Post #2565635

It's wild being Jewish in rural Australia rn with the TV and radio talking nonstop about the Bondi beach shooting and the govt's response (cracking down on protests against the genocide of Palestinians, more cops, more surveillance). Most of the folks I talk to have never met a Jewish person, and fall hook line and sinker for the idea that Netanyahu and the Israeli state are an accurate representation of Jews, the same way they might believe that the most violent Islamists are an accurate representation of Islam (but they are more likely to know a few Muslims personally enough to disprove this). Like, the work by Israel to conflate its blatant genocidal nationalism with all of Judaism, and the decision of the Aussie govt to reinforce that link by calling protests antisemitic, makes it feel noticeably less safe to be Jewish here. Lots of conspiracy theories about Jews and people aren't afraid to talk about them. I'm not from rural Aus and I'm sure there was always antisemitism here, and Israel has been driving this narrative for a long time. But leaving my circles in the U.S. (full of antizionist Jews) and then having a mass shooting bring it up with every news segment really emphasizes it in a way I hadn't felt before.