ECAJ anti-Semitism alert
THERE is a clear correlation between any escalation of the various conflicts in the Middle East and incidents of anti-Semitism in Australia, according to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ).
THERE is a clear correlation between any escalation of the various conflicts in the Middle East and incidents of anti-Semitism in Australia, according to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ).
In a statement released late last week, ECAJ president Robert Goot and executive director Peter Wertheim said the gravity of last Wednesday’s incident – in which Jewish primary school students were subjected to anti-Semitic abuse on a Sydney school bus – should not be underestimated.
“It is unacceptable for school children aged between five and 12 to be subjected to such a terrifying ordeal. Any abuse directed at children is deplorable,” they said.
“It is particularly so when that abuse is racial in nature and accompanied by threats of extreme violence.
“We as a community are profoundly troubled by this latest event and the sequence of anti-Semitic incidents that has preceded it.”
Goot and Wertheim cited an incident in which visiting Israeli Rabbi Avrohom Sholom Halberstam was abused in Perth; as well as the spray-painting of anti-Semitic graffiti at Carmel School, also in Perth; graffiti on a house in Melbourne; and the bashing of Jewish Caulfield man Zachary Gomo as unacceptable examples.
They added that the rise of anti-Semitism on social media was especially troubling.
“It is completely unacceptable and morally repugnant to scapegoat or hold responsible Jewish Australians, including children, for events overseas … It is completely unacceptable to view Jewish Australians as a legitimate target for abuse and violence, regardless of one’s political views.”
Goot and Wertheim also took aim at anti-Semitic imagery and slogans at pubic rallies which “supposedly support” the Palestinian cause.
They added that media coverage of the Israel-Palestinian conflict to the near exclusion of other conflicts, or which distorts or decontextualises the conflict and the actions of the parties, also serves to inflame tensions and can incite hatred.
“No reasonable person will suggest that all criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic,” they said. “However, it would be foolish and indeed dangerous to believe that no criticism of Israel is motivated by a hatred of Jews. The use of classic anti-Semitic stereotypes and canards in the guise of political comment is unacceptable.”
AJN STAFF
ECAJ executive director Peter Wertheim.
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