Attacks against Australian Jews up 50%

[bemildred]

Annual report by Jewish organization in Australia released today, said figure included physical assault, property damage and direct face to face harassment.

Jews in Australia were the victims of 50% more attacks in the 12 months to September than the average figure for the past 14 years, a new report has found.

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry's (ECAJ) annual report on anti-Semitism in Australia, released today, said the figure included physical assault, property damage and direct face to face harassment.

"The worst of these incidents included the smashing of windows at synagogues, eggs thrown at Jewish people on their way to or from religious ceremonies and a firecracker thrown at the door of the home of an Orthodox Jew after a person called out – Let's get the Rabbi," the report said.

Maariv

[Ardee]

1. Is there a correlation

between the escalating of Israeli violence towards the Palestinians and the supposed escalation of violence towards world jewry?....I say supposed because these stories always make me very sceptical of motive and authenticity.

[bemildred]

2. I don't find the notion of a bit of xenophobia in Oz strange at all.

Like the USA and Sud Afrique it had a racist foundation, and the
tendency remains ingrained. Sorting out anti-semitism is a thornier
issue, because there are elements in the Israeli right that use
it for propaganda purposes, and they tend to muddy the water a good
deal with their ravings; and yet there is no question that jew-baiting
is still a popular activity in many parts of the world.

I would guess there is some such correlation, but sorting out the
anti-Israeli from the anti-semitic variants is not possible in any way
that one can get agreement on, and will waste a good deal of time and
energy in the process of going nowhere, so I mostly avoid it.

[Ardee]

3. Australia has problems

with racial bigotry re: the Aborigines. They are a rather typical frontier mentality, rough and tumble, redneck peckerheads in large part.

You are right on with your mention of how right wing Israelis and their supporters use such tales to their own purposes. That antisemitism, anti zionism and anti israel sentiments exist and are indistiguishable is moot......I generally avoid it by avoiding such articles, or at least scrutinizing them carefully as to sources......

[bemildred]

4. Yeh, I found this of interest because it wasn't France. nt

[Ardee]

5. Heehee

You made me smile with that one for sure.......:pals:

[Djinn]

6. thanks

for characterising 17 million people as mostly redneck peckerheads.

Heard this on the radio this morning and knew I'd be here later clearly up some misconceptions.

First this study took in some "anti-semitism" that many here would class as anti-zionism NOT anti-semitism - ie criticism of Israel's policies towards palestine in the media.

It was compiled by a not particularly unbiased source.

That source also readilly spoke about the incarese in anti-ARAB abuse/violence/vandalism and the fact is that the people spraying swastikas on synagouges are also dumping pigs heads at mosques - muslims and jews in Australia have common enemies and Jeremy Jones also speaks of the good relationship between Muslims and Jews in this country just in case anyone's gonna waddle in accusing this increase of being connected to Islam.

Try not to judge all of us based on a small minority of fuckwads - I don't judge all AMericans based on the Christian right nor all Israelis based on the hawks there - it's really not very fair.

[bemildred]

7. Hey. What about the aborigine boy that got dragged around by the neck?

You're all bad down there. And you're mean to E. Timor too.
But at least you aren't France.

[Djinn]

9. assuming you're joking with that one

unless Matt Shepherd proves every american is a murderous homophobe?

[bemildred]

13. Is he French? nt

[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Violet_Crumble]

11. Is this what you heard this morning?

JEREMY JONES: Well over the years, the last three years have been very bad compared to any years before those so when we talk about comparison with the average in the previous period, there are actually some areas where there's been a reduction over past years. There's less hate mail, there's less telephone threats, there's more incidents of physical assault and vandalism and graffiti.

HAMISH FITZSIMMONS: Mr Jones says religious and racial vilification is not isolated to the Jewish community.

JEREMY JONES: We work very closely with other communities, with the Islamic community, Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh and any other group and I think what we've found is that they've had more ups and downs. We've had a more consistent number of these incidents over a long period of time. There are times of high tension where the members of the Muslim community who I meet with talk about more incidents of attack, as against vilification which is quite a different issue.

HAMISH FITZSIMMONS: So, that's what it comes down to, it comes down to actual incidents of harassment to the Jewish community?

