Follow the yellow star road

In my previous two columns –  one prior to Bondi, one two days after Bondi – I lamented sardonically that, after every incident of antisemitism over the past two years, all the Prime Minister offered were words … the very same words on each occasion: “There’s no place for antisemitism in Australia … or Islamophobia.”

Imagine then my grim sense of deja vu when later that week, the PM commenced his press conference alongside the anti-antisemitism envoy with the declaration, “There’s no place in Australia for antisemitism.”

Admittedly, he’d swapped the word order slightly and wisely left Islamophobia out of the equation, but it was still there. Almost as if he believed saying it often enough would make it come true. 

All he needed was to click the heels of his ruby slippers together and, like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, “There’s no place for antisemitism in Australia” would have the same magical effect as “There’s no place like home.”

(Interesting how both fantasies start with the words ‘There’s no place …’ but that’s a discussion for another op ed.)

What I wanted to highlight in this piece is that the PM of Oz hasn’t just been mouthing empty platitudes and taking no real action. he’s actually been totally wrong. 

If the past two years have taught us anything, the idea that there’s no place for antisemitism in Australia is completely unfounded.

Indeed, antisemitism is to be found in Australia’s most iconic places – on 9 October 2023, there was a place for it outside the Sydney Opera House and on 14 December 2025, there was a place for it on Bondi Beach.

In the intervening months, meanwhile, there’s been irrefutable evidence of countless other places in Australia for antisemitism: Princes Park in Caulfield outside Central Shule, Ripponlea on the charred remains of the doorstep of the Adass Israel Synagogue, the Melbourne Museum where Jewish schoolkids were abused, university campuses across the country where Jewish students have been harangued and intimidated, various performance venues where Jewish artists have been dropped from the bill, Avner’s bakery in Sydney which has been forced to shut its doors, Lewis’ Continental Kitchen in Bondi which was set on fire, as were a number of cars in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, Mount Scopus Memorial College which was sprayed with graffiti, numerous other Jewish businesses and homes that were also daubed with antisemitic slogans, East Melbourne Hebrew Congregation which almost suffered the same fate as Adass Israel, the National Gallery of Victoria targeted for its Gandel connection, the steps of the NSW Parliament where neo-Nazis called for the abolition of ‘the Jewish lobby’, and  our cities’ CBDs every weekend where marchers brandish placards supporting terrorism, and inciting hatred and violence against ‘Zionists’, which just happens to be the overwhelming majority of the Jewish population.

And just a few days ago, we learnt that the latest place for antisemitism in Australia was opposite Beth Rivka Ladies College, where a car decorated for Chanukah was torched

And those are just the places for antisemitism in Australia that hit the headlines.

Consult the Lonely Planet Guide to Antisemitism in Australia and you’ll find stickers and graffiti and protestors all over the country normalising Jew-hatred with slogans such as ‘Globalise the Intifada’ and ‘No safe space for Zionists’.

And when our governments allow all this activity to go unchecked, their moral compass compromised by political considerations, then the idea that there’s no place for antisemitism in Australia is farcical – the doors have actually been thrown wide open to antisemitism, with the red carpet laid out for some of its key exponents to ascend the stage and practice their craft, their deceptive words and conniving insinuations spread far and wide by much of the mainstream media, thereby fanning the flames of discord and division throughout the country.

Fortunately, our sense is that the majority of the population doesn’t actually buy into it. If you’ll excuse another Wizard of Oz analogy, they’re more lovable munchkins than evil flying monkeys

Nonetheless, when the powers that be are lacking the brain, the courage and the heart (scarecrow, lion, tin man) to implement a Royal Commission, once more ignoring the pleas of the Jewish community, it seems that yet again the seriousness of the situation, our situation, either eludes them or they’re choosing to avoid it.

After the Holocaust, for thousands of survivors, Australia – where there was no place for antisemitism – was somewhere over the rainbow, where the clouds were far behind them and where troubles melted like lemon drops.

Today, however, the clouds cast an ominous shadow over us, the lemon drops no longer melt and the rainbow is but a distant memory.

In short, many members of the community are tragically coming to believe that the PM’s go-to statement, “There’s no place for antisemitism in Australia would be better rendered as “There’s no place for Jews in Australia.”

The only question now remaining for them is where does the yellow brick road out of Oz lead to?