28^th October 2013
by Peter Wertheim AM,
Executive Director, ECAJ.
Australia is a welcoming place, but the assault on a Jewish family in Bondi reminds us that hatred and prejudice still exist and must be tackled.
Although police invest­ig­a­tions are still pro­ceed­ing, the vicious attack on a Jewish family in Bondi early on Saturday morning appears to have been the most serious antisemitic assault in Australia for many years. The victims, who have all now been released from hospital, included a couple in their 60’s. The man’s injuries included bleeding on the brain. One victim was left with a broken jaw. One had glass fragments in his eye. The reactions of shock and revulsion have not been confined to the Jewish community. Politi­cians, trade union leaders, Muslim and church rep­res­ent­at­ives, the Federal Race Dis­crim­in­a­tion Com­mis­sion­er, the Chair of the NSW Community Relations Com­mis­sion­er, and many others have condemned both the attack and its apparent racist motiv­a­tion.
Even during the 15 minutes when the attack occurred, bystand­ers, including a passing taxi driver, inter­vened to end the violence and helped the police apprehend three of the alleged assail­ants. The expres­sions of solid­ar­ity with the victims and with the Jewish community, and the brave and selfless actions of the bystand­ers, are a much more wide­spread reflec­tion of the attitude of Aus­trali­ans to their Jewish fellow citizens, than the hate-filled violence of the attackers.
Bondi is famous for its relaxed, free-wheeling and cul­tur­ally diverse way of life. Many Jewish people live there. Numerous syn­agogues and other Jewish communal insti­tu­tions are located there. It is not uncommon to see men walking along the street wearing kippot (Jewish head coverings) or the black hats and suits of Chasidic Jews, often strolling with their families.
The over­whelm­ing exper­i­ence of Jews living in Australia has been one of accept­ance, freedom and security. Very few Aus­trali­ans feel com­fort­able openly identi­fy­ing them­selves as anti­semites. But there is no room for com­pla­cency.
The Executive Council of Aus­trali­an Jewry has for many years compiled stat­ist­ics of antisemitic acts and published its annual report, “Antisemitism in Australia”.
The internet and social media have provided a new platform, if not a megaphone, for expres­sions of antisemitism which were hitherto confined to the extreme margins of society.
There is a low but per­sist­ent level of verbal abuse of iden­ti­fi­ably Jewish people on the street. Physical assaults have also occurred but are far less common. Jewish community buildings are the targets of vandalism and graffiti.
Some instances of anti­semt­ism are clearly related to hostility to Israel. Not all anti­semites fit the Neander­th­al Nazi-saluting ste­reo­type. In 1982, there was a terrorist bombing of the Hakoah Club in Bondi. During the 1991 Gulf War Jewish syn­agogues and a kinder­garten in Sydney were fire-bombed. Thank­fully no-one was hurt. But each of these crimes remains unsolved.
The Jewish community is forced to take security pre­cau­tions to protect its schools, syn­agogues and other communal insti­tu­tions, at enormous cost, partly with gov­ern­ment assist­ance. Racism comes at huge financial cost to society and the taxpayer, in addition to the obvious social cost.
As Australia’s pop­u­la­tion grows and becomes more cul­tur­ally diverse, gov­ern­ments will need to be increas­ingly proactive to ensure that racism is kept in check and that social cohesion is nurtured. Australia’s National Anti-Racism strategy needs to be strengthened and integ­rated into the education cur­riculum, not only in Civics and Cit­izen­ship, but also in core subjects such as History, Geography and English lit­er­at­ure.
Now is also not the time to water down Australia’s laws against incite­ment to racial hatred. On the contrary, the incident in Bondi illus­trates that the current review by the NSW gov­ern­ment of the criminal law against serious incite­ment to racial hatred needs to be given high priority.
According to the 2011 Census, some 140 lin­guist­ic, cultural or ethno-religious groups are rep­res­en­ted in the Aus­trali­an pop­u­la­tion with more than 300 ances­tries. For more than 40% of Aus­trali­ans, one or both parents were born overseas. If we are to keep Australia safe and free, racism is an evil we can no longer avoid tackling head-on.
Peter Wertheim AM | Executive Director
phone: 02 8353 8500 | m: 0408 160 904 | fax 02 9361 5888
e: [email protected]