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Munganbana Norman Miller stood outside Channel 7 in Cairns at 1 pm yesterday to read his statement on the action governments need to take urgently regarding the firebombing of the synagogue in Melbourne and the alarming rise in antisemitism in Australia:

Our Prime Minister’s priorities are so wrong that he doesn’t visit a burning synagogue, but flies to Perth, has drinks with donors and plays tennis. It sounds like Nero playing the fiddle while Rome burns. Even worse, he denied playing tennis until caught out by a reporter. One commentator called it a backhander for Jews. We call it a slap in the face.

We condemn the terrorist act that destroyed the Adass Israel synagogue in Melbourne on 6 December as we were honouring the stand by Aboriginal people led by William Cooper against Kristallnacht in 1938.

Unacceptable

86 years later, the Nazi Holocaust has reached the shores of Australia with the shattering of glass and firebombing of a synagogue with people inside, destroying sacred Torah scrolls and centuries-old sacred texts and objects. This is a tipping point. A line must be drawn in the sand. The anti-Israel stance of our government and its weak reaction to protests has created an environment encouraging antisemitic terrorism.

On the very day, 6 December, that the Israel and German embassies in Canberra erected a plaque in honour of William Cooper, who stood up against the shattered glass and firebombing of synagogues in Europe, it happens on our doorstep.

Norman Miller listening to families of those murdered and kidnapped on 7 October 2023, at Parliament House, Canberra, 28 November 2023 pro-Israel rally.

On the very day the United with William Cooper event in Melbourne released a statement to the Victorian government condemning antisemitism and asking for more action on social cohesion, the terrorists struck.

We condemn the demonstrations outside the Great Synagogue in Sydney on Wednesday night that left people terrified as they locked themselves inside.

Along with the firebombing of a car in Woollahra, Sydney recently, and the firebombing of the electorate office of Jewish MP Josh Burns, we demand to know when enough is enough and when the government will draw a line in the sand of this domestic terrorism.

These attacks are designed to produce terror in the Jewish community, so they are an attack on all Jewish Australians and are also an attack on all Australians of goodwill. It is an attack on our social cohesion and our Australian values. It is an attack on what has been till now successful multiculturalism.

Inept

The progressive attack on Israel by the Australian government with support for a number of anti-Israel resolutions in the United Nations since the Labor government came into power has added fuel to the fire of antisemitism.

It has taken two days for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to state that the synagogue firebombing was terrorism, and he was expected to finally visit yesterday. The inaction and mealy-mouthed words of Prime Minister Albanese and the vitriol from Foreign Minister Penny Wong have emboldened thugs on our streets and universities in Australia and rightly drawn criticism from the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu. He warned us that our government is encouraging terrorist attacks by fuelling anti-Israel and antisemitic sentiment.

On Wednesday, the Australian government reversed 20 years of bipartisanship and supported a UN resolution demanding an end to Israel’s “unlawful” presence in the “Occupied” Palestinian Territories of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
It also called for the end of new settlement activities and the removal of settlers from occupied territory. It called for a conference next June to set the Palestinian territories on an irreversible pathway to a two-state solution.

So, Australia and the UN are calling for the ethnic cleansing of Jews from their ancient homeland. For a start, what some call the West Bank is Judea and Samaria, the heartland of ancient Israel. The Jews are Indigenous to Israel. It is not an occupied territory. Also, Jerusalem is not occupied and is not the West Bank. It is the ancient undivided capital of Israel.

Look what happened when Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005. It became a terrorist stronghold and has continually attacked Israel since, not to mention the horrific October 7 attack on civilians and the dreadful treatment of hostages still being held.

Responses Required

We welcome the statement on Monday by Reece Kershaw of the Australian Federal Police of a new operation. He said,

“In essence, they will be a flying squad to deploy nationally to incidents. [It] will include [incidents of] urging violence against members or groups, advocating terrorism, advocating genocide, using a carriage service to make a threat, and using a carriage service to menace or harass.” (The Sydney Morning Herald, 9 December 2024)

We call on the Aboriginal people of Australia, who have received wonderful support from the Jewish community over the years, to stand with them during this difficult time.

We call on the Australian government to:

Regarding Australia —

1. Deal decisively with antisemitism in Australia. This includes adequate laws and enforcement as hate preachers have not been charged, and police have arrested peaceful Jews ostensibly for their safety and facilitated aggressive anti-Israel demonstrators to their destinations.
2. An enquiry needs to be held to see whether current legislation is strong enough and appropriate to deal with protests that get out of hand and if the police are willing to enforce it.
3. Set up a national police task force to deal with antisemitism and to ensure Jewish Australians are safe. (This has just been announced.)
4. State governments should ban demonstrations outside places of worship, whether they are synagogues, churches or mosques, etc.
5. Institute a permit system for demonstrations like those in NSW so that one group of citizens is not on the streets every weekend, intimidating another group of citizens.
6. Assess whether current social cohesion funding is achieving its goals and is going to the most appropriate groups.
7. Set up programs in schools and universities to promote Australian values, interracial and interreligious harmony and reduce antisemitism.
8. Institute a national judicial inquiry into antisemitism in universities, which have become breeding grounds for antisemitism. A parliamentary inquiry is not good enough.
9. Follow due diligence in security checks for visas from areas of conflict like Gaza, including using the character test.
10. Non-citizens committing hate crimes should have their visas revoked.
11. ASIO should not play down antisemitic violence by calling it politically motivated violence.

Regarding Israel —

12. Support Israel at the United Nations instead of terror organisations and reverse its many decisions adverse to Israel, including the one last week and the recent one on Palestinian sovereignty of resources. It is not the time to ram through a two-state solution when the Palestinians have rejected all such offers in the past, are still at war with Israel, and have stated they want a one-state solution with Israel wiped off the map and all Jews removed dead or alive “from the river to the sea.”
13. Call for the immediate release of all hostages held in Gaza, the cessation of attacks on Israel by Hamas and other terrorists, and a governing structure in Gaza that does not involve Hamas or other terrorist groups.
14. Withdraw from the ICC, which is not administering impartial justice and has no jurisdiction over Israel.
15. Defund UNRWA because of its funding of Hamas and involvement on October 7 and provide humanitarian aid via another means.
16. Move the Australian embassy from Tel Aviv to West Jerusalem. How would we feel if Israel told us they would put their embassy in Brisbane instead of Canberra because they did not recognise Canberra as our capital?

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Republished with thanks to Indigenous Friends of Israel. Image courtesy of Adobe.