In Canberra, a Palestinian teenager is called a terrorist. In Melbourne, a Muslim man picks up the phone to face a torrent of abuse. In Adelaide, a man puts a sign saying “death to Israel” in his yard.
As war between Israel and Hamas escalates, and the death toll rises, Australian communities are facing echoes of tension from across the globe. There have been death threats, abuse hurled in the streets, and alleged assaults, leaving Australian Arabic and Jewish communities nervous and distressed.
Both the Islamophobia Register Australia and the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) have spoken of terrifying surges in reports, as the national intelligence agency warns of “spontaneous violence” in Australia, sparked by the war in the Middle East.
The Islamophobia Register Australia reported a quadrupling of reports since the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel.
“Divisive rhetoric by people in leadership positions is irresponsible and dangerous, and clearly has an impact on domestic tensions,” the executive director, Sharara Attai, says.
The Australia Palestine Advocacy Network executive officer, Jessica Morrison, says they are hearing “lots of stories from lots of young people” being targeted, particularly at school, and that the community is “distressed” by the discourse about Palestinians.
“Younger Palestinian people at the moment are feeling very uncomfortable because of what’s going on,” she says.
Julie Nathan, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry’s research director, says one antisemitic incident was reported in the week before the 7 October attack. In the week after, there were 37.
“[This] number is expected to multiply once all the incidents come in for that week,” she says.
“Some of these 37 incidents were of people calling for the killing of Jews, while many other incidents were verbal abuse of Jews on the streets and anti-Jewish graffiti.”
And there have been more since then, Nathan says.
“The spike in antisemitic incidents occurring in Australia since the massacre has added further trauma to members of the Jewish community in Australia,” she says.
“Not only are we still grieving for the loss of life … we are now having to contend with a spike in incidents of anti-Jewish hatred, including abuse and many calls for the killing of Jews, on our streets.”
On Wednesday, a third man was arrested and charged after the pro-Palestine rally in Sydney where chants including “fuck the Jews” and “fuck Israel” were heard. Police will allege that a man was assaulted and spat on during an argument near the Opera House.
The rally organisers condemned the actions of a tiny minority, while calling the opposition leader Peter Dutton’s comments about deporting people “dangerous, divisive, misleading and grossly irresponsible”.
Sarah is in year 11 at her Canberra school. She had to take a couple of days off because of the combined toll of the horrific events in Gaza, and horrific accusations of her peers.
“I speak for all Palestinians when I say we’ve been having a tough time,” she says.
“I’ve been getting a lot of messages on my social media. I posted an infographic about child casualties in Palestine and people replied with ‘you actively support terrorists’. I’ve had accusations like you support Hamas, are you Hamas?
“They’re calling us terrorists.”
At the Islamic Council of Victoria, staff answering the phones have faced outpourings of hate. Amir says the calls come in from a private number, and when staff pick them up, people start calling them slurs, using derogatory stereotypes.
“One guy calls me and says, ‘can I ask you a question?’,” he says.
“I say ‘sure, what’s up?’, and he says ‘why are you guys such animals?’ I say ‘I don’t understand’, and he just went berserk and started swearing.
“It’s just emotions churning through them, and they feel the need to act immediately – but that’s not the appropriate way to act.”
A Melbourne woman, worried about family and friends in Palestine, says the war in the Middle East means she is facing Islamophobic abuse here.
She has just opened a new cafe and usually has a chat and a laugh with customers. But then one of her regulars came in talking about “Gaza this, Gaza that, Hamas this, Hamas that” and “fuck all these Muslims, why are they here?”, and repeating claims about Hamas atrocities.
“It’s because of what they’ve heard on the news [but it’s] fake news,” she says.
In Adelaide, a man put an antisemitic sign in his yard, near a suburban school.
Chabad of South Australia’s Rabbi Yossi Engel says Jewish people are hesitant to wear Jewish symbols, and the Chabad has employed extra security. Engel says events such as the march in Sydney have heightened fears.
“It’s a general sense that Jews have around the world,” he says. “A sense they get from seeing the extent of people’s vehement antagonism against Israel, with a passion that they feel may spill over into action.
“The Australian way is respect, fair dinkum decency to one another. And when we saw something happen otherwise in Australia, we couldn’t help but worry that those things might happen, not only at the rally in Sydney but to Jews throughout Australia when they walk the streets, and when they voice their support.”
In a piece for Jewish news site J-Wire, Nathan wrote about the rallies in Sydney, including the “abhorrent” scenes at the Opera House; a carload of people in Melbourne who said they were “hunting for Jews”; death threats against a Melbourne rabbi; the antisemitic abuse of four teenagers in Bellevue Hill; and a Hitler salute outside the Sydney Jewish Museum in Sydney.
ECAJ itself was sent a death threat via Instagram, which read “we are coming for you soon, from western Sydney”, with an image of a man in orange clothing about to be beheaded by Islamic State.
The Asio chief, Mike Burgess, warned of “spontaneous violence” sparked by the war at a press conference with the FBI director, Christopher Way.
“We, of course, recognise this is a moment that drives feelings and attitudes in our respective countries and in Australia, so we’re on the lookout for that as we see protests and counter-protests … but we do anticipate spontaneous violence around these,” he said.
“We do see a direct correlation between language that inflames tension and out of that tension does grow a small number of people who think violence is the answer.”
On Monday, federal parliament condemned “all forms of hate speech”. “We have no room for antisemitism in this nation, just as we have no room for Islamophobia,” the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said.
Meanwhile, Australia’s Arabic and Jewish communities are feeling both helpless and determined to help.
Yoni Kalfus is the co-owner of Israeli bakery, Shuk, in the Sydney suburb of Bondi. His business partner, Ariel Hefer, is now in Israel, helping volunteer efforts run out of Haachim, a restaurant in Tel Aviv.
“The moment tragedy struck, they immediately began to prepare food … for people on the frontline, families, anyone that really needs it,” Kalfus says.
“One hundred other restaurants and suppliers have joined in the efforts, and volunteers have prepared up to 15,000 meals a day for 10 days.”
When the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade first announced its efforts to retrieve Australians from the region, “there wasn’t much mentioned whatsoever … about any attempts to do any evacuation of Palestinians who are Australian, let alone anybody from Gaza,” says Amin Abbas, a founding board member of Australian foundation for Palestinian children, Olive Kids.
“We had to put pressure on the government to try to do the job.”
“I was asking if there is anybody that needs help … stories started to emerge,” Abbas says.
His first point of contact was MPs with locals from their electorate in Gaza, “so that we can get their MPs to start doing some representation to the foreign affairs department”.
“We’ve been trying so hard to really coordinate that effort,” Abbas says. “We’ve been speaking to some of the people on the ground. Communication is really, really challenging.”
Contacting families via WhatsApp is difficult “due to lack of internet” and responses are sporadic, Abbas says. Direct phone calls work instead, but phones can only be charged every few days due to limited electricity.
“This is all that we can do,” he says. “I’m optimistic that we will at least be able to get some of the Australians out.
“But I’m not very optimistic about the other civilians in Gaza – basically the population of Gaza that is under attack. I’m not optimistic about that.”
• In Australia, support is available at Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636, Lifeline on 13 11 14, and at MensLine on 1300 789 978. In the UK, the charity Mind is available on 0300 123 3393 and Childline on 0800 1111. In the US, call or text Mental Health America at 988 or chat 988lifeline.org
