October 7 and the tsunami of anti-Jewish hate

October 7 and the tsunami of anti-Jewish hate

This opinion piece by ECAJ Research Director Julie Nathan was ori­gin­ally published on J‑Wire and the Times of Israel.

There is a long-standing per­cep­tion that anti-Jewish racism stems pre­dom­in­antly from the far right and from those of European ethnicity.

There is a his­tor­ic­al basis for this and a con­tinu­ing con­veni­ence to maintain this narrative by those who seek to divert attention away from other sources of anti-Jewish racism. However, to effect­ively counter anti-Jewish racism, we need to acknow­ledge where the threats and attacks are coming from, regard­less of the source. This has become par­tic­u­larly relevant and urgent since October 7.

In Australia, a 2016 study of the ethnicity of per­pet­rat­ors of physical assault and verbal abuse against Jews (note, only 47% of such incidents iden­ti­fied the ethnicity of the per­pet­rat­ors), found that at that time people of ethnic-European and Middle Eastern back­grounds were pre­dom­in­antly respons­ible in near equal pro­por­tions, at 47% and 43% respect­ively, for physical assault and verbal abuse against Jews in Australia.

A 2017 study of anti-Jewish incidents in Australia found that the extreme far right (ie neo-Nazis/white suprem­acists) were dis­pro­por­tion­ally respons­ible for 22% (comprised pre­dom­in­antly of posters and stickers) of all anti-Jewish incidents. Note, this was during the peak of activity by the neo-Nazi group, Anti­podean Res­ist­ance.

In addition, over the years, there has been plenty of evidence showing that the hard left has harboured anti-Jewish sentiment but has cloaked much of it in anti-Israel or anti-Zionist rhetoric, which was often expressed under the mantra of anti-racism, human rights, and equality.

Since the 7 October 2023 attack by Hamas and other Gazan Palestini­ans (military and civilian) in southern Israel, in which some 1200 people were murdered (burned, raped, dis­membered, tortured and mutilated before being killed), and the sub­sequent Israel-Hamas war, the situation has dra­mat­ic­ally changed in Australia and across the world.

The anti-Jewish racism and incidents are not generally coming from the neo-Nazis and other far-right groups, although these sources remain a serious threat to Jews. Neo-Nazis still view Jews as an exist­en­tial threat to ‘Aryan’ supremacy and still aim to exterm­in­ate Jews around the world, but they lack any wide­spread support and lack any political or insti­tu­tion­al power to promote their ideology and agenda.

Those who do have the political or insti­tu­tion­al power to promote their ideology and agenda are those on the hard left. Their ideas have weaved their way into the main­stream of Western society. The anti-Jewish racism is coming from activists within main­stream insti­tu­tions, such as uni­ver­sit­ies, the arts and enter­tain­ment industry, so-called ‘influ­en­cers’, and the like, and even elements with par­lia­ments.

In general, right-wing antisemitism is overt but mar­gin­al­ised; left-wing antisemitism is insidious but main­streamed.

Within institutions

Within main­stream insti­tu­tions, there are anti-Israel activists who are advoc­at­ing and promoting extremist agendas – agendas which create an atmo­sphere hostile to Jews. This is occurring within public schools by teachers, within uni­ver­sit­ies, within the arts and cultural sector, by health pro­fes­sion­als including doctors and nurses, in public transport in trains and taxis, in busi­nesses by employees – publicly voicing, either directly or indir­ectly, their support for the destruc­tion of the Jewish state of Israel and/or demon­ising Jews who defend Israel’s existence.

The atmo­sphere of fanatical hatred against anyone who supports the existence of the Jewish State of Israel is pervasive and intim­id­at­ing. Anti-Jewish racists are no longer watching their words. It is now accept­able to say racist things against Jews, to demonise Jews, to accuse them col­lect­ively of sup­port­ing apartheid, ethnic cleansing and genocide. The effect will be to condemn Jews to pariah status, to be con­sidered fair game, to be targeted for violence. This is how the mass slaughter of civilians often begins.

October 7 was one thing. But something else happened – through­out the world, there were cel­eb­ra­tions and glor­i­fic­a­tion of the killing of Jews expressed by many Arabs, Muslims and their left-wing allies, so-called ‘pro­gress­ives’. The incidents of anti-Jewish racism and hate crime rose dra­mat­ic­ally around the world. This was usually done under the guise of anti-Zionism or ‘pro-Palestine’ activism, and began straight after the massacre, even before Israel took any military action against Hamas.

The protest outside the Sydney Opera House on 9 October 2023, where chants of “Fuck the Jews!”, “Gas the Jews!” and “Where’s the Jews?” were heard, was planned and publicly advert­ised by Palestine Action Group Sydney on 7 October at 8.04pm while the Hamas murder of Jews was still going on.

