Scenes Reminiscent of Kristallnacht a Reminder of the Price of Unbridled Antisemitism, Weak Leadership

In the early hours of Friday 6 December 2024, Australians woke to the news that the Melbourne Adass Israel Synagogue, built by holocaust survivors, was the target of a brutal arson attack. The scene reminded me of the Kristallnacht pogrom Nazi Germany, which saw Jewish homes, businesses and synagogues vandalised and set ablaze – claiming 91 lives. While standing defiant, Jewish Australians are understandably heartbroken, and they are afraid.

Left in the debris of the Adass Israel Synagogue is the innocence of Australia. From the repugnant chants on the steps of the Sydney Opera House, to the hate-filled protests of our campuses and communities, Australians have confronted the worst kind of extremism – tolerated, if not tacitly encouraged, by the silence and mealy-mouthed responses of the Prime Minister and his Labor Government colleagues. Talk is cheap.

Anthony Albanese thinks that he can throw $32.5 million at Jewish community sites, and that Jewish Australians will look past his silence and complicity – hoping that a press conference on Sunday offers him some political acquittal. His record speaks volumes. For the last 12 months, he and his government have waged a systematic campaign against Israel and the Jewish people.

This is not the Australia we know and love. Through their systematic campaign against Israel, Anthony Albanese and his Labor Government have fanned into flame the most heinous kind of antisemitic hate. Worse still, this kind of vileness and violence has been enabled by the careless silence of every idle bystander.

Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel said, “What hurts the victim most is not the cruelty of the oppressor, but the silence of the bystander.” Fellow survivor, Leslie Meisels said, “Silence helps the oppressors.”

We know what happens when people fail to stand up, speak up, and show up in the fight to combat antisemitism. We’ve been here before.

Jews are bullied. Their businesses are boycotted. Their fundamental rights are violated. Their synagogues are firebombed. Terror attacks. Hostages taken. Families massacred in their beds. We know the price of unbridled antisemitism. 

The late Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks said, “The Holocaust stands as the eternal symbol of what happens when we forget.”

In 1945, we said “never again”. And yet, nearly 80 years later, here we are again. But never again is now. Right now.

The Australian Government is called such because it is supposed to represent the Australian people. The most important task of any government is to protect its people.  The Australian Government should be standing up to antisemites, speaking up for Jewish Australians, and showing up for Israel. Instead, the Australian Labor Government, led by Anthony Albanese has allowed, and in fact, amplified the very worst kind of hate.

I spoke with a number of Rabbis across the country over the weekend. My message to them and to the wider Jewish community is simple: the Australian people stand with you. We are appalled at the un-Australian behaviour of a small but vocal protest movement. We are angry that the Albanese Government has allowed this to happen on our watch, in our time. We are so much better than this.

Australians expect strong leadership on antisemitism and national security. As Leader of the Opposition, Peter Dutton said earlier this year, “A ‘national moral fog' has made antisemitism permissible”. We need strong leadership and clear convictions to steer Australia out of that fog – and to get the country back on track.

Labor’s Track Record on Antisemitism:

• Delayed a visit to Israel by Senior Ministers, and then refused to visit the sites of the atrocities in a show of wilful blindness.

• Reinstated UNRWA funding despite an ongoing investigation into the UN agency’s complicity in the October 7 terror attacks, an investigation which inevitably proved that as many as 9 UNRWA workers were involved in the murder of 1,200 and kidnapping of 251 Israeli men, women, and children.

• Called for a ceasefire and two-state solution just months after the attacks – on a Jewish high holiday.

• Voted to recognise the State of Palestine at the UN General Assembly, breaking with allies and decades of bipartisanship on the matter.

• Watched on as the trade union movement backed Hamas and the two-state solution, after a long history of trade union antisemitism.

• Chose cowardice over courage when the International Criminal Court issued warrants for Israel’s democratically elected leaders.

• Failed to hold the Australian Human Rights Commission accountable for its antisemitism.

• Dithered and delayed instead of responding to vile antisemitism on Australian university campuses, then refused to support an urgent judicial inquiry into antisemitism on those campuses.

• Were woefully slow to act when their own Senator Fatima Payman chose solidarity with Hamas and The Greens over the Jewish people.

• Took the coward’s way out by abstaining on a UN General Assembly vote – proposed by Palestine – to demand Israel cede its territory and end its so-called occupation.

• Sided with UNRWA and its Hamas-affiliated counterparts after Israel’s elected legislature voted to revoke UNRWA’s right to operate on Israeli sovereign territory.

• Voted to affirm the sovereignty of the Palestinian people over the sovereign territory of Israel.

• Broke with Australia’s longstanding position to condemn Israel for what Palestinian activists continue to call “occupation”.

• Time and again, equivocated and hesitated to support Australia’s Jewish community and our enduring partner in the Middle East, Israel – while allowing extremists to march through our streets with impunity because of Anthony Albanese’s weak leadership.