‘Globalise the Intifada’ they chant and sing. Well now we are able to safely say that the Intifada has been globalised. Australia, once certainly one of the safest countries on the earth for Jews, has turn into one of the crucial dangerous. On December 14, two gunmen opened fire on a Jewish Hanukkah celebration on Bondi Beach, Sydney. Fifteen people have been killed, including two rabbis, a 10-year-old child called Matilda, and a survivor of the Holocaust.
The tragedy and shock are immense. I spoke this morning with a young Jewish friend who has been traumatised by the entire event. Little wonder. The stories of the victims are heartbreaking.
Holocaust survivor and Ukrainian, Alex Kleytman died while attempting to shield his wife Larisa after hearing shots ring out. “We were standing and suddenly got here the ‘boom boom’, and everybody fell down. At this moment he was behind me and at one moment he decided to go near me. He pushed his body up because he desired to stay near me,” Larisa told The Australian newspaper.
Rabbi Eli Schlanger was certainly one of the organisers of the Chanukah event. He was a neighborhood rabbi having been a chaplain within the Bondi community for 18 years. He wrote to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in September of this yr pleading with him to not “betray the Jewish people and never to betray G-d himself.” He was referring to the Australian government’s change of foreign policy to recognise Palestine as an independent state – a change which many imagine got here about due to Hamas and since of growing pressure from the increasing variety of Muslims in Australia. Schlanger leaves behind a wife and young children.
All of that is so desperately sad. But it will not be surprising. Although Australia was one of the crucial welcoming nations to the Jewish people, times have modified.
The Jews arrived here with the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788 – where there have been not less than eight Jewish convicts. Over the subsequent 60 years around 800 more arrived – mostly from the working-class areas of London. Free Jewish settlers began coming within the 1820s. By 1901 there have been 15,000 Jews mostly in Sydney and Melbourne.
Today, Australia’s Jewish population is roughly 120,000, with 99,956 identifying as Jewish by religion within the 2021 census, though estimates suggest the next number on account of underreporting. The community is centred in Melbourne (46%) and Sydney (39%).
After the Second World war hundreds of Holocaust survivors got here, with the result that other than Israel, Australia had the best per capita Holocaust survivor population. I feel of that once I visit the Jewish Museum in Sydney and am pleased with my adopted land. Which is why it was shocking to witness a few years ago an anti-Israel demonstration in Sydney which provoked outcry on the time since it had reportedly included chants of ‘gas the Jews’ – NSW police later said it was ‘where’s the Jews’, but that is hardly less intimidating. Jewish people were advised to remain away. Since then, antisemitism – in universities, within the media and on the streets – has risen enormously, culminating on this evil and shameful day for Australia.
Brendan O’Neill in a superb article within the Spectator summed it up well. He wrote: “I used to be honoured to present talks about anti-Semitism at synagogues in Sydney and Melbourne last yr. And every Jew I spoke to – every certainly one of them – said the identical thing: ‘Why aren’t people taking anti-Jewish sentiment more seriously?’
“These good Aussies were crying out for the eye of polite society. They were begging politicians to take a firmer stand on Jew hatred. They were in pieces over the liberal media’s frothing obsession with Israel and Zionism. ‘When they spread hate about Zionists, they’re spreading hate about me,’ a woman in Sydney told me.
“And they were ignored. Worse, they were written off as ‘Zios’ who were ‘weaponising anti-Semitism’ to ‘silence public debate’. They could see what was coming. They know from their people’s painful history that it never ends with bigoted words. They know violence at all times bubbles up from the cesspit of Jewphobia. And yet, shamefully, their cries were disregarded, their warnings unheeded.”
Somewhat presciently the previous deputy Prime Minister, John Anderson, released an interview he did with one other politician, Julian Lesser, two days before the massacre. It is well value watching. Lesser, as an Australian Jew, explains that there are three forms of antisemitism growing in Australia – that of the Far Right, the Progressive Left (think the Greens), and their strange alliance with the growing Islamist movement. The latter hide behind the shield of this just being ‘anti-Israel’. Sadly, I even have seen evidence of all three on social media prior to now 24 hours. People searching for to excuse the actions by Gaza, or warning that their great fear is Islamophobia, or claiming that this was a Mossad plot bravely spoiled by a Muslim tackling the Pakistani Mossad agents!
Speaking of the hero. Ahmed al Ahmed is a 43-year-old fruit shop owner who was captured on film getting out of his automotive and tackling certainly one of the gunmen – being shot himself, before taking the gun off him. It was an incredible act of bravery and as my Uber driver said to me this afternoon, I hope he never has to purchase one other beer for the remainder of his life! The Israeli government and the local synagogue have also praised this Muslim for saving Jewish lives.
But even that’s being politicised. We were immediately being told by the same old suspects that even when the gunmen were Muslim, the attack had nothing to do with Islam. Equally we were told that since the hero is Muslim, this proves it had nothing to do with Islam. The logic is flawed. The hero was acting as a brave human being searching for to guard others. By contrast, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation says two Islamic State flags was present in a automotive linked to the 2 gunmen, and that Australian intelligence previously interviewed certainly one of them over alleged ties to the terrorist group.
The reality is that while most Muslims would abhor and condemn the actions taken by the terrorists, there are far too many on this world who will either rejoice it or quietly think that the Jews had it coming. Even sadder, there are other non-Muslims within the West who will share the identical thought. The rise of antisemitism within the West, and particularly in Australia, is chilling.
The Australian government has just announced that it can strengthen gun laws, in my opinion a welcome move, but one which is only a sticking plaster approach which does nothing to take care of the gaping wound of antisemitism. When Jewish children should go to colleges with armed guards and other people can freely chant on the streets ‘death to the Jews’, the issue will not be really slack gun laws. And the answer will not be really politicians and others offering their thoughts and prayers.
Hanukkah is a vacation which we’re told ‘emphasizes joy, family, and defiance against assimilation or persecution’. The Jews have been accustomed to persecution for hundreds of years. As Christians we owe a fantastic deal to the Jews – and it’s our responsibility to face with the Jewish people.
For now, let me leave you with the words of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks: “Chanukah is concerning the freedom to be true to what we imagine without denying the liberty of those that imagine otherwise. It’s about lighting our candle, while not being threatened by or threatening anyone else’s candle.”
And the words of King David: “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: ‘May those that love you be secure. May there be peace inside your partitions and security inside your citadel” (Psalm 122:6).
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