SYDNEY — Over 2,000 members of the Jewish community rallied at Sydney’s Bondi Beach Sept. 7 to counter a provocative anti-Israel protest.
“When the antisemites come here, to the area that has the largest Jewish population in New South Wales, with the intent of intimidating our people, we have the right to have our voices heard, to stand up, and to speak our truth,” Rabbi Yosef Eichenblatt told the crowd. We need to show unity, strength and “not succumb to fear,” musician Hylton Chilchik said. The growing crowd marched to confront the rally of some 200 on the beach supporting Hamas in Gaza.
Responding to Jew-hating chants of “Intifada” and “From the river to the sea,” the counterprotesters chanted, “Bring them home,” a reference to the Israeli hostages held by Hamas, and sang and danced.
The action was organized by Stand With Us Australia under the rallying call, “No, not in our backyard.” Much of the liberal media claimed the Jewish protesters were a violent mob. “The real story was thousands standing calmly, proudly, and peacefully,” the group responded the next day. “People came because they have had enough of intimidation, harassment and deliberate provocation.”
There has been a sharp rise in antisemitism in Australia since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, pogrom against Jews in Israel, including physical assaults and abuse, vandalism and arson attacks on Jewish businesses, homes and synagogues. This has been fueled by repeated attacks on Israel by Australia’s Labor Party government, other politicians and much of the media, demanding it halt its defensive war against Hamas.
Sizable street protests supporting Hamas have been organized by middle-class leftist and Islamist groups. They’ve been backed by Labor and Green Party politicians, many nongovernmental organizations, much of the union officialdom and the liberal media. On Aug. 3, 100,000 anti-Israel protesters marched across Sydney Harbour Bridge. A week later, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced that Canberra would vote to “recognize a state of Palestine,” which it did Sept. 21 to coincide with meetings at the United Nations.
Groups opposing Israel’s war here call for Jewish and Israel-linked businesses to be boycotted and supporters of Israel to be banned from public events. They have vandalized and firebombed factories they say help arm Israel and have threatened violence against workers there. Open Jew-hatred is rife in these middle-class layers.
As Jew-hating violence escalated over the past year, Australia’s police and intelligence agency sought to downplay the threat. Australia Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw blamed “criminals for hire.”
In August the government charged Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps with orchestrating two major antisemitic arson attacks last year, one on the Lewis Continental Kitchen in Sydney and the other on the Adass Israel synagogue in Melbourne. It broke diplomatic relations with Iran, expelled its ambassador, and said it will move to proscribe the IRGC as a terrorist organization. “These were extraordinary and dangerous acts of aggression orchestrated by a foreign nation,” Albanese said, seeking “to undermine social cohesion and sow discord in our community.”
Jew-hatred is endemic to the imperialist epoch, including in Australia. Like Washington and other imperialist powers, Canberra refused to open its doors to Jews trying to flee the Nazi Holocaust. Responsibility for the upsurge in attacks on Jews here today lies with the statements and actions of the Australian government, backed by a majority of the ruling class, along with the media and other institutions of capitalist rule, as well as middle-class liberals, leftists and Islamists who openly promote it.