MP Josh Burns says Australia can’t legislate and arrest its way out of anti-Semitism crisis

Australia can’t just legislate and arrest its way out of the anti-Semitism crisis that is “burning across our cities”, according to Jewish MP Josh Burns.

We must also educate people about the history and dangers of racism, incitement and hatred — and the consequences of leaving them unchecked, he argues.

The Victorian Labor MP for Macnamara was targeted in a vile anti-Semitic attack in June last year when the front windows of his electorate office were smashed, fires lit and an image of Mr Burns sprayed with the words “Zionism is fascism” in red paint and horns painted on his head.

Now, in an opinion piece for The Nightly, he describes the attack as an example of the rising anti-Semitism the Jewish community had been warning about, writing that since that attack Australia had “descended into a darkness that is all-too-familiar for living survivors of the Holocaust”.

Mr Burns condemned a series of increasingly frightening incidents that have plagued his community, including on the former home of a Jewish Community leader, a fire at a childcare centre, a foiled attempt to unleash explosives on a synagogue, the discovery of 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.

“Lately, I have been asked how I feel about allegations of politicians politicising anti-Semitism. The truth is, for me, it isn’t a political issue. It is a lived reality,” he writes.

“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.

“I had hoped that a ceasefire in the Middle East would result in a calming of tensions in Australia. It has not.”

Mr Burns said while anti-Semitism should never have grown to the level it had, he believed it could still be turned around.

Increased security, banning nazi salutes, criminalising doxxing, holding universities to account were all steps already taken, but Australians must do more, he said.

“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.”