Empathy for Jews ‘fleeting’, says Liberal MP Julian Leeser

Julian Leeser has accused the government of ‘turning its back’ on Jewish Australians like himself amid rampant anti-Semitism at the opening of a landmark exhibition on the horrors of October 7.

Liberal MP Julian Leeser says the Jewish community had been abandoned by leaders and institutions. Picture: Ben Symons

Liberal MP Julian Leeser has accused the Albanese government of “turning its back” on Jewish Australians like himself amid rampant anti-Semitism, at the opening of a landmark exhibition on the horrors of October 7, vowing to never stop fighting the “oldest form of hatred”.

Speaking on Wednesday at the Sydney Jewish Museum to open the Santos Exhibition, a collection of images – and horrors – from October 7 curated by photographer Emmanuel Santos, the Berowra MP said the community had been “abandoned”.

“Put simply, Jewish Australians feel abandoned … I feel abandoned,” Mr Leeser said.

“We have been abandoned by those who are duty bound to protect our community and foster Australia’s social cohesion. I feel abandoned by institutions like Australia’s so-called Human Rights Commission … university leaders and others who refuse to condemn all forms of anti-Semitism and take action to stamp it out.”

Mr Leeser said the exhibition, which opens this week, would “bear witness to the horrors of October 7” so those murdered or taken hostage would never fade in memory.

The address comes amid rising anti-Semitism, and hours after Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh was targeted and killed in the Iranian capital, Tehran.

On Wednesday, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a flying visit to the country.

Noting how October 7 was the deadliest single day in Jewish history since the Holocaust, Mr Leeser said empathy had been “fleeting” in Australia.

“Jew-haters across the world wasted no time by calling into question the truth of what happened,” he said.

“They questioned the rapes, murders, taking of hostages, of which more than one hundred remain in tunnels under Gaza.”

The Australian revealed the despair of relatives of the Bibas family, taken hostage on October 7, where they remain, including four-year-old Ariel and now one-year-old Kfir.

Mr Leeser criticised how “rampant anti-Semitism” had been allowed to rip through society.

Mr Leeser urged more political leaders – from across parties – to “confront this oldest form of hatred”.

The government has recently announced former Executive Council of Australian Jewry president Jillian Segal as its new anti-Semitism envoy, and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has condemned instances of domestic anti-Semitism, criticising the Greens for turning a blind eye.