So, we’ve Melbournised the Intifada. Now what?

By Tahli Blicblau, CEO - The Dor Foundation
Read the article online at The Australian

On Thursday, social media erupted with calls to boycott a Melbourne restaurant – not for its food or service, but because its owner was linked to the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

Activists widely shared the Hardware Lane address, accompanied by calls for protest and more.

By Friday night, that protest had turned violent. A mob stormed the restaurant, hurling chairs, food and glassware and parroting the disgraceful chants heard at the Glastonbury music festival. That same night, a 150-year-old Melbourne synagogue was torched while families ate a Sabbath meal inside.

Every week, protesters march through the streets of Melbourne calling for intifada and revolution, and this is amplified online. Who could be surprised that calls for uprising would lead to actual uprising? These acts have had no impact on Israeli policy, but they have intensified feelings of anxiety and exclusion within an Australian minority already feeling besieged.

Within hours, there was bipartisan condemnation of Friday night’s events from the highest level of government: The Prime Minister, Opposition Leader, Victorian Premier and others calling the attack on the synagogue “shocking”, “disgraceful”, “abhorrent” or “horrifying”, and calling for the perpetrators to face the full force of the law.

At least one person has been arrested so far. These responses are necessary. But they are no longer sufficient. The pattern has played out with painful predictability since October 2023 while the number and severity of incidents continues to rise.

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry reported a record 2062 anti-Semitic incidents in the 12 months to September 2024, an increase of 316 per cent on the previous year, and more than six times the average number of incidents per year, over the preceding decade.

A reduction strategy based only, or principally, on responding to incidents with condemnation, investigation and prosecution does little to deter or prevent anti-Semitic attacks from occurring in the first place; just as arresting drunk drivers or drug traffickers would be insufficient to reduce harm without roadside breath tests, public health campaigns or drug diversion programs.

Australia’s anti-Semitism crisis needs a national reframe: from reacting to preventing; from responding to reducing. And that begins with understanding the broader system in which hate flourishes, in the physical world and online, and co-ordinating efforts to disrupt it.

By the time a person is setting fire to a synagogue, or hurling furniture at a waiter, it is too late to reach them. We must reach people before harmful beliefs become harmful actions.

Before taking on the role of inaugural chief executive of The Dor Foundation, an organisation established to combat anti-Semitism and hate in Australia, my career focused on preventing, reducing and disrupting serious and organised crime and terrorism. Investigation after investigation felt like a tireless game of whack-a-mole: arresting criminal kingpins and dismantling their transnational syndicates, only to be faced with new groups deploying new tactics to circumvent law enforcement.

In the case of organised crime, it was the greed of suppliers coupled with the insatiable demand of consumers, and a legal system that prosecuted offenders rather than removed their incentive to offend in the first place. We started to make traction when we followed the money – simultaneously attacking both the motive and the enabler of the offending.

Anti-Semitism is more complex. It is an ancient conspiracy theory that has once again moved from the radical fringes to penetrate the mainstream. Our job is to force it back to the shameful margins, to make it unacceptable again.

Harm prevention models tell us there are “pinch points” where intervention is possible. Anti-Semites are advertising their position loud and proud on social media and in protests on the streets – and we are not listening.

Last year, more than 2000 Australians were surveyed as part of a national social acceptance study. They listed respect, equality and tolerance among the top Australian values, and considered multiculturalism to be a core feature of an ideal Australia. But younger Australians were confused about how these values applied to the Jewish community.

They didn’t recognise anti-Semitic tropes when they were presented, and they had lower positive associations of the Jewish community than their older counterparts, attributed to a lack of familiarity with Jewish people, history and culture, and to negative views of the military actions of the Jewish state. This is a warning bell that younger Australians are trending away. Declining social acceptance is a long way from violent attacks, but behaviour operates on a continuum. If sentiment starts to shift, behaviour will follow.

To prevent and reduce anti-Semitism in the long term – rather than simply respond to its physical manifestations – we need a co-ordinated national strategy that includes education, advocacy, civil society partnerships and systemic reforms. We must invest in evidence-based interventions that target the drivers of hate in the physical world and online. And we must critically and forensically measure our impact.

Condemnation and prosecution must continue, but they are not a plan – they are a last line of defence. We need to strengthen the frontline with prevention through holistic solutions that build tolerance, respect and critical thinking.

This moment demands more than fury, it demands foresight. It’s time to move forward.

Tahli Blicblau is Chief Executive Officer of The Dor Foundation, a national not-for-profit, nonpartisan organisation launched in 2025 to combat rising anti-Semitism and hate in Australia.

Tanya Cherny