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How Australia Betrayed Its Jewish Community Right Before the High Holidays
Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks at a Labor party election night event, after local media projected the Labor Party’s victory, on the day of the Australian federal election, in Sydney, Australia, May 3, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Hollie Adams
Nearly two years after the horrors of October 7, 2023 — and just before the solemn days of Rosh Hashanah — Australia’s Jewish community was dealt another blow. At the very moment we gathered to pray for renewal, our government announced that it formally recognizes the State of Palestine. The timing was not just insensitive; it was cruel.
For Jews in Australia, this decision does not exist in isolation. It comes after two years of fear, resilience, and constant vigilance. We have seen antisemitism explode in our universities, workplaces, synagogues, and streets. Families are keeping children home from school out of fear. Parents are second-guessing whether it is safe to display a mezuzah or wear a Magen David. Students are told their very identity is a provocation.
Against that backdrop, our leaders smiled as they recognized a Palestinian state, presenting it as progress for peace. For Australian Jews, it felt like a dismissal of our pain. Rosh Hashanah is supposed to be a time of hope, yet many of us sat at our holiday tables with a sense of dread: that our own government, in pursuit of applause abroad, had chosen to undermine us at home. And as Yom Kippur approaches — the day of reflection, repentance, and renewal — we are left to ask ourselves: how can we seek peace in our hearts when the world around us insists on rewarding those who reject peace entirely?
The Jewish experience in Australia has always been about resilience. We are a small community, but a proud one. We have contributed in every sphere of Australian life while maintaining our heritage and our connection to Israel. Over the past two years, that pride has been shaken by fear. We walk into shul now looking over our shoulders. We drop our children off at Jewish schools with extra security guards on the gates. We watch rallies fill city centers with chants calling for the destruction of Israel, knowing those words carry a thinly veiled threat toward Jews everywhere.
Recognition of a Palestinian state in this climate feels like a validation of those who target us. It tells us that our suffering since October 7 does not matter. It rewards Palestinians for the Oct. 7 massacre. It says that the hostages still in Gaza do not matter, and that the comfort of being in step with international opinion matters more than the security of a small and vulnerable community at home.
What does this mean for the future? Among Jewish Australians, there is a quiet but real fear that this decision will fuel further hostility. If Israel’s legitimacy can be questioned so easily, how much more precarious is ours?
We know from bitter experience that what begins with attacks on Israel often finds its way to attacks on Jews in the Diaspora. We also worry about the erosion of trust. For decades, Australia was seen as a steady partner of Israel and a safe home for Jews. That reputation is now fractured. Many in our community feel abandoned by leaders who should have stood with us, but instead chose to make a gesture that legitimises violence and entrenches division.
And yet, even through the pain, there is clarity. Jewish Australians are resilient. We gathered for Rosh Hashanah this year with heavy hearts, but also with determination. We know who we are, and we know what we stand for. We stand for life, for community, for faith, for Israel. We stand against terror and against those who seek to erase us. This recognition may have shaken our confidence in our government, but it has not broken our spirit. If anything it has made us more determined to speak out, to educate, to organize, and to ensure that our children inherit a community that does not bend in the face of hostility.
We do not know what Canberra hoped to achieve with this move. But we know what it has achieved here: deeper wounds in a community already hurting, and a reminder that our safety and dignity cannot be taken for granted. Two years on from October 7, and as Yom Kippur approaches, we enter our holiest day of the year searching for forgiveness, for strength, and for renewal. But the question lingers: will our own leaders ever seek forgiveness for abandoning us when we needed them most?
Michael Gencher is the Executive Director of StandWithUs Australia, an international education organisation that supports Israel and fights antisemitism.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.