By some measures, Australia has not been impacted as greatly by the worldwide pandemic as comparable nations. Even so, many Australians are fed up to the teeth with the constant lockdowns, and underlying anxiety about contracting the virus, to say nothing of the economic impacts of rising unemployment, business failures, and home evictions, the rise in demand for mental health services, and families whose children's education has been disrupted.
No doubt some of these aggrieved citizens attended the anti-lockdown protests held in Australian capital cities this past weekend. If I was in the same position, even though we are in a public health crisis, I might have attended the protest. How else would I get my voice heard?
It's a pity that those people were overshadowed by extremist elements, including those who are convinced that the pandemic is a Jewish conspiracy, orchestrated so that they can take over the world. They get all the media coverage on television news reports, and in the legacy print media.
As New South Wales Shadow Minister for Police and Shadow Minister for Counter-Terrorism Walt Secord said in an interview with J-Wire:
“What we saw on the weekend was an insidious collection of anti-Semites, conspiracy theorists, anti-vaxxers and thugs..."
Elsewhere, Moshe Kantor, President of the European Jewish Congress, said that, since the beginning of the pandemic:
“...there has been a significant rise in accusations that Jews, as individuals and as a collective, are behind the spread of the virus or are directly profiting from it...The language and imagery used clearly identifies a revival of the mediaeval ‘blood libels’ when Jews were accused of spreading disease, poisoning wells or controlling economies."
“...there has been a significant rise in accusations that Jews, as individuals and as a collective, are behind the spread of the virus or are directly profiting from it...The language and imagery used clearly identifies a revival of the mediaeval ‘blood libels’ when Jews were accused of spreading disease, poisoning wells or controlling economies."
Rising anti-Semitism is another consequence of the pandemic, fueled by social media. Much like the pandemic itself, it shows no signs of abating.
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