There has been a pattern of behaviour over many years that when there is conflict or war in the Middle East, whether involving Israel or not, the festering sore of anti-Jewish racism is opened up and there is a spike in incidents targeting Jews across the world. This time, after October 7, as though the Jew-haters were not satiated by the spilling of enough Jewish blood, or perhaps due to a sentiment that October 7 was a green light, the number of incidents, the open hatred, exploded like a volcano.

On the streets

An early indic­a­tion of how things would pan out occurred on the streets of Lakemba in western Sydney on 8 October 2023, one day after the massacre in Israel. Sheikh Ibrahim Daoud, addressed a large protest rally organised by Hizb ut-Tahrir, glor­i­fy­ing the murder of Jews in Israel, and shouted to the crowd: “I’m smiling and I’m happy. I’m elated. It’s a day of courage, it’s a day of res­ist­ance, it’s a day of pride, it’s a day of victory. This is the day we’ve been waiting for.”

Others too publicly glorified the massacre and were exhil­ar­ated by it. October 7 was seen by many as a great victory, as the start of a renewed Islamic war against Israel, and indeed against Jews around the world. Since then, others have echoed the call to kill Jews, while others declare the global Islamic victory against the kuffar, the non-Muslims, to be on its way.

A man at an anti-Israel protest in Hyde Park, Sydney, shouted out “Allahu Akbar. Get the fucking Jews wiped out! … I’m a Muslim…” (15 Oct. 2023). A police officer told him he had a right to say what he did but that it was an offence to swear in public. The man was later charged with using offensive language (‘fucking’) in a public place, but not for advoc­at­ing violence.

At another anti-Israel protest, in Melbourne, a man yelled out ”Death to every Israeli!”, then two other pro­test­ers went up to him and clapped his hand in approval (15 Oct. 2023).

Several Muslim clerics and imams in Sydney used the massacre to preach hatred of Jews or to praise Hamas and jihad. Some examples include: “Oh Allah … beat the Zionist Jews. … Oh Allah, we hope you count them and kill them one by one.” (24 Nov. 2023); “The most important char­ac­ter­ist­ics of the Jews is that they are bloodthirsty. … Oh Muslims, servants of Allah, betrayal and treachery are among the char­ac­ter­ist­ics of the Jews.” (22 Dec. 2023); and “Now these kuffar, these wor­ship­pers of Iblis (Satan), yes, the des­cend­ants of pigs and monkeys” (29 Dec. 2023). In the Quran (2.63 – 65[1], 5.59 – 60[2], 7.163 – 166[3]), Jews are described as having been turned into pigs and apes, and this is regur­git­ated by extremist Muslims who refer to Jews as the des­cend­ants of pigs and apes

The President of the Islamic Council of Victoria (ICV), Adel Salman, at an anti-Israel rally in Melbourne (15 Oct. 2023) stated: “we must dif­fer­en­ti­ate between legit­im­ate res­ist­ance actions, and everything that has happened is a legit­im­ate response to occu­pa­tion and siege.” In an ABC radio interview (28 Feb. 2024), Adel Salman said “What we don’t denounce, very clearly, is legit­im­ate acts of res­ist­ance  and for the Palestini­ans to rise up on October 7 and say ‘we are no longer going to tolerate this siege, this occu­pa­tion,’ that is legit­im­ate.”

The President of Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN), Nasser Mashni, who has criminal con­vic­tions for kid­nap­ping, violence and threat­en­ing behaviour, has refused to condemn Hamas and the October 7 massacre. He opposed the Aus­trali­an government’s listing of Hamas as a terrorist group. He openly supports the oblit­er­a­tion of Israel and holds con­spir­at­ori­al views about Zionism. Even before October 7, Mashni referred to Jews as ”filthy zios”.

On his radio show on 3CR in July 2023, Mashni said: “The power struc­tures that exist in the world all focus upon Zionism. … Israel is the domino. Israel falls over … The lib­er­a­tion of Earth starts with the first domino, and that’s the over­com­ing and the decol­on­isa­tion of Palestine and the ending of Zionism.”

In an interview on Turkish media on 31 July 2024, Mashni stated “Israel is a rogue genocidal state hellbent on taking the world to the world war 3. That it doesn’t belong, the genocidal apartheid Israel does not belong amongst the nation of nations, doesn’t belong in the UN. Apartheid Israel has to cease to exist.”

Mashni has led the chant “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” during his speeches at many anti-Israel protests in Melbourne in 2023 and 2024.

The founder of the “Sit-Intifada”, on the steps of the Victorian Par­lia­ment in Melbourne, publicly told a Jewish woman: “7 of October is the bloody beginning of it. You’re going to have plenty of 7th of Octobers coming. Plenty of it. And the next 7th of October is gonna be to kick your ass out” (6 May 2024). At a protest the next day, he stated: “I’ll say it again, the October 7 happened because the occu­pa­tion, because oppres­sion, it’s a legit­im­ate res­ist­ance. And a lot more to come [cheers from the crowd], a lot more to come until we liberate Palestine, next time we come from Jordan, from Egypt, from Lebanon, from Syria, all together, another October the 7. Res­ist­ance is our right.”

