2,062 antisemitic incidents reported in Australia between October 2023 and September 2024

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) has released a stark report revealing a shocking 316% increase in anti-Jewish incidents across Australia.

It documents 2,062 incidents between October 2023 and September 2024 – a dramatic rise from 495 incidents in the previous year.

The report, compiled by Research Director Julie Nathan, highlights how the Hamas massacre on 7 October 2023 became a turning point, seemingly emboldening antisemitic groups to intensify their attacks against Jewish Australians.

Particularly chilling incidents include a rally in Lakemba where Sheikh Ibrahim Daoud celebrated violence against Jews, proclaiming it “a day of courage, resistance, pride, and victory”.

In Sydney, an anti-Israel mob outside the Opera House was witnessed chanting deeply offensive slogans, including “Fuck the Jews”, although many witnesses also heard “Gas the Jews”.

The report categorises incidents into six key areas: assault, vandalism, abuse, messages, graffiti, and posters.

These ranged from physical attacks to targeted harassment, including convoys driving through Jewish-populated suburbs with Palestinian flags, targeted graffiti on Jewish-owned businesses, death threats against individuals and community organisations, and the doxing of 600 Jewish creatives, leading to job losses and forced relocations.

The incidents involved diverse perpetrator groups, including anti-Israel activists from Arab, Muslim, and left-wing “progressive” backgrounds, as well as right-wing antisemites and neo-Nazis.

Crucially, the ECAJ emphasises that many incidents likely go unreported, meaning the actual number could be significantly higher.

ECAJ Research Director Julie Nathan, who compiled the report, said “If anything, the raw numbers understate the seriousness of the surge in antisemitism that has occurred. There have been many new forms and expressions of anti-Jewish racism that would once have been considered alien to Australia, but which have become commonplace”.
She said there has never been anything like an annual increase of this magnitude.

Nathan said, “If it was thought that anti-Jewish racism was a thing of the past and defeated, the last 12 months has shown that it has been cynically reactivated and stoked for political purposes”.

“The physical, verbal and other forms of attacks on Jewish individuals, families and community venues will continue to worsen unless governments, police and others show some spine by taking resolute action to halt the rising tide of acts of hatred against the Jewish community and bringing those responsible to account.”