seen recently in our country.”
Melbourne lawyer Mark Leibler met with Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar in Jerusalem on Sunday and discussed the relationship between Australia and Israel, and the rise of anti-Semitism in Australia.
Mr Leibler said the meeting was timely given the visit by Mr Dreyfus. “I was left in no doubt about the level of concern in the Israeli government, and the Foreign Minister in particular, about the anti-Semitic abuse and harassment the Australian community has been enduring,” Mr Leibler said. “He said the concern was amplified by the fact that Australia had previously been regarded as the best place in the world to be a Jew, outside of Israel.”
Since December’s Adass synagogue firebombing, Woollahra has been vandalised again with “Kill Israel” graffiti, a car tagged with “F..k the Jews” in another Sydney suburb, a man arrested for a gun gesture aimed at Sydney’s Chabad North Shore and Kehillat Masada synagogues, another man arrested for performing a Nazi salute, Nazi symbols tagged on Sydney synagogues in Allawah and Newtown, and “Gas the Jews” graffiti in the Prime Minister’s electorate.
Saying that the charred remains of the Adass synagogue evoked scenes from the Kristallnacht, Ms Segal said recent incidents were not isolated “but a systematic pattern of intimidation”, whose roots could be traced to the “unchecked calls” to target Jews at the Sydney Opera House on October 9, 2023.
Relevant legislation is split across state and federal criminal codes.
Terrorism offences fall under the commonwealth criminal code, and the federal government has banned Nazi and hate symbols, recently introduced “anti-doxxing” legislation and proposed stronger hate speech provisions in response to rising anti-Semitism.
New federal hate-speech laws have been criticised by Jewish leaders for being a near-carbon copy of NSW’s – itself criticised for failing to capture anti-Semitism.
NSW and Victoria are poised to enact legislation better protecting places of worship from activism, threats and intimidation, in response to December’s Adass synagogue firebombing.
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