JEREMY JONES: Every incident that we have enumerated in that report and the part of the report where we deal with this has been identified by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission as racist violence. We also have a section on anti-Semitism in the media, anti-Semitic organisations and unfortunately we have quite a number of them in Australia.

We also look at the positives and our report has quite a long section on the positive relationship between Jews and Christians, Jews and Muslims, Jews and Hindus and Buddhists and for that matter very strong condemnations of racism coming from Federal Parliament in the past 12 months.

http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2004/s1258570.htm

[Djinn]

12. bingo

I've had a bit of verbal biffo with Jeremy in the past and I'm a little dubious at most of what he says because of it but was pleasantly surprised at his even-ness this morning.

Not that it matters we're ALL redneck racists down here

[Violet_Crumble]

14. Did you ever hear what he said about One Nation?

The website I saw the claim on was a bit stinky, so I'm looking for it somewhere else, but apparently Jeremy Jones claimed that Pauline Hanson and One Nation were responsible for the surge in anti-Semitism and other bigotry in Australia. Mind you, if he said that I think he was pointing out the bleeding obvious, but he deserves a pat on the back for giving that racist cow a good serve...

Anyway, this redneck racist is off in her dust-covered ute with mag wheels, boofhead stickers, and huge cb antenna to find me some minority group to vilify. And you can come too if you bring the beer and the spray-cans so we can drink and burp and fart in our cute little redneck racist way and daub our redneck racist grafitti all over The Lodge and Parliament House!! ;)

Violet...

p.s. All I can say is ain't we lucky we're not French or we'd really be in trouble!!

[bemildred]

20. Sounds very American, actually. nt

[drdon326]

16. "17 million people as mostly redneck peckerheads."???

After reading some posts here, I find that hard to believe.

[Paleocon]

17. New Zealand (which is right next door) has cut relations to Israel

Over some espionage incident. That may have something to do with this. I think those two countries are fairly close relationshipwise...

[bemildred]

18. Doubt it.

Howard (Oz) is a neanderthal; Helen Clark seems to be a
sane responsible human being (for a politician). The two
countries are "close", but have different histories, and
politically seem to be diverging of late. Uncle Sugar
loves Howard and can't stand Ms Clark.

[Paleocon]

19. Well, I was just throwing it out there...

Not that the spy scandal that occured justifies a backlash against any general Jewish population.

I need to learn more about Ms. Clark, she sounds interesting.

[bemildred]

21. I think Ms Clark's beef is with the Israeli government.

I've never seen anything to indicate being a Jew as such would
even be noticed in New Zealand, let alone get anybody worked up.
Which is not to say in a population of millions there won't be
a few peckerheads.

[Paleocon]

22. You're right about that!

There usually at least one "peckerhead" in every crowd! LOL!!!

[Djinn]

25. right and wrong

we have almost identical histories - don't overplay the convict thing is was pretty minor in terms of over all settlement - NZ's early white settlers were just as fond of slaughter and dispossesion as Australian ones were and Maori's in NZ will tell you that life in indigenous populations isn't too rosy in NZ.

But Howard IS a neanderthal and Helen Clark is a progressive liberal so that bit's right.

NZ diplomatic argy-bargie with Israel really has ZERO to do with any (actual) antisemitism in AUstralia (as opposed to the reporting of Palestinian casualties which Mr Jones has had problems with in the past) the rednecks who daub swastikas don't really keep up with international diplomatic developments

[bemildred]

26. Eh, OK.

I know about the Maori, and I wasn't thinking of the transportees
so much, more the results of geography and the differences in the
natives present before the colonization began, and maybe a random
element, or something there is no name for.

It does seem to me that the Maori get a better shake than the Abos
do nowadays, but you can blame that on Howard I suppose, and it's not
like I have anything but hearsay to base that on.

I suppose it's geography as much as anything.

And yet, NZ does show a striking bit of political independence.

[Djinn]

24. given that there's pretty much just me and Violet

would you like to come right and say something there Don?

[drdon326]

23. Well , I guess....

I should cancel my trip to Australia ...right after I cancel my trip to Paris.

[Lithos]

27. Locking

The innuendos are getting out of hand and are increasingly becoming personal.

Lithos
I/P Moderator
Democratic Underground