The Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) published a report on Sunday which found that Australian Jews experienced more than 2,000 anti-Jewish incidents over the past year, more than quadruple the number from the previous year.
The report found that a total of 2,062 incidents of antisemitism were recorded between October 2023 and September 2024, far more than the 495 incidents noted a year earlier.
The total does not include antisemitic statements made on social media.
The ECAJ recognizes six categories of anti-Jewish incidents: Assault, vandalism, abuse, messages conveying hatred, graffiti and posters.
ECAJ Research Director Julie Nathan commented on the special report’s findings, saying, “The armed attack against Israel that was planned and initiated by Hamas and its supporters on 7 October 2023 featured acts of extreme barbarity against Israeli civilians who were murdered, tortured, raped, mutilated and abducted. For anti-Israel activists in Australia and elsewhere, the slaughter acted as a signal that it was now open season against local Jewish communities too, who overwhelmingly support Israel’s right to exist and defend itself.”
“In the 12 months that followed there was a 316% increase in the overall number of reported antisemitic incidents in Australia compared to the same period in the previous year. Whilst the number of reported antisemitic incidents has fluctuated from year to year previously, there has never been anything like an annual increase of this magnitude,” added Nathan.
“If anything, the raw numbers understate the seriousness of the surge in antisemitism that has occurred. There have been many new forms and expressions of anti-Jewish racism that would once have been considered alien to Australia, but which have become commonplace,” she stated.
“There were anti-Israel protests outside synagogues and Jewish schools, convoys of vehicles driving though suburbs with a high proportion of Jewish residents, anti-Israel activists targeting small businesses owned by Jewish families, residential homes being targeted with hate graffiti and stickers, and a huge increase in physical assaults against Jews and verbal abuse on the streets.”
“With a few honourable exceptions, the response from political and community leaders, university executives and civil society has been tepid at best. The result has been a ratcheting up of antisemitism from hateful words to steadily more serious hateful actions,” Nathan continued.
“If it was thought that anti-Jewish racism was a thing of the past and defeated, the last 12 months has shown that it has been cynically reactivated and stoked for political purposes. The physical, verbal and other forms of attacks on Jewish individuals, families and community venues will continue to worsen unless governments, police and others show some spine by taking resolute action to halt the rising tide of acts of hatred against the Jewish community and bringing those responsible to account,” she concluded.
Antisemitic incidents have surged around the world since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
Examples of antisemitism in Australia include a 44-year-old Jewish man who was beaten by three pro-Palestinian Arab demonstrators in Sydney in November of last year.
In June of this year, antisemitic vandals set fire to the office of Jewish Member of Parliament Josh Burns. The vandals smashed windows and set a fire at the front of the office. The words ''Zionism is fascism" were written on the office wall in red paint.