Jewish institutions need around-the-clock security and possibly military protection, a global advocacy group has told the antisemitism royal commission, with its local director warning the inquiry had left Jewish communities to “wait and see” and delayed attainable change. In one of the first submissions filed to the national probe, Jewish non-profit StandWithUs called for an overhaul of community security arrangements similar to the permanent safety fund considered by former spy chief Dennis Richardson. StandWithUs Australia’s executive director Michael Gencher told the media in an interview that the royal commission’s interim report risked being a missed opportunity if it did not contain practicable recommendations for community safety and called Mr Richardson’s resignation from the inquiry a “loss”. The esteemed public servant last month resigned from his role on the royal commission, after advocating for quick reforms and having considered recommending safety funding for Jewish institutions.
“Security is no longer an occasional consideration. It is now part of day-to-day operational planning. That shift has carried both direct and indirect costs and has affected how Jewish organisations engage with the wider public,” the submission reads. “The commonwealth, in partnership with state and territory governments, should urgently review the feasibility of establishing a permanent protective security presence for Jewish sites, schools and places of worship.” The submission argues grants for community organisations, schools and religious institutions should be wiped away in favour of a government scheme modelled on those in Italy, France and Belgium – where military personnel are stationed at Jewish sites. It would be “a loss” to have more visible security around Jewish institutions, Mr Gencher said, but a necessary one. “We’ve seen loss of life, and we see nothing that shows us that was the last incident and there isn’t more to come,” he said.
“We are on a trajectory that is challenging, and the response is equally as challenging in terms of our level of comfort with what we see on our streets.” Military guards would require large-scale changes to the Defence Act, which limits deployment on Australian soil to exceptional circumstances of “domestic violence” – a constitutional term for extreme civil unrest. Legislative reform could lower the threshold for civil deployment of defence forces, although it would not be a “nip and tuck change”, according to a source in the legal community. “The real point is Australia’s current legal framework is built around exceptional call-out powers and short-term responses to major domestic security events. It is not designed for a standing or enduring protective presence around vulnerable communal institutions facing a sustained threat,” Mr Gencher said.
“That should form part of the policy discussion rather than be used as a reason to avoid it. “The royal commission was established in the aftermath of the Bondi terrorist attack precisely because hard questions about social cohesion, public safety and institutional protection can no longer be put off.” Sydney Great Synagogue chief rabbi Benjamin Elton said armed police and military deployment “should definitely be on the table”. “I’ve been to major European Jewish communities, and I was very struck by the government security presence,” he said. “There’s a certain powerful logic to it, which is if a group of citizens are in danger, then it’s the responsibility of the government to protect its citizens and therefore mobilise the resources necessary to do that.” Mr Gencher believed the royal commission, while necessary, had held back immediate reform.
“We have sacrificed short-term opportunities for the royal commission, and I think the Jewish community certainly is seeing the royal commission as the be-all-and-end-all,” he said. “Hopefully, it has that guidance, but I think there were other opportunities for short-term wins. A collection of seven Jewish groups jointly addressing the royal commission, including the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies (JBD) and Executive Council of Australian Jewry, declined to weigh in on the submission. “We strongly encourage all individuals and organisations who have a lived experience of antisemitism to make submissions to the royal commission,” a JBD spokesperson said. StandWithUs also recommended tertiary educators combat “a widespread perception that complaints are ignored, minimised, delayed, mishandled, or reframed in ways that strip them of their seriousness”. Universities should independently and regularly review their complaint outcomes and response times, it said.
Source: Compiled by APN from media reports
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