7^th August 2014
We are deeply concerned by accounts of an incident involving racial abuse and threats of violence directed towards Jewish primary school students on a bus in Sydney’s eastern suburbs yesterday afternoon.
Initial police reports indicate that the incident was oppor­tun­ist­ic rather than pre­med­it­ated.
We are grateful to the New South Wales Police for their swift action in response to this incident, which has resulted in the arrests of five teenagers.
The gravity of this incident should not be under­es­tim­ated. It is unac­cept­able for school children aged between 5 and 12 to be subjected to such a ter­ri­fy­ing ordeal. Any abuse directed at children is deplor­able. It is par­tic­u­larly so when that abuse is racial in nature and accom­pan­ied by threats of extreme violence. It demon­strates a hatred and cowardice that should concern all Aus­trali­ans.
We, as a community, are pro­foundly troubled by this latest event and the sequence of antisemitic incidents that has preceded it.
On August 4^th, a visiting Rabbi from Israel and his assistant were set upon by a group of up to six youths shouting anti-Israel slogans outside a shopping mall in Perth. In the last fortnight, antisemitic graffiti has been spray-painted on a wall of the Carmel Jewish School in Perth and a house in Melbourne. In July, a Jewish man was called a “Jewish dog” and beaten on a street in Melbourne by two men.
The Executive Council of Aus­trali­an Jewry has reported on trends in antisemitism in this country since 1989. There is a clear cor­rel­a­tion between any escal­a­tion of the various conflicts in the Middle East and incidents of antisemitism in Australia. Espe­cially troubling is the rise in overt and extreme expres­sions of antisemitism on social media platforms, often unmod­er­ated, and the possible long term effects of this abusive discourse on users of social media, espe­cially younger Aus­trali­ans.
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.
Antisemitism is a constant presence in public rallies which sup­posedly support the Palestini­an cause. Indi­vidu­als who legit­im­ately wish to express their support for Palestini­ans or oppos­i­tion to Israeli gov­ern­ment policy are habitu­ally exposed to vile forms of ste­reo­typ­ing of Jews.
Media coverage of the conflict, which focuses on the Israel-Palestini­an conflict to the near exclusion of other conflicts which are far more costly in human life and suffering, or which distorts or decon­tex­tu­al­ises the conflict and the actions of the parties, also serves to inflame tensions and can serve to incite hatred against Aus­trali­an Jews.
No reas­on­able person will suggest that all criticism of Israel is antisemitic. Israel is a vibrant democracy with an enormous plurality of views on all aspects of gov­ern­ment policy. Some of the staunchest critics of Israeli gov­ern­ment policy are Israelis. 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 antisemitic ste­reo­types and canards in the guise of political comment is unac­cept­able. Its effect is to give licence to people who harbor anti-Jewish pre­ju­dices, but would ordin­ar­ily keep them well hidden, to give vent to their hatred. It should be condemned in the strongest possible terms.
In light of the dis­turb­ing rise of antisemitic incidents in our society, we call on Aus­trali­an leaders across all spheres of our society, to show moral lead­er­ship and condemn unequi­voc­ally yesterday’s incident and the under­ly­ing causes of it.

For further inform­a­tion:
Peter Wertheim AM | Executive Director
phone: 02 8353 8500 | m: 0408 160 904 | fax 02 9361 5888
e: [email protected] | www.ecaj.org.au