BREN CARLILL: Politicians’ reactions ring hollow in echo chambers of outrage

The shock and sorrow that politicians express after violent anti-Semitic incidents tends to ring hollow in the ears of Australia’s Jewish community.

Let me explain why.

On Friday night in Melbourne, in two separate incidents, a synagogue was set alight and an Israeli-owned restaurant was invaded by vocal, violent protesters.

The attackers were shouting and motivated by now-common chants, like “All Zionists are terrorists”, “Death to the IDF” and “Globalise the intifada”.

Their actions on Friday evening proved — yet again — that violent rhetoric leads to violent actions.

But the violence didn’t start with the chants. It started with the wild accusations of colonialism, apartheid and genocide, that are regularly thrown at Israel.

There is a clear path from one to the other. Pro-Palestine activists are nurtured by the algorithms of social media, a wilful ignorance of the details and history of the conflict, and agitators who are motivated by hate, not misplaced goodwill. Combined, these factors have long resulted in accusations against Israel of the most heinous crimes.

Such accusations naturally send pro-Israel people straight to their corner, forced to defend themselves in black and white terms, in social media sound bites, about Israel’s righteousness and, as context, about the hateful nature of Palestinian society, based on its statements, polls and actions.

What is lost in the melee is the chance for nuanced discussion, where the legitimate claims and grievances of both sides can be aired.By locking themselves into their outrage echo chambers, pro-Palestine activists have convinced themselves that anyone who doesn’t wholly agree with them — anyone who wants to engage in nuanced discussion — is “complicit in genocide”.

In their sense of self-righteousness they seethe, more and more convinced that the only possible reason the Government isn’t sending home Israel’s ambassador, or boycotting the country is because of a grand Jewish — ahem, Zionist — conspiracy that controls government and media.

Little wonder then, that when their efforts in social media and street protests don’t shift public or government opinion, they turn to violence. Every non-religious terrorist in history has followed a version of the same playbook.

And on whom do they inflict their violence? Why, the Jews, of course.

If, according to these people, the very existence of Israel is morally beyond the pale, then it remains that anyone who supports Israel’s existence is likewise reprehensible and must be punished.

“Zionists” are the targets, but it just so happens that most Zionists out there are Jews, and almost all Jews are Zionists. And, certainly, the protesters don’t usually bother to discriminate. Which is why synagogues are burnt. Which is why Jewish schools are graffitied and students are taunted. Which is why Jewish artists are de-platformed.

Without taking agency away from the perpetrators, our political leaders share quite a bit of the responsibility for Friday night’s attacks.

They mouth platitudes about there being “no place for ant-Semitism in Australia”, which is nice. But they’ve usually looked the other way when hateful and violent chants are made, and when outrageous accusations are flung.

The haters are always seeking to push the envelope. When they don’t meet resistance to obscene chants and the patently false accusations, these chants and accusations become normalised. And the haters up the ante, to push the envelope that little bit more.

Given the percentages, when a handful of people accept hateful slurs as the truth, the chance for violence is small. But when hundreds, and then thousands, accept hateful slurs as the truth, that small percentage of people who want to take the next step suddenly balloons into tens, then hundreds. That’s when we see the sort of things that we saw on Friday night.

It is a day late and a dollar short when politicians decry hateful attacks, as they’ve all dutifully done since Friday evening.

When they condemn anti-Semitism as a concept (“there is no place for anti-Semitism”), but ignore all the warning signs pointing to future violence, it comes across as a little hypocritical.

Oh, sure, they give the Jews money to build physical protection around their schools and synagogues and cultural centres. But all that does is encourage the mob.

The solution is courage. It is leadership. From the PM and Foreign Minister down, people who want Israeli–Palestinian peace and realise the situation is complex must push back against these kind of hateful chants and black and white, objectively false accusations. They must tell those that utter them, plainly and loudly, “you are part of the problem”.

Nothing that happens on Australian streets will bring forward or delay Israeli–Palestinian peace. But if we want social cohesion in Australia — if we actually want it, as opposed to merely wanting to talk about it — then our leadership must push back, not when things become violent, but when the haters spread hatred.

Silence or platitudes is merely complicity in the violence that will inevitably follow.

Dr Bren Carlill is the director of special projects at the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council.