Editorial: Anti-Semitism has no place in Australia

Israel’s response to October 7 has been predictably ferocious and deadly, but that shouldn’t give a free pass to anti-Semites, writes the editor.

Australians saw the ugly face of anti-Semitism up close this week.

If you’ve been wondering just what the fuss is about, the revulsion you surely felt when watching the video of two NSW hospital nurses matter-of-factly bragging about wanting to kill Jewish patients surely answered all your questions.

The video is shocking at so many levels.

First is the language – blunt, unvarnished and unambiguous. “I won’t treat them. I will kill them,” says one of the pair, Sarah Abu Lebdeh, when Israeli content creator Max Veifer, who recorded and released the video, asked how she would treat an Israeli patient who presented in her ward.

There’s the fact that they’re health professionals – they were filmed wearing NSW
Health-branded scrubs – trained to save live, not end them.

Also shocking is that Ms Abu Lebdeh and fellow nurse Ahmed “Rashad” Nadir offered up their vile comments in an online chat, which any thinking person would have realised to be a permanent record.

This suggests either the pair simply weren’t thinking, or that they didn’t care others knew their views, as outrageous as they might be.

Sixty years ago, philosopher Hannah Arendt coined the phrase “the banality of evil” in her book on trial of Adolf Eichmann – one of the architects of the Holocaust – to capture the idea of a
boring-looking bureaucrat who claimed he bore no responsibility because he was “just doing his job”.

This case could well be more an example of the “banality of stupidity” – a couple of idiots showing off for social media and saying outrageous things for effect.

Regardless, they said what they said and they need to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. But how did it get to this? How did a couple of presumably well-educated young people – trained to look after others – feel comfortable enough to offer up such offensive views, either with serious intent or as a grotesque attempt to impress or shock an online audience?

The blunt fact is that anti-Semitism is on the rise in Australia.

There’s a clear starting date for this latest surge in “the longest hatred” – October 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists stormed the Israeli border, killing 1200 people and kidnapping 251.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators responded just two days later with an openly anti-Jewish, anti-Israeli rally at Sydney’s Opera House, which seemed to light the fuse on a tinderbox of anti-Semitic feeling.

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry says there were more than 2000 anti-Jewish incidents in Australia in 12 months – a 316 per cent increase – ranging from vandalism and graffiti to the firebombing of a Melbourne synagogue and a Sydney childcare centre. And now, we have these nurses spewing the vilest of
anti-Semitic sentiments.

Federal and state governments have been belatedly scrambling to get things under control, but the response, especially at the federal level, has too often come across as half-hearted and more focused on holding on to the Muslim vote, especially in western Sydney.

Israel’s response to the October 7 Hamas raids has been predictably ferocious and deadly and has provided plenty of ammunition for critics of its military conduct.

But that shouldn’t give a free pass to anti-Semites – those who have a beef not just with Israel’s policy, but with the Jewish people themselves.

IS ANYONE STILL WATCHING ABC?

Back in 1987, ABC managing director David Hill boasted that the then beloved “Aunty” cost the Aussie taxpayer just 8c a day.

In the days of four free-to-air channels (SBS didn’t start broadcasting until 4pm and its programs were niche, to say the least) that 8c bought you Play School, Countrywide, Sesame Street, The Goodies, East Enders, the news, The 7.30 report, To the Manor Born, sports highlights and a late movie, often from the 1930s.

Something for everyone, and if it kept you away from the non-stop beer ads on commercial television, probably not bad value.

Somehow that 8c-a-day line became entrenched, and the real cost of the ABC escaped scrutiny. Until today, with an investigation by The Courier-Mail revealing the real cost is actually more than a budget subscription to Netflix – about $105 for a family.

Australians understand inflation and we accept that things get more expensive, but ask yourself this: When is the last time you watched anything on the ABC? In fact,
40 per cent of Australians never watch it at all, and if the ABC was a subscription service, they would have long since cancelled it.

For most of the rest of us, we might dip in occasionally, usually for BBC offerings such as repeats of Grand Designs.

Putting aside editorial bias and the exorbitant salaries earned by a handful of “stars”, the ABC is no longer value for money and hasn’t been for a long time.

Responsibility for election comment is taken by Chris Jones, corner of Mayne Rd & Campbell St, Bowen Hills, Qld 4006. Printed and published by NEWSQUEENSLAND (ACN 009 661 778). Contact details here

Originally published as Editorial: Anti-Semitism has no place in Australia