Joint ECAJ-NSWBoD statement.

The NSW Jew­ish Board of Deputies (JBD) in con­junc­tion with the ECAJ will seek to be heard by the NSW Supreme Court as it con­sid­ers protests planned to end at the Syd­ney Opera House on Sun­day 12 Octo­ber.

As the recog­nised rep­re­sen­ta­tive body for the NSW Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty, JBD – sup­port­ed by their nation­al rep­re­sen­ta­tive body the ECAJ – have sub­mit­ted an ami­cus brief chal­leng­ing the pro­posed loca­tion of the protest.

JBD Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer Michele Gold­man said the move comes amid esca­lat­ing anti­semitism in NSW and fol­lows last week’s dev­as­tat­ing ter­ror attack tar­get­ing Jews in a syn­a­gogue in Man­ches­ter which result­ed in the deaths of two wor­ship­pers.

“In the wake of dead­ly attacks over­seas and an alarm­ing rise in anti­se­mit­ic inci­dents here at home, we are ask­ing the court to restore the bal­ance between free­dom of assem­bly and free­dom from harass­ment and hate,” Ms Gold­man said.

“For more than two years, week­ly anti-Israel ral­lies have turned our CBD into a no-go zone for Jew­ish peo­ple.”

“But it doesn’t stop there — we know these protests have fuelled real-world anti­se­mit­ic incite­ment and vio­lence across Syd­ney.”

“Free­dom of assem­bly must be bal­anced against the right of all Aus­tralians to go about their lives in peace.”

This action fol­lows the noto­ri­ous protest on the steps of the Opera House on 9 Octo­ber 2023 just days after the mass atroc­i­ties com­mit­ted by Hamas in Israel on 7 Octo­ber when demon­stra­tors chant­ed “f… the Jews” and “where’s the Jews” among oth­er anti­se­mit­ic slurs and threats.

“First they used the Opera House to spread their hatred of Jews — even as Israelis were being raped, mur­dered and tak­en hostage,” said ECAJ Pres­i­dent Daniel Aghion.

“Then they marched across the Har­bour Bridge car­ry­ing an image of the Iran­ian dic­ta­tor who calls for the destruc­tion of Jews.”

“Now they want to return to the Opera House.”

“As the Direc­tor Gen­er­al of ASIO not­ed ear­li­er this year, the cumu­la­tive effect of these protests has been to cre­ate an atmos­phere of rabid hos­til­i­ty towards the Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty and every­one else who rejects the views of the pro­test­ers, as we all have the right to do.”

“The right to protest does not equate to a right to cause max­i­mum dis­rup­tion to the gen­er­al pub­lic. On the con­trary it impos­es a con­comi­tant oblig­a­tion on those hold­ing a pub­lic assem­bly to take rea­son­able steps to min­imise the dis­rup­tion to the gen­er­al pub­lic.”

“In this case the pro­posed march direct­ly from Hyde Park to the Opera House, a dis­tance of 1.9 kilo­me­tres, would occu­py the whole of Mac­quar­ie Street, a major traf­fic artery, and restrict pub­lic access to Syd­ney Hos­pi­tal, Syd­ney Eye Hos­pi­tal, the NSW Par­lia­ment and the NSW State Library. It would also shut down the Opera House for a peri­od, and deny the pub­lic access to it.”

“The dis­rup­tion to the gen­er­al pub­lic would there­fore be exces­sive, and should be avoid­ed by, at a min­i­mum, re-rout­ing the march.”

“We haven’t tak­en this step light­ly, but the com­mu­ni­ty — Jew­ish and non-Jew­ish alike — is exhaust­ed”
“The courts have set a high bar for these cas­es, but we hope they will recog­nise the con­sid­er­able weight of evi­dence we have pro­vid­ed”.

The NSW Supreme Court will con­sid­er whether to hear argu­ments from the nation’s peak Jew­ish groups at hear­ings tomor­row morn­ing.