Sixty Percent of Jews in Australian State of Queensland Have Experienced Antisemitism: Survey
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by Algemeiner Staff
Graffiti outside a synagogue in Brisbane, Australia, September 2019. Photo: Queensland Jewish Board of Deputies.
Jews in the Australian state of Queensland are experiencing an upsurge in antisemitism in both its neo-Nazi and anti-Zionist varieties.
A new survey conducted by the Queensland Jewish Board of Deputies revealed that a full 60 percent of community members had experienced antisemitism.
Australia’s Jewish population is estimated at 113,000, of whom just over 4,000 reside in Queensland.
Board of Deputies vice-president Jason Steinberg told the Brisbane Times on Monday that among those Jews who reported antisemitism, “half were either abused, harassed, intimidated or bullied simply because they are Jewish and, distressingly, many of these incidents occur in the workplace.”
Steinberg added that 15 percent of Queensland Jews “also reported hate-fueled incidents that related to Israel and/or Zionism.”
He said the community had in addition seen “an increase in activity by white supremacist, neo-Nazi and other far-right extremist groups whose members seem to act with impunity, as well as anti-Israel activists targeting local Jews.”
Several outrages targeting Jews in Queensland have been reported both this year and last, including “ZIONISTS F*** OFF” scrawled in chalk outside an Israeli restaurant in Brisbane, social media messages sent by a stranger to a member of the Jewish community calling for “another Holocaust,” the Nazi slogan “blood and soil” spray-painted on a Brisbane train carriage, and the words “ZIONIST PAWN” scrawled over a campaign poster of Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk.
The Brisbane Times quoted several members of the Jewish community who were on the receiving end of the hatred.
A 60-year-old Jewish man living on the Gold Coast said his home office was targeted with Nazi symbols and “Heil Hitler” graffiti.
“I just think that antisemitism and the behavior towards Jewish people in this country is treated as if it’s not important — as if it’s a joke,” he said.
A Townsville mother said her high school daughters’ peers joked about the Holocaust, drew swastikas and praised Adolf Hitler, and told one of her daughters she prayed “to the devil.”
“Where are they obtaining that information from? … I just feel like, they don’t take it as seriously as they do with other race issues,” she said.
Steinberg called on the Queensland authorities to step up efforts to combat antisemitism, urging a ban on the display of the swastika and a review of existing hate crimes laws. He pointed that out more than nine in 10 victims remained silent, with their reluctance to report the offense based on fears of retaliation alongside the belief that the police would not be able to assist them.
