Incidents and slurs against Jewish people have risen more than 40 per cent in the past two years with conspiracies driven by COVID-19 restrictions contributing to the cause.
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry, in its latest annual report on antisemitism, revealed there had been 478 incidents over the 12 months to October last year.
The figure represents a more than doubling of incidents over the decade since 2012.
Australia’s domestic spy agency, Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, has previously warned social media “echo chambers” were further fuelling radical and extremist ideologies.
The report showed the majority of antisemitic incidents recorded by the peak body were verbal abuse, graffiti and posters or stickers with hateful messages.
There had also been five instances of physical assault recorded and 11 cases of anti-Jewish vandalism.
The council’s research director Julie Nathan said the data was just the “tip of the iceberg” with a number of cases going unreported.
While physical assaults and messages were down on the previous reporting year, antisemitic posters, stickers and graffiti rose sharply.
Ms Nathan attributes this to COVID-19 restrictions and a surge in anti-vaccine and anti-lockdown sentiments.
“Firstly, the COVID-19 regulations which produced mass street protests, particularly in Victoria, and the antisemitic conspiracy theories associated with the anti-vaxxer, anti-lockdown camp, resulted in large numbers of antisemitic placards at protests and antisemitic stickers on the streets,” she said.
Read the article by Sarah Basford Canales in The Canberra Times.