The Jewish Council of Australia (JCA) reiterated its call on March 10 for politicians to stop exploiting antisemitism, after the Australian Federal Police (AFP) confirmed the abandoned caravan found with explosives in January in Dural was part of a “fabricated terrorism plot” orchestrated by organised crime.
Police say other antisemitic incidents have been linked to organised crime and foreign actors.
Despite the police saying in January that the caravan might be an elaborate set-up, with obvious clues left behind, NSW Premier Chris Minns said on January 30 that the caravan “represents, undeniably, an escalation … in race-filled hatred and potential violence in NSW”.
NSW Labor then rushed to pass new attacks on civil liberties on February 20. Labor justified the new laws saying they were aimed at “curbing antisemitism”. The laws give police powers to block peaceful protests at any site near a place of worship and carry a 2-year prison sentence.
, 18 Labor MPs voiced concerns about the broad nature of laws that also give police the power to issue move-on orders regardless of whether the protest is directed at the place of worship. However, they voted for it, alongside the Coalition.
David Mejia-Canales, a lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre, said the law is so vague it does not even define how near the protest needs to be to a place of worship for police to execute the new move-on powers.
Nicholas Cowdery, a former NSW director of public prosecutions, described it as “legislative overreach”, saying it would enable law enforcement to act against people “who are not harming anyone else”. He criticised Labor for disregarding a recommendation in a report it commissioned to not make speech that intentionally incites hatred a criminal rather than civil offence. “Some hard-won rights must be protected [such as] the right to peaceful public protest in an open democracy,” he said.
Now that the AFP has confirmed that the caravan did not pose any danger, JCA Executive Officer Sarah Schwartz said its findings “should prompt reflection from every politician, journalist and community leader who has sought to manipulate and weaponise fears within the Jewish community”.
JCA said politicians, journalists and community leaders, including the government’s antisemitism envoy, have also “sought to falsely connect these incidents to anti-war Palestine protests, universities, writers’ festivals and the arts”.
“The attempt to link these events to the support of Palestinians — whether at protests, universities, conferences or writers festivals — has been irresponsible and dangerous.”
She said disinformation and irresponsible reporting is providing a permissive environment for these malicious acts.
“It is now clear that individuals are seeking to exploit the Jewish community, and the broader public’s concern about anti-Semitism … We restate our calls for politicians to act responsibly and stop using the Jewish community as political footballs to push divisive agendas.”
Schwartz said those using these attacks “to spread Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism should be ashamed of themselves”. She said it exploits the Jewish community to “push bigotry and hatred and attempt to silence legitimate criticism of Israel”.