Indigenous Friends of Israel co-founders Norman and Barbara Miller have applauded Tuesday night’s Sky News documentary Never Again: The Fight Against Antisemitism hosted by former federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg. The Millers say, “The Never Again documentary was a defining moment for Australia when a number of prominent Australian leaders called out the alarming rise of antisemitism in Australia.”
“These included former Prime Ministers John Howard and Julia Gillard, the current Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader, Peter Dutton, a former Governor-General, Sir Peter Cosgrove, Denis Richardson, the former Director-General of Security for Australia, Catholic Archbishop Peter Comensoli and former Aboriginal ALP senator and Olympian Nova Peris.
“What is happening on our streets and in our universities with pro-Hamas protests is unAustralian and we need social cohesion, not division. We don’t want ethnic or religious conflicts from overseas threatening the multicultural fabric of our nation.
“As a network of Indigenous Australians, we support the view that the Jewish people are Indigenous to Israel, having had a presence of 4,000 years there and that the rebirth of the state of Israel in 1948 was a matter of decolonization not occupation. Arab Israelis interviewed on the Never Again documentary attested to Israel not being an apartheid state.
“Never Again is a phrase that arose after the Holocaust or Shoah when the world realized it could not allow the slaughter of 6 million Jews including 1.5 million children as well as millions of others, again. However, on October 7, we had the largest number of Jews since the Holocaust killed in one day – about 1200, mostly civilians, women, children, elderly, even Holocaust survivors. Unspeakable horrors occurred – mutilation, gang rape, killing of whole families, and brutal hostage taking.
“One of the key things that came out of the documentary is that Jews in Australia, including Holocaust survivors, are living in fear because of the violent protests occurring weekly on our streets, the boycotting and vandalization of Jewish businesses, the doxing and cancellation of Jewish creatives like Deborah Conroy, the hate-filled encampments on universities, the graffiti on schools like Mt Scopus so children are told not to wear their uniforms to Jewish schools and can’t play sport outside their heavily secured school grounds.
“We saw the heart-rending story of Maggie and Joshua Moshe who had to close their business after attacks on their business and death threats to them and their 5-year-old son. We heard the moving comments of Holocaust survivors like Egon Sonnenschein and others who found a safe haven in Australia only to see 1930’s Germany repeated in Australia and the failure of our leaders – government, universities, and law enforcement – to do anything about it.
“Many ordinary Australians are saying this is not the Australia they know with calls by pro-Hamas supporters for the genocide of the Jewish state and people e.g. ‘Gas the Jews’ and ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ which is basically calling for a one-state solution. Support for Hamas, a designated terrorist group, and protestors dressing like terrorists has been shocking.
“The anti-Israel protest occurred before Israel had defended itself from the October 7 attack. As the documentary pointed out, there was a 738% increase in antisemitism in Australia in the eight weeks after October 7 and it is still rising.
“We need to stand up and be counted and not be intimidated as in Nazi Germany. In Australia today, it is the left, especially the green left, who have fallen for the Jew-hatred, dehumanizing, and deceptive narrative. Let us protect Australia from this hatred and preserve the freedoms that have been hard won, including the freedom to disagree respectfully and peacefully.
We need more moral clarity and action from our leaders who have been too slow to act, letting things get out of hand. We also need better education in our schools and universities so that students don’t become indoctrinated with a false narrative that is not historically factual.
Would we really want Hitler to be proud of Australia? Sir Peter Cosgrove said, ‘What’s happening today in Australia … Hitler would be proud.’ Let’s change that shocking assessment of our nation together.
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