January 21, 2025
Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson says there is no parallel between anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, with attacks against Jews "far more prolific".
The Liberal senator said it was important to address violence against minority groups but argued that anti-Semitism represents a more pressing concern in Australia, pointing to targeted anti-Semitic attacks, such as cars being set alight in Jewish neighbourhoods, as evidence of the scale of the problem.
The Coalition on Monday unveiled a suite of proposed law reforms to escalate criminal penalties to combat anti-Semitism.
"One of the reasons why we talk about anti-Semitism more often than we talk about violence against Australian Muslims is because it is far more prevalent. It's far more prolific. Thank God we have not seen any places of worship important to Muslim Australians firebombed, as we have seen a synagogue," Senator Paterson said.
"Thank God we have not seen any cars set alight in Muslim neighbourhoods targeting Muslim Australians.
"And if that were to happen, and we hope it does not, I assure you that I and the Coalition will condemn that as loudly and as vigorously as we are condemning the violence against the Australian Jewish community.
"I think we should not be drawing a parallel here where it's not warranted.
"It's far more prolific against the Jewish community, which is a far smaller community, and it's a far more serious problem, and that's why it has the attention it deserves."
According to the latest report from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, more than 2000 anti-Jewish incidents were reported in Australia between October 1, 2023 and September 30, 2024.
That represents a 316 per cent increase on the previous year. Had the ECAJ included in its figures the online content that the Online Hate Prevention Institute gathered over the same period, that number would rise to almost 6700.
The ECAJ also reported that anti-Semitic incidents increased 738 per cent in the two months following October 7, 2023 compared to the same period in 2022.
In comparison, latest statistics from the Islamophobia Registry in Australia identified 932 incidents in the year after October 7, 2023.
The IRA reports Islamophobic attacks in Australia increased by more than 600 per cent in that period, with some cases unreported.
Alleged attacks included spitting, threats to mosques and Muslim schools, graffiti, property damage, hate mail, verbal abuse, and online abuse.
The data compiled by the IRA includes online discourse such as social media posts, unlike the data from the ECAJ, which only counts specific online threats of violence.
The release of these figures comes as the Australian Federal Police revealed there was more than 100 reports of anti-Semitic attacks targeting Australia's Jewish community in just one month after the launch of Special Operation Avalite.
The AFP also announced that a western Sydney man has been charged after allegedly making death threats against members of a Jewish group, marking the first arrest under its dedicated anti-Semitism taskforce.
