Neo-Nazi rally exposes Aussie moral breakdown

Just as Jewish Australians dared to hope that the unprecedented epidemic of antisemitism which has rocked their country since 7 October 2023 might dissipate, neo-Nazis were given free rein to parade their vitriol in the heart of Sydney. 

Right outside the state Parliament, no less. Is this the new normal? Is this a new reality for Jewish Australians? 

The black-clad group, comprising about 60 men, were members of the hardline National Socialist Network. They displayed a banner which read “Abolish the Jewish lobby”, pernicious code for denigrating the Jewish community. According to reports, they said “the Jewish lobby is one of the most powerful lobbies in Australia. They bribe our politicians, they coerce our politicians.” And they concluded by chanting the Hitler Youth slogan, “Blood and honour!” 

The premier of New South Wales, Chris Minns, condemned the rally as “despicable”, saying “We don’t want to tolerate – and don’t believe we should tolerate – a city where white-power hatred, naked antisemitism, and racism is on Sydney streets.” There needs to be a distinct demarcation between free speech and hate speech, Minns stressed. 

Opposition leader Mark Speakman, blasted the rally as “a new low when it comes to racism and bigotry”, describing the participants as “thugs dressed in black shirts reminiscent of fascism and Nazism in the 1930s”. And Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon cited “a breakdown in communication” within the police which led to approval for the rally being granted, and undertook to review the footage to ascertain whether any law had been broken. 

Needless to say, the Jewish community is outraged that a brazen antisemitic rally was granted approval, and its leadership responded accordingly. 

The deeply disturbing question is why powers which were introduced three months ago specifically to ban incitement of race hatred weren’t enforced. They make it an offence to intentionally incite hatred against a person or group based on race, and the rally clearly met that criterion. A senior police officer said there was no risk to public safety. What about the safety of the Jewish community? 

The rally took place the same week that Australia’s security chief, Mike Burgess, warned of the threat to social cohesion which is permeating the nation, from universities to the workplace to the street, cautioning that “inflammatory rhetoric and provocative, disruptive actions have been normalised”. 

It coincided also with the anniversary of Kristallnacht, which marked the onset of the Holocaust in November 1938, with a poignant, albeit tangential, Australian connection when Aboriginal leader William Cooper led a delegation to the German Consulate in Melbourne to protest the treatment of Jews in Germany. 

Cooper’s rare moral clarity concerning the plight of people thousands of miles away and at a time when indigenous Australians weren’t even regarded as people by their own country is sorely needed now. Before the latest assault on Australia’s once-vaunted multicultural ethos becomes the new normal. 

• Dr Vic Alhadeff is former chief executive of the NSW  Jewish Board of Deputies, and former chairperson of Multicultural NSW  in Sydney, Australia.