Australia faces a growing problem of anti-Semitism as vocal critics of Israel from the political left embrace a “toxic mutation” of centuries-old hatred directed at Jews, an academic has warned.
Peter Kurti said rising anti-Semitism in Britain and the US was at risk of becoming “commonplace” in Australia as well because of obsessive left-wing attacks on the legitimacy of the Israeli state, “which can be a mask for anti-Semitism”.
Mr Kurti said a 2018 report by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry presented a bleak picture of the Australian experience, noting there were 366 recorded anti-Semitic incidents, a rise of 59 per cent on the 12 months before. He highlighted how the federal election this year was marred by several anti-Semitic incidents, including the defacing of the campaign material of three Jewish candidates — Liberal MPs Julian Leeser, Jason Falinski and Josh Frydenberg — with dollar signs, devil’s horns and Hitler moustaches.
Independent candidate Kerryn Phelps, who is Jewish, was the subject of anti-Semitic emails, while her successful Liberal rival in the Sydney eastern suburbs seat of Wentworth, Dave Sharma, had many posters defaced.
Mr Leeser, who represents Berowra in Sydney’s north, said the campaign was “singularly the dirtiest and nastiest election” he had encountered. “It really left a disgusting feeling,” he said.
In a policy paper for the conservative-leaning Centre for Independent Studies, Mr Kurti argued that anti-Semitism, while long a part of human history and perpetrated by Nazis during World War II, had mutated into a new “toxic” form among the post-modern left-wing.
Read the article by Brad Norington in The Australian.