Cyprus is very close to Israel. So close that my relatives there tell me how terrifying it was to see the Iranian missiles heading towards Israel in the night sky. And the impact of the Gaza war is ever present.
Maybe this real time proximity experience forces residents to see both sides of an ugly war. But what impressed me in my visit to Cyprus is that antisemitism is not tolerated. Indeed, people curiously wonder why faraway Melbourne has become a world hotspot.
Perhaps it’s the direct experience of European countries of the brutality of the Nazis and subsequent facing up to the horrors of the holocaust, but “Never Again” is taken seriously here, whatever individual views there are on the Gaza war.
In Melbourne which has become a world hotspot of antisemitism we get much mouthing by leaders about how much they abhor what are clearly antisemitic actions with little understanding of its root causes and the actions needed to stop it.
The report by Australia’s special envoy on antisemitism Jillian Segal is important , but I think we need to understand the deeper causes of what we see and deal with them.
I think there are two fundamental drivers of antisemitism.
The first is hard for us to face up to but it is what I call a remaining latent racism that I thought we had relegated from our social fabric.
For me, growing up in Broadmeadows, it was an almost daily occurrence to be called a “wog” or a “dago” if you were of Southern European appearance. Later Asians and Muslims endured racial slurs.
As a society we moved beyond this and most of us remained confident that we would integrate Asian Australians and Muslim Australians just as we had done with Southern Europeans as they too adopted Australian values of tolerance, democracy and a fair go – and became supporters of a footy team like the rest of us.
I think the rise of antisemitism has been made possible because it plays on remaining latent racism amongst some Australians and on radical anti-Jewish views within our Moslem communities. Its root causes thus lie in deep seated cultural or religious prejudices.
As President of the Cyprus Community of Melbourne and Victoria I can say that my community stands with our Jewish brothers and sisters against antisemitism. I believe the broader Greek Community, having directly experienced the brutality of the Nazis also stands against antisemitism. Some of us, led by Dimitri Dollas and Andrew Athens supported the construction of the holocaust memorial in Thessaloniki to remember this dark history.
I was heartened to see the Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Australia stand with Catholic and Protestant Archbishops in condemning Antisemitism.
In pointing out that humanity has a duty to never forget the horrors of the Holocaust, Archbishop Makarios made these salient points: “There is no place in our faith for hatred towards our fellow human beings. There is no place for sinister and stereotypical perceptions that foster anti‑Semitism.”
But if there is a latent racism amongst a significant minority of us that is at the core of antisemitism, we are entitled to expect all, religious bodies and community groups including those representing the Muslim communities to condemn it. The Segal report does emphasis education, but it is the religious groups and communities that have the greatest influence and should be called upon to step up.
The second most worrying component not addressed in the Segal report is the way in which politics provides impetus to latent racism including antisemitism.
Pauline Hanson, from the extreme right of politics lit the fuse of anti- Asian prejudice in Australia and it has taken decades to diffuse its effects.
Today’s antisemitism comes mainly from the extreme Left rather than the extreme right of politics.
It has been fuelled by the Greens Political Party with its extreme anti-Israel stance. Just like with Hanson decades earlier it is driven by vote harnessing. Hansen sought support from a white anti migration constituency and the Greens from Muslim communities opposed to Israel.
Individual politicians have been targeted by the Greens. Attacks on the offices of Peter Khalil, Josh Burns, and Kat Theophanous are not coincidental. They are all seats that the Greens desperately want to win. When you look at the protestors outside these offices there is hardly a Palestinian or a Muslim to be seen. But there are plenty of Green Left operatives that see political benefit in pro Palestine protests.
I know that these Labor members who have been targeted have great empathy for innocent Palestinians caught up in the Gaza conflict. But they also share an unwavering commitment for calling out antisemitism. The leaders of the Green Left might pay lip service to antisemitism, but their supporters protest even violently outside these member’s offices.
The Green Left’s tolerance if not encouragement of antisemitism for political purposes is dangerous.
By default, it legitimises the darkest period in World history which resulted in the death of 6 million Jews.
This unscrupulous vote-harnessing politics by the Greens is unscrupulous in the extreme and should be called out by media even if it does not figure in the Segal report.
*Theo Theophanous is a Commentator and Former Victorian Labor Minister.
