After a year that saw an explosion of antisemitic incidents, Combat Antisemitism Movement’s (CAM) Antisemitism Research Center (ARC) tracked data in January indicating that the anti-Jewish incidents in Australia were becoming increasingly violent.
CAM, a leading NGO dedicated to combating antisemitism around the world, noted that the ARC data did not necessarily reflect every antisemitic incident to have occurred in Australia during January.
However, the data did show an increasing rate of week-to week antisemitic incidents from mid-late December 2024 through mid-January 2025.
The findings follow November research published by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry that showed that, between the periods of October 1, 2023 and September 30, 2024, the organization recorded a 316% increase in antisemitic occurrences in Australia.
From December 19 through December 26, CAM’s ARC recorded three antisemitic events. All off these were categorized by the research center as “incidents of hate speech.”
Antisemitic incidents spike
From December 26 through January 2, the ARC logged four more incidents. These were three occurrences of hate speech and one “incident of vandalism.”
Then, from January 2 through January 9, the ARC recorded another five incidents. These were made up of two incidents of hate speech, two incidents of vandalism, and one “incident of violence or threat of violence.”
January antisemitic incidents then spiked from January 9 through January 16, when CAM logged 11 antisemitic incidents (six incidents of hate speech, four incidents of vandalism, and one incident of violence or threat of violence).
The following week, January 16 through January 23 saw the ARC record more antisemitic incidents. Of these four, two were incidents of violence or threat of violence. The other two were an incident of vandalism and an incident of hate speech.
These antisemitic incidents had a variety of origins, with the ARC classifying them as far-left, far-right, Islamist, and unattributable.
CAM noted however, that as these disparate groups find common ground in their hatred for Jews, the origins of a number of these incidents were attributable to more than one source.
For instance, in one instance that featured both far-right and Islamist elements, the phrases “Hitler On Top” and “Allahu Akbar” joined a swastika that was graffitied on a South Sydney synagogue.
CAM highlighted a far-right and Islamist partnership that dates back at least as far as the 1930’s when Arab leaders, such as Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Hajj Amin al-Husayni, allied themselves with Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.
Last week, an image taken by Reuters photographer Hatem Khaled revealed a white swastika that had been graffitied on a damaged IDF vehicle abandoned in the Gaza Strip.