An anti-Israel protest leader in Melbourne, Mohammad Sharab, has publicly stated: “Long live the Res­ist­ance. Long live fucking Hamas. Fucking Zionists. … All Zionists are ter­ror­ists. … Zionism is abso­lutely terrorism. … then 7 October came … waking all of us up … some form of respect and gratitude and a big thank you that needs to be paid to the Res­ist­ance. Long live the Res­ist­ance. Long live fucking Hamas” (3 July 2024).

Anti-Israel pro­test­ers, in chants or placards, have been calling for “Intifada Intifada” (the bombing of buses, cafes and other public places, as occurred in the Palestini­an intifada of 2000 – 2005);  “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free” (the elim­in­a­tion of the state of Israel and all Jews from the southern Levant region); “Res­ist­ance is Justified, res­ist­ance by any means” (thus jus­ti­fy­ing the massacre of civilians); and “Khaybar Khaybar ya yahud, jaish Muhammad soufa ya’oud” (”Khaybar Khaybar oh Jews, the army of Muhammad will return” which refers to a massacre of Jews by Muslims at Khaybar in 628 CE, and used as a war-cry to threaten and attack Jews). None of those involved have faced reper­cus­sions. The street protests are a major mani­fest­a­tion of this open Jew-hatred and calls for violence.

A new era

We have entered a new era where violence against a segment of the society is encour­aged and exhorted with impunity. Several Muslim clerics in Sydney and protest leaders are preaching to kill Jews, and calling for violence against Jews, and yet no law has been deemed to be breached, despite a plethora of race-hate and anti-incite­ment laws. Street pro­test­ers call for the anni­hil­a­tion of Israel and for the murder of Jews. Threats of violence, physical intim­id­a­tion and assaults of Jews have become all too common.

Places of learning, schools and uni­ver­sit­ies, and places of the arts and culture, places of work, and other public places have become places for the dis­sem­in­a­tion of anti-Jewish and anti-Israel hate pro­pa­ganda. Our society is becoming like a worm-infested apple.

This explosion of anti-Jewish hate and incidents seems to have taken gov­ern­ments, police and others by surprise, as they seem to be at a loss on how to respond to the out­pour­ing of hate against Jews and Israel that was occurring on the streets in their cities. Police appear unable or unwilling to make the necessary arrests, apart from a few. NSW Police have admitted that they will not lay charges against Muslim clerics who have advocated violence against Jews or called for the killing of Jews – somehow, they say, it does not breach any race-hate laws.

Gov­ern­ment politi­cians appear timid and in fear of upsetting sections of their elect­or­ates. Political con­sid­er­a­tions seem to have trumped moral imper­at­ives. Some politi­cians have even become mouth­pieces for Hamas, repeating Hamas lies, and pushing agendas designed to destroy Israel and undermine Jewish life in Australia. Gov­ern­ments and police need to step up and not allow hate to flourish on our streets, in our uni­ver­sit­ies, in our mosques, or anywhere else.

Today, in Australia and in the world, we are facing a moral decision. The mad hatred and lust for violence against Jews is likely to escalate. It will also engulf others, as it always does, espe­cially those who do not fit into or will not submit to the total­it­ari­an agenda of Islamo-fascists and left-wing fascists.

We are at a fork in the road. We either stand for democracy, pluralism, human rights, and the rule of law – values enshrined in Western civil­isa­tion – or we allow those who hate those values to turn the world into a place where dictators and their total­it­ari­an and suprem­acist ideo­lo­gies rule and wreak havoc. Decision time is now.

Notes

1: Quran 2.63 – 65: “We took your Covenant and We raised above you of Mount Sinai … And well you knew those amongst you who trans­gressed in the matter of the Sabbath. We said to them: “Be you apes, despised and rejected.”” (Yusuf Ali) https://quranyusufali.com/2/

2: Quran 5.59 – 60: “O, People of the Book … Shall I point out to you something much worse than this, (as judged) by the treatment it received from Allah? Those who incurred the curse of Allah and His wrath, those of whom some He trans­formed into apes and swine, those who wor­shipped evil; – these are (many times) worse in rank, and far more astray from the even path!” (Yusuf Ali) https://quranyusufali.com/5/

3: Quran 7.163 – 166: “Behold! they trans­gressed in the matter of the Sabbath. … When in their insolence they trans­gressed (all) pro­hib­i­tion We said to them: “Be ye apes despised and rejected.”” (Yusuf Ali) https://quranyusufali.com/7/

What you need to know about the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion.

What you need to know about the Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism (Criminal and Migration Laws) Act 2026 passed in the wake of the Bondi Beach attack.

ECAJ submission to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security review

ECAJ statement on the attack on a rally in Perth.

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