To think that antisemitism now needs to be tackled in the strongest possible way?

[LucyWestenra]

The Bondi thread in chat was eye opening.

Forty pages and a lot of it whataboutery, excuses and vile antisemitism.

It’s disgusting.

It needs to be called out. It needs to be rooted out.

I feel so sorry for the Jewish communities everywhere. How can they possibly feel safe?

Sorry how is it not being dealt with strongly already? I agree anti-semitism is awful but I honestly can’t see how the government/police aren’t already dealing with it harshly?

They are a tiny minority of Jews worldwide. Shame on you.

Same goes for some Christians, Muslims, Hindus... It's not exclusive to any group.

do you disagree with the idea that 'globalise the intifada' is inherently problematic?

This is one of my local marches - hordes of masked students rampaging around campus regularly. With the stated and confirmed goal of eradicating israel. They put up signs all across campus to 'globalise the intifada' and 'death to the IDF' and shout that awful river to the sea chant.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C_D3DSZIL_n/?hl=en&img_index=1

When masked gangs of people are roaming the streets chanting horrible slogans and causing such disturbance that people are scared to leave their homes someone has lost control of the situation. The terrorist supporters are destroying public property and leaving hateful posters and stickers all over my city and putting up flags all over the place. It's a total mess and really, really isolating and exhausting for me. I am aware I can only speak for myself but that's my responsibility.

People say things like 'Jews don't feel safe' and that's true.. but it's also true we aren't actually safe, it's not just a feeling. As I have said many times and will keep saying, my 11 year old daughter was attacked by a group of teenagers yelling free Palestine. In school! The head teacher was apologetic but said she should really be careful about who she tells she's Jewish so I had to file a police report. Which came to nothing of course. So there is plenty of education needed in literally every area of responsibility.

Extreme Islamist violence is rooted in antisemitism, as has been amply demonstrated by the way extremely violent Islamists keep attacking and killing Jews.

I am not a Jew, but I find antisemitism the most vile, baffling and heartbreaking thing I have ever come across. We, as a world population, seem to have learnt nothing.
In the UK, I think our politicians need to be much more vocal and active, especially the Labour party, given that antisemitism was rife among (a minority of) their members only a few years ago.

If you want to discuss attacks on Western values you do need to look beyond just radical Islam. Christian nationalism of the Trump/Orban is arguably a greater thread, embedded as it is in the powers of government. Addressing radical religious everything is what is needed.

How is this normal? On what planet?

😢

Yes, thank you.

Well, I don’t think that the government officially recognising the state of Palestine just before the anniversary of the 07 October attacks was great.

I’m not sure that helped Jewish people feel more safe.

As for the Pro Palestine marches still going ahead that week, well words fail me.

Shite.

please see 9/11, 7/7, Manchester Arena, Bataclan, multiple gatherings in Europe, etc, etc, etc.

We are all targets for radicalised Islamists. Someone on another thread thought that it was an actual plus that only 34% of Muslims in this country would not report a terrorist.

I would say a horrible difference is that there is a mass of ignorant idiots who seem to think that the Gaza situation is “baddies vs. goodies” and Jews are clearly the enemy and people on Bondi beach - sad though it was - are to blame for the poor agonised gunmen’s justifiable actions.

We consulted with the police about our own daughter's Bat Mitzvah recently and decided it was safe enough without paid security but that we'd ensure a friend was at the door to question people on arrival.

My cousin in the states had armed security at her son's Bar Mitzvah. And every one of my family's Jewish school or synagogue in the states has armed security guards stationed outside. My father's didn't but they had a mass attack about 10 years ago so they do now.

Exactly and I made that point about the increase in Islamophobia during the gulf conflicts. Extremism in any religion reflects badly for the entire religion, especially when unchallenged.

And? A tiny minority of Muslims are extremist but that leads to an increase in Islamophobia. I’m not saying it’s ok. It is just a fact.

This is all so sobering.

I’m trying to imagine what would happen if any other demographic were under such a consistent threat. People would be up in arms and it would be frontline news.

I am so sorry you are all having to live like this. It’s not right. 💐

what??

I don't know how to report that idiotic comment above, if someone else could please?

NVM, I did it

What was it this time? More antisemitic shit?

To quote you, shite.

yeah more shit. Quite unhinged shit. Not worth repeating

Ffs

I agree that not enough is done. There is stuff that is plainly pure antisemitism that is just not dealt with (like the pp whose dd was attacked at school by kids saying ‘free Palestine’). This seems to be a case of either people can’t recognise anti semitism when they see it or they don’t know what to do about it. Either way it’s fairly straightforward to have more awareness and training.

Then there is the stuff that is dressed up as anti-Israel/anti-Zionist but is generally aggressive and hostile. That’s more difficult because (like a lot of historic antisemitism) it’s not immediately clear what’s going on. Imo the way Zionism has been rebranded by its enemies as an extremist movement, when until about 5 minutes ago it was generally understood as the desire for self determination, is a manifestation of a kind of underhand antisemitism that is very difficult to tackle in a society that values freedom of expression.

It is very telling that we have a progressive culture that is usually not tolerant of this sort of thing: it recognises things like microaggressions and respects that racism is about the perception of the victim for every group except Jews. It’s all about controlling what people say and think, but if Jewish people feel threatened it’s all about freedom of speech. Personally I think we need clear and firm leadership from the government on this.