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How antisemitism is becoming acceptable (July 2009)
(Deborah Stone, Australian Jewish News)
The child is about five years. She has a pink blouse and the soft chubby cheeks of an infant. She wears a white hijab and carries a black message: a swastika crudely painted with the words, “The Jews haven’t learnt. They need more than before.” For those of us who monitor antisemitism, this is the image of the year. The photograph was taken in Melbourne, during a march to protest Israel’s action in Gaza in January. It captures much of the essence of 21st century antisemitism: a crude mixture of old hates and new means.
Antisemitism is still being taught and learned. This child is too young to know the meaning of her banner. But she is flanked by adults who have used a demonstration about the actions of a tiny country on the other side of the world to scrawl a crude threat to every Jewish Australian. What makes this image so terrifying is that it illustrates with rare simplicity that biggest threat now faced by Jews the world over: the slippage from criticism of Israel to antisemitism.
We're all in this together (June 2009)
(Deborah Stone, Australian Jewish News)
Another time, another place: In 1939 the German Jewish Aid Committee in London, terrified that racism would spread from Nazi Germany, issued a letter of advice to new migrants. Do not speak your native language in public. Speak quietly. Dress conventionally. Do not make yourself conspicuous. The letter has always seemed to me a mark of another time – paranoid, dated and sad. But it echoed uncomfortably recently when one Inspector Scott Mahony of Brimbank Police offered some advice to Indian students in the wake of recent attacks. “They need to make sure they walk through a well-lit route, even if it might be longer, and they are not openly displaying signs of wealth with iPods and phones, and not talking loudly in their native language," says Inspector Scott Mahony, of Brimbank Police.
Sorry? Let’s get this clear. In Melbourne a young man is in critical condition in hospital after being severely beaten. An Asian academic was murdered by gang members who stated their intention to go “curry bashing”. A disproportionate number of victims of violent robberies are Indian students…and the police recommend potential victims keep their heads down and speak English.
Using interfaith to fight terrorism (December 2008)
(Deborah Stone, Australian Jewish News)
The argument for multifaith is not about changing terrorists’ minds. Rather it is about fighting the extremists for the vast territory of the uncommitted. The potential terrorist does not begin as a single-minded ideologue. More likely he (usually he) is young and looking for meaning. He may be disadvantaged, poorly educated and resentful of his class position. But equally likely he is university-educated, intelligent and attracted to passion and the big picture. He follows international politics and is susceptible to the charisma not only of individuals but of big ideas. He longs for a community of like-minded people. He wants to believe in something and he wants to do something. He is psychologically primed to embrace extremism.
Hate on the internet (June 2008)
(Deborah Stone, Australian Jewish News)
There are multiple conditions which make it difficult, arguably impossible, to control defamatory material on the net including a complex chain of responsibility, difficulty in identifying perpetrators, geographical limitations on jurisdiction which in no way reflects the reality of a global technology and the ease and speed of changing and moving material in marked contrast to the plodding pace of enforcement. In effect, disseminators are like criminals driving very fast cars chased by police on donkeys. But we can slow and challenge the spread of hate through a combination of regulatory and social mechanisms
The world's inexcusable antipathy to Darfur (02 May 2007)
The image is so poignant it is heartbreaking. A group of Sudanese refugees walk the halls of the Israeli Holocaust memorial at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, studying pictures of the European genocide before and after World War II. For these refugees from the Darfur region of western Sudan, who crossed into Israel through the Egyptian desert, no memorial is needed, at least not yet. Like the Jews they have also suffered a genocide, but unlike them it is happening today.
Feiz Mohammed's Hate DVDs (19 April 2007)
Surely no sensible person would speak in favour of a DVD that urges children to martyrdom, calls for a war between Islam and the West, and labels Jews “an army of pigs”.
Yvonne Ridley's accusation of Islamophobia (07 April 2007)
Two stories recently reported in these pages have intersected to remind us that sometimes words are weapons and should be confronted before they take hold.
Sheik Hilaly's reinstatement (27 March 2007)
Absurdity has turned into reality in the serial drama that envelops Sheik Hilaly, the holder of the pre-eminent clerical post in the Australian Muslim community.
Israel's negative influence on the world (07 March 2007)
According to a BBC World survey poll, as reported in these pages, the two countries with the most negative effect on the world are Iran and ...
Ancient Purim Modern Iran (06 March 2007)
This week Jews around the world celebrate their most festive holiday, Purim, which recounts the deliverance of Persian Jews 2500 years ago from extermination at the hands of the viciously antisemitic Prime Minister Haman. Whether the story is a fiction or not, it nevertheless has a compelling real-world counterpart as we again look East towards the Persia of today, the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Response to Irfan Yusaf comparison between Prof Israeli and Sheik Hilaly:
(22 Feb 2007)
Sometimes you find yourself on the horns of a dilemma, faced with two equally unpleasant options with no inclination to prefer either. And so it is with any response to the article by lawyer Irfan Yusuf attacking recent remarks made by visiting academic Professor Israeli... | 
Antisemitism 
