JOSH BURNS: Antisemitism isn’t a political issue - it’s an everyday reality

When I saw the shattered glass, red paint and fire damage at my office in June last year, it was an escalation of the rising antisemitism my community had been warning about.

I remember thinking to myself: “This is surely as bad as it can get.”

I was wrong.

Since then, in just over six months, Australia has descended into a darkness that is all too familiar for living survivors of the Holocaust.

When I stood among the ruins of the Adass Israel Synagogue in December, I hoped it would be the final act of terror.

I was wrong.

The following two months saw the former home of a Jewish community leader attacked, a childcare centre set alight, cars set alight and homes vandalised, a caravan filled with explosives that police suspect was set to target a synagogue, and most recently, children exposed to racism at the school gate on their first day back.

Some are quick to minimise the fear and damage these crimes have created due to the legitimate concern for the suffering of civilians in the Middle East, as if creating pain and division here could heal the pain and division on the other side of the world.

There will never be justification for antisemitism, and we need to be critical of its ongoing justification, as we should any other form of racism or discrimination.

Regardless, I had hoped that a ceasefire in the Middle East would result in a calming of tensions in Australia.

It has not.

Lately, I have been asked how I feel about allegations of politicians politicising antisemitism.

The truth is, for me, it isn’t a political issue.

It is a lived reality.

It is real and it is painful. And over the past 15 months, I have felt it deeply.

Each escalation has made the situation more stark and more confronting.

There is nothing more confronting than seeing children targeted in our own country, just as we did on Thursday morning.

Instead of playing in the schoolyard, Jewish children are walking into school through gates with words of hate spread across them. Some are even asking their parents why everybody hates them.

When I was of a similar age, like many Jewish kids, I learned about the journeys of my grandparents. They fled a growing surge of violent hate in Europe in search of a country that would respect and embrace them.

They were welcomed in Australia and not only did our country embrace them — but also ensured their kids could go to school, gain higher education, and receive health care and a pension to retire on.

Antisemitism was a concept they often discussed with us growing up, but one we rarely experienced. It is a hatred we knew existed but was lying dormant.

Now it has caught alight and is burning across our cities.

Australia gave our family dignity and opportunity. I feel I owe Australia for all it has given me and my community.

But right now, we are hurting. Reliving our history, blacklisted, demeaned and dehumanised.

We must fix this. And one of the first steps is to listen to Jewish people.

This is important because antisemitism is such an ancient and often misunderstood hatred. The Jewish community holds the collective memory and trauma of the microaggressions, the words and the dehumanisation that turned into persecution, violence and murder.

The warning signs were ignored before. We cannot dismiss them again.

But to solve a problem, we must first understand it.

Robert French, the former chief justice of Australia defines “antisemitic conduct” as conduct which by speech or action expresses hostility towards Jewish persons or groups of persons or Jewish people generally because they are Jewish or otherwise discriminates against them.

Despite the outcome being the same, anti-Semitism comes in different forms and with different motives.

It has come from all sides of the political spectrum, and it has existed on every continent across the globe.

Some have targeted the Jewish people in what they falsely believe is a response to conflict in the Middle East, some because they believe in the ancient myths of Jewish power and control, some under the false banner of racial supremacy, and some just want to blame the Jewish people for the grievances in their own lives.

The common threads being conspiracy, dehumanisation and hatred.

Ultimately, whatever is driving people, Jewish people are being targeted. We must be honest that while it should never have gotten to this point, we can turn this around.

My focus has been on finding ways to push back against this old and dark hatred.

Increased security, banning nazi salutes, criminalising doxxing, holding universities to account are all steps we have taken, but we must do more.

Antisemitism has existed for thousands of years, and for thousands of years it has been used to cause violence and division. It is my hope that it will one day finally be eradicated, but at the very least and at this moment, it must be controlled.

After all, the measure of a decent society is one that protects its people and ensures they are free from discrimination and persecution.

Over the next few weeks authorities across Australia will be working tirelessly to capture those who have committed or attempted to commit antisemitic crimes.

They will be caught and there will be consequences.

We will create new criminal penalties to outlaw hate and violence.

We will increase security for Jewish schools and institutions.

We will work to protect people from vilification.

We will ensure institutions are taking an equally strong stance against antisemitism in their ranks and on their campuses.

But we cannot only legislate and arrest our way out of this.

We must also educate people to understand the history and dangers of racism, incitement and hatred and the consequences of leaving them unchecked — that comes from listening to the lived experience of the Jewish community.

Australia must fiercely guard our multiculturalism and protect the Jewish people. Just as we must for all people.

It is a collective responsibility of all Australians to speak up and oppose this dangerous bigotry.

Our community has a place in this country like everybody else.

And we deserve to be safe and free from discrimination and violence.

Josh Burns is the Labor Member for Macnamara