Australia’s most overlooked communities forced to reckon with identity a year after October 7

A year ago, some of Australia’s most overlooked communities were thrust into the limelight.

They have been grappling with their identities ever since.

On October 7, 2023, Hamas — considered a terrorist group by the Australian government — launched a cross-border attack on Israel from Gaza, beginning a new phase in a 76-year-long conflict.

More than 1200 people were killed in the assault and another 250 were taken hostage, Israel reported, as images of missing loved ones and Israeli festival goers fleeing gunfire spread online.

Australia’s response was swift.

The Sydney Opera House was illuminated in the blue and white of the Israeli flag while politicians condemned Hamas.

Israel then initiated its largest military assault on Gaza, which has continued unabated.

Its forces have bombed hospitals, mosques, churches and schools, and laid siege to a starving population as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vows to “annihilate” Hamas.

Israel has killed more than 41,000 people and displaced almost two million in the year since, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

Palestinian parents cradling their children’s shrouded bodies, smoke billowing over Gaza, dusty limbs peeking out from a mountain of rubble: these graphics have flashed across Australian phones day in, day out.

This has caused the Palestinian community to reflect on their roots, Australia Palestine Advocacy Network president Nasser Mashni said.

“There has been a massive reconnection of the Palestinian diaspora to Palestine,” he told AAP.

Many Australians across the nation, regardless of their background, have rallied behind the Palestinian community, with thousands taking to the streets every week.

Exile, dispossession, disenfranchisement, and resistance to these hardships, have long been key aspects of Palestinian life.

But unlike Israel’s previous offensives, this onslaught has been broadcast across the world, increasing engagement and giving strength to Palestinians’ decades-long conversations about Israel as a “colonial, apartheid, racist, settler state”.

“I’m just so broken that it took such a tragedy for the humanity of Palestinians to be recognised,” Mr Mashni said.

“The only comfort I get is that the impunity and normalcy that Israel enjoyed on October 6 has evaporated.”

Israel’s actions have forced Australia’s Jewish community to make a choice.

Some have become more critical of the state, choosing to forge new identities in solidarity with other groups.

Many others have felt their links to Israel and the Zionist movement for a Jewish state strengthen as they grow more fearful and turn to each other for support.

There have always been different factions and views within the community, but they have become more visible as newly established organisations such as the Jewish Council of Australia offer alternative voices.

“A lot of Jews’ eyes have been opened,” Jewish Council executive officer Max Kaiser told AAP.

“Jews feel they have to speak out, that they have an obligation.”

This has magnified fractures within the community as family arguments flare and relationships splinter.

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry, a peak representative body, acknowledges differences of opinion but co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin insists the Jewish Council and like-minded individuals represent only a handful of the community.

Otherwise, there is “almost unanimity” on war in the Middle East, defeating Hamas and maintaining stability in Australia.

“People feel a great commitment and sense of duty to their fellow Jewish Australians to stand together in solidarity,” Mr Ryvchin said.

“We’ve all sought to deepen our identities, and I think that’s been a positive reaction to trauma.”

The Jewish community’s hyper-visibility has fuelled anti-Semitism and far-right conspiracy theories, according to Dr Kaiser.

This has had consequences for people critical of Israel, some of whom have received abuse from their own community, and those with more traditional views.

“The events of October 7 ... revealed something that exists in this country that many of us thought couldn’t and didn’t — and that is a depth of hatred,” Mr Ryvchin said.

Australia’s Israeli circles have echoed a similar sentiment, and according to Australia Israel & Jewish Affairs Council research associate Ran Porat, many feel a bolstered sense of patriotism alongside frustration at Australia’s position.

The federal government’s stance has ebbed and flowed.

In December, Australia broke from the US to vote for a United Nations resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, before halting funding to the UN aid organisation dedicated to serving Palestinian refugees in January following allegations its staff assisted in the Hamas attack.

Three months later, Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom was killed in an Israeli airstrike, fuelling the fire under politicians’ feet.

In the year since Palestinian asylum seekers began arriving in Australia, the government started offering humanitarian visas after nine months, whereas Ukrainians and Afghans fleeing conflict received these same pathways within two.

Meanwhile, tensions within Australia have continued to simmer, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese calling on citizens to “lower the temperature” and appointing two special envoys — one to combat anti-Semitism and another to tackle Islamophobia.

Violence in the Middle East is likely to persist after the Israeli Defence Forces started their invasion into Lebanon.

In two weeks, Israel has killed more than 1000 Lebanese people and left one million without homes.

Australian Lebanese Association president Raymond Najar says his community has grown increasingly concerned and frustrated.

“We are powerless to do anything,” he said.

Iran also launched about 200 missiles at Israel on Wednesday, though most were shot down by the nation’s iron dome air defence system.

Mr Netanyahu has vowed to retaliate.

“This genocide is worse than anything we’ve ever seen,” Mr Mashni said.

But even as the situation escalates, his community remains resilient as the enthusiasm of young Australians re-energises their spirits.

“Palestinians do not — cannot — give in to despair or hopelessness. Palestinians are the most hopeful people on Earth,” he said.

“I thought I’d be ‘Mr Palestine’ until my last breath.

“I now know it’s just my job to hold this space until that next generation of smarter, better, more powerful advocates take over.”