Yes, that’s Australia, not Austria. The one with kangaroos, not Nazis. Australia now joins Europe in the “Who wants to be the biggest Jew-hater?” contest.
Attacks on the Jewish community are at a high, following 638 reports covering assault, vandalism, intimidation and harassment in the year to the end of September.
This is twice the previous annual average and 8 per cent higher than the previous record year, 2002.
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry meeting in Melbourne this week heard that the attacks mainly occurred in Sydney and Melbourne, the home of the country’s largest Jewish communities.
“In other cities, you are not going to have large groups of people walking to and from synagogues on the weekend,” said former council member Jeremy Jones, who compiled the annual audit.
It was not clear what caused the jump in reporting, he said.
Yeah, isn’t that funny. Nobody ever knows why attacks against Jews go up. They just do.
Imagine that.
It would be interesting to know the backgrounds of those perpetrators who can be identified to see whether this is a problem across the Australian social spectrum or…perhaps…a more limited problem.
Yes, I was thinking the same thing. If these attacks are done overwhelmingly by Arab immigrants, then it’s not really a reflection of Australian attitudes.
Notice that it was clear what caused the jump in attacks. It is just not clear what caused the jump in reporting. That is, the question is why are Jews no longer afraid to report an attack.
Maybe it is good news. Now they trust the police and judicial system to track down and punish the perpetrators.
If the Lebanese community is responsible, it wouldn’t be the first time recently Australians have suffered from it. See “Cronulla” for trouble that didn’t involve Jews specifically.