On Friday, December 6, 2024, arsonists attacked the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne.
Over the past 14 months we have seen continuous acts of incitement to violence, hate speech, intimidation, boycotting and cancellation targeted at Jewish community members.
It seems that apart from rhetorical condemnation, law enforcement was minimal to non-existent.
At ARZA we have been alerting to the risk of escalation and that lack of enforcement of legislation regarding hate speech and incitement to violence sends the wrong signal of tolerance to such activities.
This in turn, leads to further escalation and physical violence. Therefore, we continue to call on all governments and law enforcement agencies to go beyond rhetoric and ensure enforcement of the law for the protection of the community and to avoid deterioration to violence which would be the inevitable outcome should the policy of appeasement continue.
This is coming on the back of repetitive alerts from the Jewish community and organisations – alerts that have not been taken seriously.
The Prime Minister recognised that this recent attack is an act of antisemitism, yet it is not clear what is actually being done to deter current and future perpetrators from conducting such acts of violence and intimidation.
ARZA stands strong with the Jewish community and indeed with the Australian community at large. We call to move from rhetoric to action to protect our social cohesion which is evidently at risk.
Ayal Marek
President ARZA
Co VP UPJ