It was a speech devoid of hindsight or foresight. On August 6, Australia’s Race Discrimination Commissioner Giridharan Sivaraman stood at the podium of the National Press Club in Canberra. His topic was There’s Nothing Casual About Racism: Getting Serious About Racial Equity.
Close to halfway through his address, the commissioner turned his attention to “current times”, which he described as “febrile”. And then there was this: “The war in Gaza has triggered a terrifying surge of anti-Semitism, anti-Arab racism, anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobic hate.”
Sivaraman added that “mentioning those different forms of racism doesn’t mean equating them; mentioning one doesn’t invalidate another”. This is just fudge. By August 6, there had been widespread attacks on Jewish Australians and their property. This was not the case with Arab and Palestinian Australians and those of the Muslim faith. In this instance the commissioner was in denial.
Israel’s Minister for Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli claims Israeli intelligence assisted in helping ASIO pin down the source of the Iran-plotted antisemitic attacks. “The intelligence did help the Australians with the information regarding the involvement of the Iranians in the terror attacks,” Mr Chikli told Sky News host Chris Kenny. “We share intelligence with Australia and with many other Western countries.”
On Tuesday this week, Anthony Albanese stood in the courtyard of Parliament House in Canberra. He was accompanied by Foreign Minister Penny Wong, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke, director-general of security Mike Burgess and Australian Federal Police commissioner Reece Kershaw.
The Prime Minister said that since the “terrible events of October 7, 2023, we have witnessed a number of appalling anti-Semitic attacks against Australia’s Jewish community” that he had asked “ASIO and the AFP to investigate as a priority”. He added: “ASIO has gathered enough credible intelligence to reach a deeply disturbing conclusion – that the Iranian government directed at least two of these attacks.”
Namely, the firebombings of Lewis’ Continental Kitchen in Sydney on October 20 and the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne on December 6 last year. Both could well have led to deaths. In the Melbourne case, it was only an early detection of the arsonists that made it possible for individuals to escape with their lives.
To criticise Iran is not to criticise Iranians. There are many Persian Australians who have made a significant contribution to the country to which they immigrated or in which they were born. However, after the mullahs came to power in 1979 following the fall of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and the return of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran became a totalitarian theocracy. It has remained so due to the brutal repression of the regime.
To those who have followed Iran for the past half century, it should have come as no surprise to learn that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which protects the current supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and projects the power of the Islamic Republic beyond Tehran, is into state terrorism. The IRGC is independent of the Iran Army.
The IRGC was responsible for the bombing of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires in March 1992 that was conducted by its proxy Hezbollah. The car bomb killed 29 individuals – Israeli diplomats, locally employed staff and passers-by alike.
This demonstrated that the IRGC had the capacity to operate well beyond the borders of Iran. From Argentina in 1992 to Australia in 2024 – and more between.
The Albanese government acted correctly, if somewhat belatedly, in expelling Iranian ambassador Ahmad Sadeghi and his staff from Australia and breaking off diplomatic relations with Iran. The ambassador during this time in Australia had posted several anti-Semitic statements on X.
During the Prime Minister’s press conference, it was evident that the expulsion of one anti-Semitic ambassador from Australia would not lead to any dramatic reduction in local anti-Semitism.
The ASIO chief made this clear on Tuesday. Burgess, a non-political engineer by training, said: “For the past 10 months, anti-Semitism has been one of Australia’s most pressing priorities involving full use of our capabilities and powers.” But, Burgess added, ASIO did not “believe the (Iranian) regime is responsible for every act of anti-Semitism in Australia”. Quite so.
Digital creator Montana Tucker discusses being the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors and the responsibility she feels in using her social media platform to fight antisemitism. “For me, having over 14 million followers across platforms, I have to use my voice and my platforms to combat antisemitism, all forms of hate, to speak out for Israel,” Ms Tucker told Sky News host Sharri Markson. “Because I know my grandparents would have done the same if they had social media back then.”
Bob Carr, the foreign minister in the Gillard-Rudd Labor government and former successful Labor premier of NSW, was a founder of the Labor Friends of Israel. Currently he is a fierce critic of Israel in its attempt to achieve its war aims – the elimination of Hamas, which controls Gaza, in the Israel-Hamas war the terrorist group started on October 7, 2023. Carr, along with some other prominent Australians, was photographed at the start of the Sydney Harbour Bridge march on August 3 with a banner of Khamenei behind him. He said that he did not know this. Fair enough.
But Carr did place the photo on X that day under the heading “Some of the Labor people, including Ed Husic, with Lord Mayor of Sydney (Clover Moore)”. This was poor judgment since the banner honouring Khamenei is visible in the shot.
It seems that Carr is in poor judgment mode. On August 22, he appeared on the OnePath Network and was interviewed by Malaz Majanni. The former foreign minister referred to the “Israel Jewish lobby” as putting “the interests of Israel above the interests of Australia and its foreign policy”. He went on to describe this (alleged) reality as “a distortion of democracy”.
This is a serious and unproven allegation that has been used by anti-Semites in the past.
However, on Wednesday, Carr posted a message stating that “expelling Iranian Ambassador was appropriate given its organisation of anti-Semitic attacks”. So, perhaps his judgment has improved.
It is likely that the internal tension in Australia will remain until the conflict ceases irrespective of whether the UN gets additional support for the creation of a Palestinian state.
Senior Hamas leader Ghazi Hamad has said “the fruits of October 7 are what caused the entire world to open its eyes to the Palestinian issue”. And US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has stated that “the talks with Hamas fell apart on the day (French President) Macron made the unilateral decision that he’s going to recognise the Palestinian state”. It’s an unusual unity ticket to be sure. While the conflict continues, in Australia it is Jewish citizens who have most to fear for their safety, whatever the Race Discrimination Commissioner may say about “Islamophobic hate”.