In case you hadn’t heard, there is currently a Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion taking place in Australia, as a result of the Bondi massacre.
Also, in case you hadn’t heard, this means bugger all to the Jew-haters in Australia, who continue spreading hate about Jews and – in some cases – to Jews. No matter what ages their victims.
Jody Scarcella, 42, was banned by NSW Netball from attending any courts or games after police received reports of “offensive comments” during a match between Maccabi Netball Club and Saints Netball Club.
Police were called to the match at Heffron Park in Maroubra on Saturday. Officers did not arrest Scarcella but charged her with using offensive language near a school or public place.
Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin, who arrived at the courts shortly after the incident, said the woman had said “f— the Jews” and suggested they should be “eradicated”.
“What makes this incident unique is not the element of serious racial abuse or that it was done in a family setting in the presence of kids. Such incidents occur all the time,” Ryvchin told this masthead.
“It was unique because those directly affected by it stood up to it, took appropriate action, and held this person to account.”
Believe it or not, this allegedly hateful woman has told the media said is “scared”. From who? Those devilish Jews who are constantly physically attacking non-Jews? Please, she is no victim here. And how does she think those Jewish children felt hearing her vile words? How does she think they – and all Jewish Australians – feel in general following the rise in antisemitism culminating in the Bondi attack?
But it’s not just her (allegedly). Some of the bystanders also disgraced themselves.
A video broadcast by Sky News shows a second dispute between an unidentified man and Mr Ryvchin, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive, and his wife.
The man tells Mr Ryvchin to “just deal with it” and suggests they should “let the kids deal with it, sort it out”.
“The mum said ‘Jews should be eradicated’,” Mr Ryvchin says.
“Just deal with it, now you’re trying to create another concern, walk away,” the man replies.
The exchange escalates when Ms Ryvchin asks the man if the mother’s alleged comments that Jews should be eradicated are acceptable. The man tells Ms Ryvchin he did not say or hear the remarks.
As Ms Ryvchin continues to ask whether he thinks there is any scenario in which the comments are acceptable, the man tells her to “put your phone away, don’t film me”, then reaches to grab the device or knock it away.
Mr Ryvchin then steps in and says: “Don’t touch my wife.”
As did some who would probably claim they are only criticizing Israel:
Thankfully, Jody Scarcella et al. do not represent the average Australian, more of whom are beginning to understand what Jews are going through. Like Alexandra Smith, senior writer at the Sydney Morning Herald, who wrote this piece:
I am not Jewish. That, I discovered at the weekend, does not make my family immune from antisemitism.
I spent last week inside a windowless room in an office tower on Sydney’s Clarence Street, listening to and reporting on devastating stories from Jewish Australians about their lived experience of antisemitism. Many of the stories relayed to the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion in its first block of public hearings were truly horrifying.
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Many times I was close to tears as I heard of young children being subjected to Nazi salutes and swastikas in the playground, or having a police escort on a school excursion. A Holocaust survivor warned that the rise of antisemitism in Australia was “not a faint echo of a distant past”. A gay Jewish man thought he might be killed in Sydney’s Mardi Gras parade, and a university student said she was kicked out of her share house for Zionist views.
As shocking as these stories were, they were removed from my experience. There are no armed guards at my kids’ schools. I do not need to make adjustments to my jewellery choices when I leave my house. I feel safe in my neighbourhood.
And then I saw antisemitism first-hand.
My daughter plays netball for the Jewish club Maccabi. After some particularly nasty netball politics at another club, my daughter and her teammates needed to find a new club on the eve of the winter season. It was Maccabi that came to our rescue.
The girls, all of whom but two attend Jewish schools, were adamant they would not go to Maccabi if the non-Jews were not welcome. They moved as a team or not at all. Maccabi did not bat an eyelid, welcomed us with open arms, and the girls’ seemingly doomed winter season was saved.
I arrived on Saturday at their first game for their new club to see several NSW Police officers standing near the Maccabi game day tent. “Jews even need police at netball”, I messaged my husband, feeling very naive. A Jewish mum from our team hadn’t clocked the police. She is conditioned to seeing armed guards and law enforcement outside schools and synagogues.
But I was wrong. The police had been called because a mother in a team playing Maccabi had allegedly hurled antisemitic bile from the court sidelines. This, I must stress, happened during an under 12s game. One of the Maccabi mums told me that a player from our club may have used a choice word towards her opponents. Sure, not appropriate.
But for an adult to retaliate with such hatred was beyond the pale. “F— the Jews,” several witnesses reported the mother from the Saints Netball Club saying. She allegedly finished her tirade with “they should have been eradicated”. On Sunday, police charged her with offensive language in a public place. She is due to face court on June 17.
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I watched on, incredibly saddened, as one of the mums could barely manage to keep the score for our team because she was so shaken by what had taken place. Others shared video footage of the altercation that took place between the woman and Maccabi parents after the alleged outburst. Several asked: “How could this happen in the middle of the royal commission?”
But perhaps the most confronting moment was when one of the Jewish mums apologised to me. “I am so sorry your daughter is exposed to this,” Bec Abraham said. “Our girls are used to it, but your daughter doesn’t deserve this.” Her grace was astounding. My daughter loves her teammates. She has been to bat mitzvahs and considers them friends. But she is not exposed to the increasingly hurtful world that her Jewish teammates face every day. My daughter is fortunate.
Read the entire thing.
That last line deserves to sit with us for a moment.
My daughter is fortunate.
Fortunate – not because she made a friend group, won a game, or had a great Saturday. Fortunate because she gets to go home without carrying the weight of being Jewish in Australia right now.
And the problem is no longer lurking in the shadows. It is standing on the sidelines in broad daylight.
