Rise in Australia hate cases

A REPORT on antisemitism in Australia has revealed a 30 per cent spike in serious incidents involving verbal abuse, harassment and intimidation of Jewish people.

There were 368 recorded antisemitic incidents in Australia during the year to September 2019, according to the study, which is published annually by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ).

The incidents included physical assaults, vandalism and graffiti, and threats communicated to people and organisations directly.

225 cases of attacks were recorded, alongside 143 threats.

“The overall number of antisemitic incidents continued at, and slightly exceeded, the unusually high number logged during 2018, which saw a 59 per cent increase over the previous year”, said Julie Nathan, the ECAJ’s Research Director on Antisemitism.

“Most disturbing were the reported incidents of antisemitic bullying of Jewish schoolchildren at two Victorian public schools, and the manifestly inadequate way in which the schools handled those incidents.”

In one case, a 12-year-old boy in Melbourne was forced to kiss the feet of a Muslim student.

“More subtle, but just as concerning, was the spread of calumnies about Jews beneath the cloak of political discourse about Israel,” Ms Nathan said.

“Examples included a university lecturer and the utterly false claim made by a professional teaching body in July that Israel persecutes Arabs because ‘they don’t follow the Jewish religion’”.