In the Media

A few guys stood huddled, several metres ahead.

As my cocker spaniel and I meandered along the pathway of our local park in the heavily-Jewish suburb of Caulfield on a Saturday afternoon, I couldn’t help but notice these hooded young men.

They were hunched over in deep conversation – then their gaze met mine.

Was I being neurotic?

I’ve been told I look ‘Jewish’ – whatever that means. I proudly wear a Star of David necklace – and no, I will not be hiding my identity, thank you.

These men were of similar age and appearance to those I saw just 24-hours prior, as my phone lit up with videos. The knife-wielding gangs of thugs, who hunted Jews on the streets of Amsterdam.

The screams of a young man cowering on the pavement while being kicked, desperately assuring his attackers he is not Jewish; another, bullied into shouting ‘Free Palestine’ as a mob beats him.

The fall of an older Jewish woman, kicked from behind.

The splash as Jewish bodies plunged into Amsterdam’s canals, in a frantic attempt to escape the violence.

The thud of a Jew hitting the bonnet of a car, to the excited shouts of the perpetrators.

It was straight out of 1938 Nazi Germany – Kristallnacht – or 1941 Iraq – the Farhud which devastated Baghdad’s huge Jewish community.

Jews bashed and often killed on the street.

And here is the thing about fear: sometimes it’s rational, sometimes it’s just… fear.

But this is the reality of the world to which I have been forced to adapt in the wake of Hamas’ October 7 terror atrocities, as my community suffers through an ever-increasing scourge of Jewish hate worldwide, including here in my beloved city of Melbourne.

Why? Because the Jewish state dared to defend its citizens against the radical Islamists who breached its border and butchered 1,200 people – the elderly, men, women, children, the disabled and babies – and kidnapped 251 into Gaza as hostages.

Cue the abuse, discrimination, denialism, intimidation, vandalism, gaslighting, doxxing and violence against Jews erupting across Europe, the US, Canada, Latin America, and yes, Australia.

And as a Jewish woman, I am all too aware of how sexual violence has been weaponised as an antisemitic hate crime too.

In June, a 12-year-old girl was raped in Paris – because she was Jewish.

The many accounts of gang-rape – to the point of shattered pelvises and genital mutilation – inflicted upon Israeli women on October 7; and the sexual assault of female hostages will forever haunt me.

This is in addition to the threats that dictate how all women live their lives: You know, you really should drive with a friend to dinner so you don’t have to walk back to the car alone. Yes, go for that walk – but only before sundown. And make sure a mate keeps tabs on you when you’re alone in the Uber, or on a date.

Jill Meagher, Eurydice Dixon, Aiia Maasarwe are more than names of women who never made it home. They were daughters, sisters, partners and friends; their memory and cruel ends forever carried in the hearts and minds of Australian women.

But there is a particular vulnerability that comes with being not only an Australian woman, but one who belongs to an ethno-religious minority currently attracting profound hate worldwide.

It’s part of a collective memory that courses through the blood of every Jew. The Jew never ‘wandered’; the Jew fled – for their life – since being forced from their ancestral land of Israel and into exile: first by the Babylonians in 586 BCE; again in 70 CE by the Romans; and having pinballed between pogroms across the globe ever since.

So, was I sickened by the vision from Amsterdam, and the intergenerational trauma it evoked? Yes. Viscerally.

But was I shocked? No. And if it’s a shock to you, wake up.

This is what happens when unchecked hate is left to fester; and what it means to ‘Globalise the Intifada’.

More antisemitic riots have since broken out in Amsterdam, and Jews have been attacked in Sweden, Belgium and France too.

Such hatred does not occur in a vacuum. Home to the largest number of Holocaust survivors anywhere outside of Israel, Australian Jews know this deeply.

We know the demonisation of a people is a calculated campaign of dehumanisation – driven by insidious language, propaganda and misinformation – designed to strip away identity and devalue us as a people.

It descends to such depths when leaders don’t lead, when governments don’t govern, and when police don’t police. When businesses ignore bigotry. When universities trivialise. When media misreports.

When it’s #MeToo – unless you’re a Jew.

And when international bodies, like the United Nations, have within their ranks those who are terrorists themselves.

Then suddenly you find yourself, a Jewish Australian woman in your mid-30s taking a walk on a lazy Saturday, asking, do those men ahead see me as a target?

And if they do, will anyone care?

Rebecca Davis is a Journalist and Digital Media Editor at Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC).