The Australian government yesterday named a special envoy to confront a rise in anti-Semitism across the nation since the Israel-Hamas war began.
A similar envoy is soon to be appointed to challenge Islamophobia in Australia and both will promote social cohesion, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters at the Sydney Jewish Museum.
Photo: EPA-EFE
TARGETS
Albanese’s Sydney office has been targeted with pro-Palestinian graffiti as rival activists clash over the Israeli-Hamas war in Australian cities and university campuses.
Albanese appointed Jillian Segal, a Sydney lawyer and business executive, to be “special envoy to combat anti-Semitism in Australia” for three years.
She will consult with community groups and report back to Albanese and Australian Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs Andrew Giles.
Segal called statistics on anti-Semitism in Australia “shocking.”
Reports of anti-Semitism spiked 700 percent immediately after Hamas militants sparked the war in Gaza by attacking Israel on Oct. 7 last year, and are still running 400 to 500 percent higher than before the conflict, she said.
The reports include Jewish-owned businesses being boycotted and vandalized, as well as Jewish artists being excluded or subjected to social media shadow bans that restrict their visibility on platforms, Segal said.
“Unfortunately, there is no single answer to the perennial problem of anti-Semitism,” she said.
CONFRONTING EVIL
“But the creation of this role shows a determination by the government to confront this evil and to ensure that it does not erode the goodness that exists in our society,” she added.
Albanese said a graffiti attack that marked his inner-Sydney office as a Hamas target in December was being taken seriously and acted upon.
He also condemned last month’s vandalism with spray paint at the Australian National Korean War Memorial and the Australian Vietnam Forces National Memorial in Canberra.
“I have spoken with members of the Jewish community here, in Melbourne, right around Australia, who have not felt safe, members of the Jewish community whose children are worried about wearing their school uniform in our capital cities,” Albanese said. “That’s not acceptable. Not acceptable, ever. And certainly not in Australia in 2024.”
“What we need to do is to make sure that the conflict that is occurring in the Middle East that has caused a great deal of grief for the Jewish community, for members of the Islamic and Palestinian communities — Australians overwhelmingly do not want conflict brought here,” Albanese added.
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