Executive Council of Australian Jewry leader Alex Ryvchin calls on Australians to fight antisemitism one year on from Hamas October 7 attack
Written by admin on October 7, 2024
The leader of Australia’s largest Jewish community organisation has called for ordinary Australians to fight the “hatred” of what he has called rising antisemitism a year on from the horrific October 7 attack by Hamas.
Alex Ryvchin made the comments in Sydney on Monday while marking a year since the devastating attack on Israel by the Islamist group, who killed 1200 people and took hundreds more hostage into Gaza.
The attack kicked off a bloody conflict between the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and Hamas, with more than 40,000 Palestinians killed during the offensive.
Mr Ryvchin, the co-chief executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, said October 7 was a day Jewish people would “never forget”.
Since the attacks, over 1800 incidents of antisemitism have been recorded in Australia – marking an increase of more than 300 per cent from the previous year’s numbers, he said.
“Beyond the scale and sheer number of the atrocities, it is the scenes, the images which will stay with us forever,” Mr Ryvchin said to a crowd in Sydney.
Mr Ryvchin referred to the death of 22-year-old Israeli tattoo artist Shani Louk, who was killed at the Nova music festival just as gunmen launched their attack, and the kidnapping of soldier Naama Levy from army observation post near the Gaza border.
“We saw things on that day we never thought we’d see again,” he said.
“According to Jewish tradition, a year after an event of trauma and loss, we are compelled to cease our mourning.
“But it’s impossible not to mourn, when 101 Israelis remain in that hell.”
Amid heightened tensions in Australia over conflict, Mr Ryvchin said it was “incumbent” upon all Australians to “fight this hatred”.
“It cannot be the Jewish community alone standing up to this,” he said.
“This is a national problem which requires a national solution.”
Pro-Palestine protestors are also preparing to mark October 7 with their own demonstrations, as thousands of people prepare to flood the streets of Sydney and Melbourne.
Over the weekend, passionate crowds marched through Sydney’s CBD, calling for Australia to cut ties with Israel.
A similar protest is planned at the Lakemba town hall later this evening.
The new spate of protests follow Australia’s Ambassador to Iran, Ian McConville, being summoned by the regime over what they claim are “repeated biased positions” on the Middle East conflict.
Iran is a backer of both Hamas and Hezbollah – a southern Lebanon terrorist group which began firing rockets at civilian areas in northern Israel last month.
Israel ramped up action against the group with a rocket barrage which killed most of it’s upper echelon – including Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah – and some embedded Iranian military officials.
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Anthony Albanese and his federal cabinet have repeatedly said Israel has the right to defend itself after Iran’s initial missile attack, and have said they would not mourn senior Hezbollah and Hamas figures killed in the conflict.
“In light of the repeated biased positions of the Australian government, which are contrary to the principles of international law regarding recent regional developments, (Ian) McConville, the Australian Ambassador to Tehran, was summoned to the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs by the Director General for Asia and Oceania of the ministry,” Iran’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday (local time).
The ministry said the official who grilled Mr McConville “expressed strong objection to the unjustified and biased positions of the Australian government regarding regional developments and the adventurism of the Zionist regime in escalating regional tensions”.
