It is quite evident there’s increased antisemitism across Australia, in fact the world. The Royal Commission is asking ‘Has it increased?’.
Sadly, Blind Billy or Blonde Barbie could tell you that.
The Royal Commission should stop immediately, or ask the real question: ‘What is causing this increase in antisemitism?’
The Royal Commission should be looking at all racist, sexist, homophobic and religious-based actions and associated hate crimes, not just those against Australia’s fabulous Jewish community.
We were all shocked when Hamas attacked Israel and killed over 1,000 people. This increased compassion for the Jewish community.
Subsequent events reversed this. The Zionist state sponsored decimation of Gaza’s innocent population (‘back to the stone ages’, as Trump said about Iran).
There are ongoing targeted attacks by the armed forces after three years, and a make-believe ceasefire amid ongoing restriction of aid, food and humanity.
This inevitably turned a once-positive feeling for the Jewish community into a building hatred.
It did not stop there. The Zionist apartheid regime in the West Bank (designed to stop a two-state solution) involves the murder of civilians, journalists and medical staff plus theft of land and houses, deaths in numbers more than the 2023 Hamas attack. Like Vietnam and Tiananmen Square, it’s on the TV, and has sickened thinking Australians.
All Australia’s political parties (Greens excepted) show their lack of moral leadership by their failure to condemn the Israeli government (perhaps for fear of being seen as antisemitic). We hated the Germans pre-WW2, because of Hitler’s similar actions.
The state government laws to stop protests about the Gaza and Lebanon position have further exacerbated this situation, and has resulted in limited free speech.
The continued bombing of Lebanon and its hospitals schools, journalists and infrastructure plus the annexation of Southern Lebanon, despite a supposed ceasefire that included Israel, the USA and Iran, only exacerbates the problem, as their agreements are nothing but ‘weasel words’.
There are calls by Zionists and lobbied parliamentarians to make the below statements, hate crimes, and I call it out as a breach of free speech.
Being pro-Palestine is not antisemitic. Being anti-Zionist is not antisemitic.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
