Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I second the motion and support the Leader of the Opposition's call for urgency on these matters. This House must speak with moral clarity. This House must speak with one voice. October 7 for Jewish people all around the world is what September 11 is for the American people—an extraordinary terrorist attack that rocked the world and changed people's perceptions of it. The Leader of the Opposition is right; this is a time for moral clarity. That's why today and yesterday were days where we in this parliament, where we as Australians, should be standing with Israel, standing with the victims of terror and standing with those hostages who are still being held against their will in appalling conditions in Gaza.

What has amazed me since the events of 7 October has been the moral equivalents we have seen everywhere. Jewish people in this country did not have even a moment to grieve for what had happened on 7 October before there were antisemitic incidents right across the country. I want to talk about and remind people of the antisemitic incidents that occurred in those first weeks, even before Israel had commenced its operations in Gaza.

The Leader of the Opposition is right to point to the issues that occurred at the opera house on 9 October, because I think that everything that we have seen subsequently in this country comes from the failure of leadership and the failure to bring people to justice for burning flags, lighting flares, spitting on Jewish Australians and saying horrendous things about Jews on that day. Since that time all sorts of antisemitic protesters have tried to push the envelope and see how far they could get.

We had the worst set of protests at the weekend, where people were basically aping the flag of Hezbollah—an organisation that we in this country list as a terrorist organisation—and coming out in Hezbollah colours, thumbing their nose at the police and thumbing their nose at the laws of this country because so many of these protesters, so many of the people engaged in these antisemitic activities, believe that the law doesn't apply to them. They believe it shouldn't apply to them. They don't believe in Australia and its democratic traditions. They are, in fact, trying to undermine and attack the multiculturalism which has denoted the brilliance of this country right from European settlement and which has only been enhanced generation after generation, as people have come here. I think that this is a major attack on the country.

Even before the 9 October protests, on the very next day after 7 October, in Western Sydney we saw a gathering that was addressed by Sheikh Ibrahim Dadoun, who said:

I'm smiling and I'm happy …

I'm elated, it's a day of courage, it's a day of pride, it's a day of victory. This is the day we've been waiting for.

They were his words in relation to the terror attack. Nothing has been done.

On 10 October we saw people in a car stop and ask a man on a street if he knew where any Jews were. The man asked, 'What will you do if you find Jews?' They responded, 'They know what we're going to do once we're done with them.' Another passenger said, 'We're hunting for Jews.' That was in Melbourne on 10 October.

On 11 October, there were death threats against a rabbi and his eight-year-old son. On 13 October, outside the Sydney Jewish Museum—a museum which teaches Australians about the evils of the Holocaust and hatred—three men gave a Nazi salute and goosestepped. This had nothing to do with the Israel government, nothing to do with Middle East politics; it was rank antisemitism.

In Melbourne the following day, there was an 'Expose Jewish Power' banner by the National Socialist Network, and they were handing out business cards on a train and questioning passengers to see if they could find any Jews on the train. On 15 October, Melbourne heard chants of 'Khaybar, Khaybar, Oh Jews! The army of Muhammad will return!' which refers to a massacre of Jews by Muslims in Khaybar at 628 CE. It was used as a war cry to threaten and attack Jews at an anti-Israel rally in Melbourne. That same day, at an anti-Israel rally outside the QV building, there was a cartoon placard of Netanyahu in a coffin, draped in a Palestinian flag, being put into an Auschwitz-like crematorium, along with a sign that said, 'Arbeit macht frei'. This was all before Israel had commenced its operations in Gaza.

The antisemitism in this country has reached a terrible point, and I commend the Leader of the Opposition for his strong stance against it. I see that the Minister for Education, who is a good man, is at the table today. I say to the minister: please support the judicial inquiry into antisemitism on campus, because so many of these bad ideas, which we saw even in the week that followed 7 October, develop on our campuses. It's high time we stop subjecting students, many of whom are still teenagers, to this level of hatred in our country.

See this speech in context