Australian Jews are not responsible for Israel’s actions. Please don’t target us
Idea
“They came to kill us, but we weren’t there.” – Dina.
These statements from the Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion give a worrying and accurate account of how Jews felt about the Bondi massacre.
We Australian Jews know that one of us could have been a target that day when 15 Australians were killed.
But even as a Jewish advocate fighting antisemitism, I was unaware of the pervasive extent of this virus in daily life in Australia.
I guess that means you are too.
Not necessarily because you don’t care, but because most of this isn’t headline news like a terrorist attack, even though it’s extremely upsetting.
Listening to those giving evidence in the first few days of the royal commission was eye-opening in a deeply disturbing way.
A woman who works for a global company and was asked to change her name on communications because it was “too Jewish”, a father who calls out to his wife to say “I love you” before every community safety shift, a mother who reminds her children to wear comfortable shoes to the synagogue so they don’t have to run away. 10- and 11-year-old children, who refused to go to Jewish events with their families due to fear, were chanted “Free Palestine” during a field trip by 10th grade students from another school.
Jewish schools and the Australian Jewish Students Union, which have faced an avalanche of threats in the last 2.5 years, are receiving bomb threats ahead of the Jewish festival celebrations.
Jewish Care’s CEO reported that a multicultural group abandoned the partnership due to a “misalignment of values”. Children who are constantly bullied and harassed in public schools because they are Jewish, and the Israeli musician who lost his job due to the war in the Middle East, even though he never talked about politics.
And then there’s the brave non-Jewish school teacher who answered phone calls from school parents complaining about a Holocaust survivor talking to their children. You read that correctly.
The examples I have given are just a few of the muddy swamp of heartbreaking testimonies. But many of them share a common thread. And I believe this is the crux of the question.
There are Australians who believe it is legitimate to hold Australian Jews responsible for the actions of the Israeli government. At its most extreme, two gunmen were forced to shoot 15 innocent people in Bondi.
It is not difficult for all decent people to accept that shooting Australian Jews was an abomination. And after Bondi we saw an explosion of sympathy. It is not clear how the wider population feels about Australian Jews going about their lives being targeted with less violence but still with devastating force.
Confronted with various manifestations of this bigotry are musicians, journalists, artists, mothers and fathers, midwives, university students and writers – often not Because they have a certain view of the war in the Middle East, but they are not willing to remove Israel from their identity. Sometimes they haven’t even expressed this aspect of their identity.
There is also enormous pressure on many Australians to follow suit and distinguish themselves from anyone who is Jewish – and therefore presumably Zionist – to avoid being labeled as Zionist supporters.
All this shows that we are not in a good place right now in this wonderful country known for its rich multiculturalism.
The government and institutions have a role to play in changing this course and I am sure that the royal commissioner will make many recommendations.
But here I appeal to ordinary citizens of Australia to do their part. Get your views on the Middle East. You have the right to these. Criticize Israel if you want; You can also find many Zionists who will do this. Become an advocate for the Palestinians and seek solutions.
But understand that your criticisms should be criticisms of the Israeli government, not of the Jewish people in Australia.
Step back from your own circles and make it socially unacceptable to spread anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist hatred. Make it socially unacceptable to target Jews in any way due to the actions of a foreign government.
Conversely, make it acceptable to speak on behalf of Jews when you see that line being crossed.
It won’t solve everything. But it’s a start. And we have a lot of work to do.
Keren Zelwer sits on the advocacy committee of the National Council of Australian Jewish Women (Victoria).
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Keren Zelwer is the mother of a child with special needs. He is also a speech pathologist.
