Australia's Newly-Appointed Antisemitic Envoy To Develop National Strategy Against Prejudice
Australia's newly-appointed antisemitic envoy, Jillian Segal AO, said she will be coordinating with communities and governments to form a national strategy on educating about and combating antisemitism in the present world.
At the World Jewish Congress in Argentina, next week, Segal will be interacting with convoys from other nations to combat antisemitism.
Since the Gaza war began last October, antisemitism has been normalized, Segal stated, and that antisemitic material has been spreading rapidly on social media platforms, The Guardian reported.
"We have been blessed to live in a country with no history of antisemitic laws or institutional persecution of Jewish Australians but the world is changing," Segal said.
Community groups have documented a steep rise in Islamophobia and antisemitism since the Hamas attack and the Israeli bombardment in Gaza.
The federal government will soon appoint an envoy to combat Islamophobia.
While announcing Segal's appointment at the Sydney Jewish Museum on Tuesday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Jewish Australians cannot be held responsible for actions by the Netanyahu government.
"I have spoken with members of the Jewish community here [in Sydney], in Melbourne, right around Australia, who have not felt safe – members of the Jewish community whose children are worried about wearing their school uniform in our capital cities," he said. "That's not acceptable – not acceptable, ever, and certainly not in Australia in 2024."
Albanese added that the Middle East crisis has caused distress to the Jewish, Islamic and Palestine communities around Australia, but "do not want the conflict brought here."
"The conflict that is occurring in the Middle East, that has caused a great deal of grief for the Jewish community, for members of the Islamic and Palestinian communities – Australians overwhelmingly do not want conflict brought here."
The Jewish Council of Australia, which supports an independent Palestine state, was apprehensive about Segal's appointment, whom they called an "Israel lobbyist," ABC reported.
"We are concerned this anti-Semitism envoy will fail to distinguish between Jewishness and support for Israel. This risks erasing the large number of Jewish people in Australia who, like us, believe in Palestinian freedom and justice and are opposed to Israel's violence against Palestinians," the group said.
However, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ), the peak representative body of the Australian Jewish community, welcomed her appointment.
"We have seen antisemitism rear its ugly head on Australian campuses, in schools, in the media and social media, in the arts and culture sector and other parts of society," ECAJ president Daniel Aghion KC said.
Segal had opposed foreign affairs minister Penny Wong's demand for a ceasefire in Gaza stating that unless Hamas is ousted, a ceasefire would endanger Israel.
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