Police crackdown on protest could have put Australia on ‘different trajectory’, anti-Semitism envoy says

The protest outside the Sydney Opera House in the days after the October 7 attack on Israel was a “critical moment” in the rise of antisemitism in Australia, a Senate hearing has heard.

Australia’s Special Envoy on Antisemitism, Jillian Segal, told the hearing on Thursday that the country could have taken a “different path” if the October 9 protest had been handled differently.

Days after Hamas’ surprise attack that killed 1,200 people and Israel’s retaliatory strikes on Gaza, hundreds of people marched outside the world-famous landmark, some chanting “hateful things” about Jews, Ms. Segal said.

While Ms. Segal acknowledged disagreement over allegations that people chanted “Gas the Jews,” she said the protest was “a moment where hatred towards the Jewish community was openly expressed.”

“If he had been stopped and people had said, ‘this is unacceptable,’ and the police, instead of protecting these protesters, would have picked them up and asked them to move on, even if they weren’t arresting them,” Ms. Segal said.

“If there was a completely different approach to policing, I think it would send a very different message and probably a different trajectory.

“As I said, you can’t look back, but I do, and I think the Jewish community in general sees this as a critical moment when I talk to them about this.”

Ms. Segal told the hearing that the rise of antisemitism following the Oct. 7 attack “was something that took this country by surprise a little bit” and that her hope was to “move antisemitism to the margins.”

“We were so caught up in enjoying the freedoms, Australian values ​​and multiculturalism that we perhaps didn’t realize the problem until it actually became an issue for us,” Ms Segal said.

Earlier this month the ABC and SBS said they would not accept the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s controversial definition of antisemitism.

Ms. Segal said the decision was “clearly not consistent with what I recommended.”

“I hope that with further discussion we can talk to the ABC and SBS,” he said.

“I have had various meetings with them, but so far I have not been able to convince them on this issue.

“But you know, I think it’s important for the ABC and SBS to understand their important role in this country.”

Regarding anti-Semitism training in the civil service, Ms Segal said she expected the training being trialled would be aimed primarily at senior members of the APS.

“I would prefer it to be meaningful in terms of their role,” he said.

“I don’t think it’s a one-size-fits-all approach, so the knowledge of anti-Semitism needs to be either more or less in-depth.”

He said he expected a “significant” number of public servants to undertake the training.