Australia: Anti-Semitic incidents on the rise

According to report by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry 442 incidents were logged from October 2005-September 2006

Melissa Singer|Published: 11.26.06 , 17:23

The number of anti-Semitic incidents logged in 2006 has risen to near-record highs, according to a report by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) that was tabled at its annual conference in Melbourne.

In total, 442 incidents were logged from October 2005-September 2006, an increase of 110 incidents on the previous 12-month period, which is still down on a 2002 record high of more than 500 incidents.

The report’s author, Jeremy Jones, said that although incidents spiked during Israel’s war with Hizbullah - more incidents were reported in July than in any single month since records began in 1989 - the events in the Middle East were not entirely to blame for the increase.

“The most important thing is that when people think they can get away with it, that’s when they commit them. The atmosphere was right for attacking Jews and getting away with it,” said Jones. “It’s not what happens in the Middle East, it’s how the media covers it,” he added.

In and out of statistics

But Jones said he could not accurately predict whether the overall figures would have been up or down on last year if the war, which effectively began with the July 12 kidnapping of IDF Corporal Gilad Shalit in Gaza, had not happened.

“Every year something seems to happen,” Jones said. “Until July it was already above average. When al-Hilaly labelled the Holocaust a ‘Zionist lie’, there was a bit of a peak.”

Jones said that although there was a notable increase last year in the number of incidents committed electronically, mostly via email, he said this year he had seen the “most horrific anti-Semitism” on the YouTube website, where users post videos on their choice of subject.

But because the ECAJ’s system for recording incidents is report-based, most of these incidences are not included in the statistics.

The ECAJ has logged anti-Semitic incidents since 1989. Various state roof bodies have also kept their own records since 1945.