Israel’s ambassador to Australia, HILLEL NEWMAN, sets out the shocking signs as evidence that Australia’s antisemitism cannot be excused or hidden as anything but obsessive Jew-hatred. The following are extracts from his column in The Australian (9 July, 2026).
It is sad to say this, but the truth must be said. Throughout my 26-year career as an Israeli diplomat I have never seen such levels of hatred of Israel, and of Jews, as I experience and witness here in Australia.
His Excellency Hillel Newman, Ambassador of Israel to Australia
I served as ambassador in two Muslim countries. Yet I did not see these levels of hatred. The non-radicalised and unpoliticised Muslims understood the issues and showed more understanding than the obsessive herds on the streets of Australia calling for Israel’s annihilation and protesting against Israel’s existence.
What we see on the streets of Australian cities is not legitimate criticism of policy decisions, it is pure antisemitic hatred. Hostility once directed at individual Jews is increasingly transposed on to the collective Jewish national experience – that is, on to the state of Israel. When antisemitism presented itself in the raw appearance of racial hatred, conspiracy theories, Holocaust denial and neo-Nazi manifestations, it became undeniable. So, we now see contemporary antisemitism presenting itself in more socially acceptable ways that allow deniability.
Although one cannot always prove motives, hatred is identifiable. When so-called moral activists chant hate slogans, reveal double standards, display hypocrisy and resort to distorting reality, this is a sign. When they demand conformity, bully those who do not conform, demonise the state of Israel, reduce complex realities to simplistic anti-Israel narratives, this is a sign.
When Israel and Jews become the object of disproportionate hostility, fixation or moral obsession, this is a sign. When Israel is judged by standards applied to no other nation or when Jewish self-determination (Zionism) is considered uniquely illegitimate, this is a sign.
One clear and obvious sign was the demonstration opposite Sydney Opera House only days after the brutal Hamas massacre in Israel. According to reports, demonstrators chanted “Gas the Jews”. This predated Israel’s incursion into Gaza. So, what were they protesting? They were celebrating the slaughter of 1200 Israelis and Jews.
The fact these protests predate Israel’s self-defensive operation in Gaza disproves their dishonest attempts to attribute care for the Gazans as the reason for their protests. They were supporting the killing of Jews. Period.
When people march and chant “From the river to the sea”, they are not expressing legitimate criticism of Israel’s policies. They are not supporting coexistence and a two-state solution. They are calling for the annihilation of the state of Israel. That is a sign.
When they manipulate pictures of Palestinian children stricken with illnesses, falsely portraying them as starved by Israel, neglecting to mention, of course, that these children were treated in Israeli hospitals, then this is a sign.
When people claim to go on a voyage to deliver urgent aid to Gazans but refuse the legal operative channels and fail to carry any significant aid, that is a sign. If people demonstrate against Israel, engaged in a self-defence operation, but neglect to protest against Iran, which butchered more than 40,000 of its own people, or neglect to even mention half a million casualties in Syria, or ignore the butchering of minorities in Syria, or ignore the plight of Palestinians perpetuated in refugee camps in Lebanon and Syria, then one should understand that it is not human care driving them but selective human hatred.
When people promote and support the connection Indigenous Australians have to land, history and ancestry yet deny and refuse to recognise the historic connection between the Jews and the land of Israel, as documented in the Bible, archaeological artifacts and literature, this is a sign.