Australia’s special envoy for anti-Semitism has unveiled a sweeping plan to combat the issue, with reports of anti-Semitic incidents across the country spiking by 300 per cent since the October 7 Hamas terror attack.
Jillian Segal announced the plan flanked by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke in Sydney on Thursday, which includes recommendations on public broadcasting, migration, policing, and education, among other areas.
Ms Segal has been working on the plan since her appointment last year, which will include short-term and long-term recommendations — some of which would require new legislation to enact.
It comes after a spate of incidents in Melbourne last week including the firebombing of a synagogue and protesters storming an Israeli-owned restaurant Miznon in the city’s CBD.
“In the space of just a year, reported incidents increased over 300 per cent,” Ms Segal said.
“That includes threats, vandalism, harassment and physical violence. We have seen cars being torched, synagogues being torched, individual Jews harassed and attacked. That is completely unacceptable.
“The plan is an overarching one covering many areas where urgent action is needed.
“It is an action plan and it addresses anti-Semitism in many places in our laws, classrooms, universities, media, workplaces, online spaces and public institutions. It calls on government and society and leaders to support the initiatives.”
Ms Segal said the plan also included embedding age-appropriate education into the Australian school curriculum.
“The plan promotes a nationally-consistent approach to teaching, about the history, harms and modern forms of anti-Semitism through the lens of democracy, social inclusion, shared civic responsibility in Australian values,” she said.
The Prime Minister welcomed the report and said it revealed that anti-Semitism has risen to “deeply troubling levels” but also that it’s a issue that has plagued Australia long before the current war in Gaza.
“It finds that anti-Semitism has risen to deeply troubling levels in Australia in the wake of the conflict in the Middle East. It also reaffirms the fact that anti-Semitism didn’t begin on October 7,” he said.
“This is something that government needs to work with civil society on at all levels and each and every day. We would like it to disappear altogether. We will now carefully consider the report recommendations.
“There’s a number of things that can be implemented quickly. There are a number of things that will require work over a period of time.”
Opposition Leader Sussan Ley has called for “stronger accountability” on anti-Semitism from Mr Albanese, saying he should visit the East Melbourne synagogue that was at the centre of the arson attack on Friday.
“I hope that there has been dialogue between the Prime Minister’s team and Jewish Australians,” she said in Sydney on Thursday.
“He hadn’t — when I visited the synagogue in Melbourne — been there. I hope he puts that in his diary to visit soon.
“I hope he sits down and has those conversations that he needs to have with Jewish Australians, who have experienced something that is truly horrific.
“It is something that we, in the Coalition, will call out every single day and we will step up and demand a stronger accountability from the Prime Minister in the face of this anti-Semitism.”
She also called on the Albanese Government to adopt a 15-points in that plan developed by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry to defeat anti-Semitism in Australia, which the Coalition have supported but the PM hasn’t acted on.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said everyone deserved to feel safe in Australia.
“Being safe and feeling safe is something which anti-Semitism flies in the face of,” he said.
“This is about pushing it absolutely to the margins because this form of bigotry is absolutely an attack on Australia.”
The full report can be viewed on on the Australia’s Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism’s website.
