A different approach to antisemitism
How can Israel be the only country immune from criticism? Could we look differently at what is making some Jewish people so fearful at criticism of Israel’s genocide such that they demand unjustifiable laws banning that criticism?
Yes, antisemitism is unpleasant, even hurtful, but paralysing fear-making? The slings and arrows, real and metaphorical, hurled at Jewish Australians have been no worse than post-war Italians and Greeks suffered, Catholics of my childhood, Vietnamese refugees some decades ago, more recent migrants and refugees from Afghanistan and the Middle East, none of whom have had the special consideration given to the Jewish community.
The Holocaust shouldn’t be forgotten, but are we overdoing remembrance? How many Jewish people still suffer intergenerational post-Holocaust trauma? Subjectively, their passed-down fears are real. However, those extreme fears are objectively unfounded. Australia’s racism, verbal rather than inherently physically violent, needs addressing. But should we make more repressive laws or should we treat intergenerational trauma fear as a mental health issue?
The marginal increase in antisemitism since 2023 doesn’t require heavy-handed policing or further lawmaking. But our government should listen to the multitude of raised voices, including Jewish ones, and join in condemning Israel’s genocide in Palestine.
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