ECAJ special report of anti-Jewish incidents in Australia from 1 October 2023 to 30 September 2024.
Download the full report: ECAJ Report on Anti-Jewish Incidents in Australia 2024 (PDF 2.8MB)
About the report
This special report was compiled by ECAJ Research Director Julie Nathan who has compiled the ECAJ’s annual Report on Antisemitism in Australia since 2013.
ECAJ’s annual Report on Antisemitism in Australia records anti-Jewish racism in two broad categories: incidents and discourse. In general, incidents are what is done to Jews, and discourse is what is said about Jews. This special report covers anti-Jewish incidents only.
ECAJ Research Director Julie Nathan commented on the special report’s findings:
The armed attack against Israel that was planned and initiated by Hamas and its supporters on 7 October 2023 featured acts of extreme barbarity against Israeli civilians who were murdered, tortured, raped, mutilated and abducted. For anti-Israel activists in Australia and elsewhere, the slaughter acted as a signal that it was now open season against local Jewish communities too, who overwhelmingly support Israel’s right to exist and defend itself.
In the 12 months that followed there was a 316% increase in the overall number of reported antisemitic incidents in Australia compared to the same period in the previous year. Whilst the number of reported antisemitic incidents has fluctuated from year to year previously, there has never been anything like an annual increase of this magnitude.
If anything, the raw numbers understate the seriousness of the surge in antisemitism that has occurred. There have been many new forms and expressions of anti-Jewish racism that would once have been considered alien to Australia, but which have become commonplace.
There were anti-Israel protests outside synagogues and Jewish schools, convoys of vehicles driving though suburbs with a high proportion of Jewish residents, anti-Israel activists targeting small businesses owned by Jewish families, residential homes being targeted with hate graffiti and stickers, and a huge increase in physical assaults against Jews and verbal abuse on the streets.
With a few honourable exceptions, the response from political and community leaders, university executives and civil society has been tepid at best. The result has been a ratcheting up of antisemitism from hateful words to steadily more serious hateful actions.
If it was thought that anti-Jewish racism was a thing of the past and defeated, the last 12 months has shown that it has been cynically reactivated and stoked for political purposes. The physical, verbal and other forms of attacks on Jewish individuals, families and community venues will continue to worsen unless governments, police and others show some spine by taking resolute action to halt the rising tide of acts of hatred against the Jewish community and bringing those responsible to account.
