Sydney Morning Herald, 11 May 2026
‘Is this 2023 Australia, or 1933 Berlin?’ Deborah Conway stunned by pro-Palestinian protesters
By Alexandra Smith and Angus Dalton
From The Sydney Morning Herald
Tahli Blicblau, chief executive of The Dor Foundation – which aims to combat antisemitism on university campuses and online – said antisemitism had been rising well before October 7, 2023.
Blicblau, a former counterterror expert with the NSW Crime Commission, told the commission most Australians cannot recognise antisemitic tropes, and people were increasingly less willing to have Jewish friends.
She said events in Australia on October 8, the day after Hamas’ attack in Israel, marked a pivotal moment.
“On that evening, there was a protest gathering in Western Sydney, where the events of the seventh of October were described as a day of pride and courage, one of elation,” she said.
“Cars were driving through Western Sydney, setting off fireworks. That glorification of violence that night, at a time when Israel was still counting its dead, really set the tone for a permissive environment in which glorifying violence was accepted and permissible.”