Aussies in Tel Aviv rally against Australian Palestine recognition, antisemitism: ‘Protect your mates’

Some three dozen Australian-Israelis and their supporters rally outside the Australian embassy in Tel Aviv to protest what they describe as Canberra’s complacency toward antisemitism and appeasement of terrorism.

Protesters cite a series of violent incidents against Jews in Australia and accuse Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong of giving a reward for the Hamas-led onslaught of October 7, 2023, by announcing plans to recognize a Palestinian state this month.

Bearing Australian and Israeli flags, protesters chant “Am Yisrael Chai” and “Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi Oi Oi,” as well as “Protect your mates, no terror state.” Some passing drivers honk in approval.

“This is a protest for all Aussies, no matter where you are,” says Michael Frum, one of the organizers.

Lisa Segelov, who has engaged in pro-Israel public diplomacy in Australian media since the October 7 attack, says there has been an “infiltration and normalization of terror in Australia,” and that the relationship between Israel and Australia has “hit an all-time low.”

Jews in Australia are now “afraid to wear a kippa, afraid to wear a Magen David, afraid to put a mezuza on their door, afraid to walk their children home from Jewish day school,” says Segelov, describing the situation as a departure from the “Australian values” of mutual respect that she and her classmates were taught decades ago.

Segelov and Frum both cite the arson attack at the Adass Israel synagogue in Melbourne last year, which Albanese, Wong and the Australian intelligence chief condemned and blamed last week on Iran.

Frum, clad in an Australian cricket jersey, tells The Times of Israel that he thinks the Australian government has known for some time about Iranian antisemitic plots, and went public with the accusation only after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “called out” Albanese for being “weak.”

Frum also accuses the Albanese government of having failed to arrest people who allegedly chanted “gas the Jews” at an anti-Israel rally outside the Sydney Opera House on October 9, 2023, two days after the Hamas-led attack.

In February 2024, Australian police said analysis of footage from the protest indicated there had been no such chant by protesters. The Zionist Federation of Australia responded at the time that, in any case, other antisemitic chants were heard at the rally.