Sleepy suburban Caulfield isn’t the most likely venue for a (now cancelled) One Nation meeting featuring Senator Pauline Hanson and her eccentric colleague Malcolm Roberts. The estimated Jewish population hovers around 50% of the suburb’s good burghers. In its first electoral effort in the seat encompassing part of Caulfield, Melbourne Ports, One Nation won just 1.85% of the primary vote at the 1998 federal election. In the age of Trumpism, however, One Nation has renewed its interest in the suburb’s political life, to the chagrin of most local Jews.
Who invited One Nation (a party which hasn’t exactly embraced non-Christian members of the Abrahamic faiths)? A gym owner known as Avi Yemini, a fringe figure in the Melbourne Jewish community, whose public profile mostly relates to his ability to gain media air time commenting on crime in Caulfield, where, coincidentally, he runs his “IDF” (Israeli Defence Forces) gym. The Facebook group he set up, a quasi-online neighbourhood watch group called “J-Safe”, contains a small community of people reporting petty crime and suspicious activity. A minority of participants went overboard, complaining of dark-skinned individuals menacing the streets of Caulfield North.
Read the full article by Nick Dyrenfurth and Dean Sherr at The Guardian.