Australia was “on everyone’s lips … for all the wrong reasons” at the International Holocaust Remembrance Day event in Auschwitz last week, the nation’s antisemitism envoy Jillian Segal says.
Ms Segal travelled with Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus to Poland for the anniversary, as well as a meeting of the world’s antisemitism envoys.
In an interview with the ABC, she said it was a “confronting” event.
“The feeling was very much the survivors telling us this should never happen again, in an environment where it was worrying for the Jewish community of the rise in antisemitism everywhere,” Ms Segal said.
“The [other] sobering part for me was speaking with the other envoys. When they spoke about what was happening in say France or Germany, the country that was on everyone’s lips was Australia. We’ve made it onto the international map for all the wrong reasons.
“The incidents that have taken place here, particularly the [fire]bombing of the Adass synagogue, everyone had read about, everyone knew about, and it had that echoing of what happened in Germany, of Kristallnacht.”
Ms Segal said it had been difficult to explain the series of antisemitic attacks that had occurred in Australia over the summer.
Australia has seen a rise in antisemitic attacks in recent months, including a terror attack on the Adass Israel synagogue in Melbourne’s east, the arson of a childcare centre in Sydney, and several incidents of antisemitic vandalism targeting synagogues, cars and homes.
Police also revealed the disturbing discovery of a caravan filled with explosives in Sydney’s west last month, in a foiled antisemitic terror plot.
Speaking for the first time since an antisemitic terror plot was foiled with the discovery of a caravan filled with explosives in Sydney’s west, Ms Segal warned that the community was fearful.
“Antisemitism is this virus. Once it is out there, it is a bit out of control and it goes from stage to stage,” Ms Segal said.
“People are fearful … of going out in certain places, they’re not going into the city for example. Their whole behaviour has changed.”
Segal warns antisemitic attacks may not be captured under current laws
This morning the antisemitism envoy met with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, as parliament debates legislation that would strengthen Australia’s hate speech laws.
Ms Segal flagged that she was almost ready to deliver a strategy to combat antisemitism to Mr Albanese, as well as discuss the proposed laws before parliament.
Ms Segal said she supported a motion by independent MP Allegra Spender to take that legislation further by criminalising speech that promotes hate against faith groups or other minorities.
“Some of the vandalism we are seeing, the damage we are seeing, even the firebombing might not be able to be picked up in the old laws, and we need to make sure modern laws deal with the situation we are facing,” she said.
“They need strengthening. [The legislation] was conceived of before we saw this rise in antisemitism.”
The government and Coalition are yet to support that proposal but both have indicated they are taking it seriously.
Ms Segal said laws passed last year to ban hate symbols must also be strengthened, saying people were evading them by using symbols that were recognisable as Nazi flags or salutes, but different enough to not be captured by the ban.
However, Ms Segal did not fully endorse a Coalition proposal to mandate minimum jail terms for antisemitic offences, instead suggesting that expectation could be conveyed in legislation while still allowing judges flexibility in sentencing.
“You’re still leaving it to the judge, there’s still a discretion to take into account circumstance, but the legislation is conveying the community’s view that this is a very serious offence,” she said.
Trump’s declaration on Gaza will be watched ‘with interest’
Ms Segal also responded to extraordinary comments made by US President Donald Trump saying he wanted an American takeover of Gaza.
Standing alongside Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mr Trump declared Gaza’s civilian population should be forcibly relocated and the city levelled.
Ms Segal maintained her support for a two-state solution that would see a sovereign Palestinian nation.
“The Jewish community and general community see Mr Trump as a president who ultimately wants to bring peace to the Middle East … How he gets there won’t be a straight road and we all await developments with interest,” Ms Segal said.
“I think it’s important that he is committed to a two-state solution, which is the policy of the Australian government, and that whether it’s the State of Israel, as it is, and a ‘Riviera’ where Gaza is or whether it’s just a Palestinian state, there’s a lot to happen to see how that gets resolved.”