EDITORIAL: Vile hatred must no longer go unchallenged after Bondi terror attack

All through the long, dark history of anti-Semitism runs a pattern.

From antiquity to the Holocaust to the modern day atrocities such as that which unfolded by the golden sands of Bondi Beach, violence against Jews begins not with weapons, but with words.

It starts with whispered suspicions, and morphs into shouted slogans. Hateful attitudes become entrenched and normalised.

Then comes the bloodshed.

How do we prevent further events like December 14, in which 15 people were killed, dozens injured and a nation’s soul stained?

We must disrupt this pattern by intervening to stamp out hate speech before it has a chance to distort into violence.

Sadly, we have seen that platitudes aren’t enough. There were plenty of those in the days and months after pro-Palestinian “activists” were allowed to gather on the steps of the Sydney Opera House to celebrate the bloody slaughter of more than 1200 Israelis by Hamas terrorists on the other side of the world.

In the aftermath of this shameful spectacle in the shadows of one of our country’s most recognisable monuments, we were told repeatedly that there was “no place for hate” in Australia. But that was about it.

No charges for any of the crowd who participated in the deeply sinister chants of “Where’s the Jews” and “fuck the Jews”.

When the history of the Bondi massacre is eventually written, it is likely it will point to this event as a seminal moment — the day vicious, perverse hatred was allowed to go unchallenged.

There are other examples of hatred running rancid and largely unchecked, including at the so-called “factories of hate” such as the Western Sydney prayer centre where preacher Wissam Haddad gave a sermon describing Jews as “treacherous” and “vile” people.

In that instance, Haddad fell foul of existing anti-discrimination laws. But that hasn’t stopped Haddad, who is linked to one of the alleged Bondi Beach gunmen, or his acolytes uploading more videos of his sermons.

Anthony Albanese says his new hate speech laws, which he describes as the “toughest ever” are part of the solution to Australia’s anti-Semitism problem.

“We want to ensure that Australia remains a society where everyone has the right to be proud of who they are and we also want to make it clear that conduct which is hateful, dangerous, and divisive will also be illegal,” the Prime Minister said.

“Just as anti-Semitism and racism are an offence against our Australian values, they should be an offence against Australian law.”

Parliament will be recalled next week in order to pass the legislation, which will also establish a new national gun buyback scheme in addition to making incitement a crime and ban hate groups such as the National Socialist Network, and Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir.

Mr Albanese expects the laws to come up against a Constitutional challenge in the High Court, which he says the Government will “vigorously defend”.

As always, the devil will be in the detail. Let’s hope these new laws are as robust as he claims.

Responsibility for the editorial comment is taken by Editor-in-Chief Christopher Dore.