OPINION: When inaction allows incitement
Published in The Australian Jewish News
October 12, 2023
Photo: AAP Image/Dean Lewins
“Gas the Jews!” “F*** the Jews!”
No, these aren’t chants from Germany, 1938; this is Sydney, Australia, 2023.
And please, tell me how this is okay? How is it seemingly acceptable for a violent protest of pro-Palestinian supporters to launch flares and burn Israeli flags and scream for Jews to be exterminated – with no recourse?
And how did it occur at Sydney Opera House; our iconic landmark, a source of national pride lit up in blue and white in a show of solidarity with Israel in the wake of the Hamas-perpetrated massacres?
This is not my Australia. The Australia to which so many of us, or our parents or grandparents or great-grandparents fled; eyes wide with optimism, its distant shores a beacon of promise, of new beginnings – far from old hatreds.
It’s not my Australia when hordes of NSW Police stand back and allow these scenes to unfold, without even so much as an attempt at intervention.
And it’s certainly not my Australia when instead, the one pro-Israel supporter clutching an Israeli flag, is arrested and dragged away by three police officers.
Indeed seemingly, the onus for the safety of the Jewish people was on … the Jewish people.