PETITION: Protect The Jews in Australia

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Goal: 20,000 signatures

Sign this petition to call on authorities to take immediate and decisive action to protect Jewish places of worship, bring those responsible for these attacks to justice, and send a clear message that antisemitism will not be tolerated in any form.

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As Jews in Australia come under increasing attack with escalating protests outside synagogues, Ofir Birenbaum shares his experience of being singled out by NSW Police simply for waving an Israeli flag on the footpath of a Jewish place of worship.

Birenbaum and his wife attended an event at the Great Synagogue celebrating a hundred years of innovation by the Technion, Israel's leading technological university. Unbeknown to them, a protest was underway outside.

"We purchased the tickets before we knew there's a protest outside," he said, describing the protesters as "the usual rent-a-crowd, the typical cesspool of the University of Sydney, people that are representing students against war, but they do put a motion for support of an armed resistance."

As he approached the event, Birenbaum decided to wave his Israeli flag in response to the antisemitic chants. "I crossed the road, I didn't want to confront them in a physically dangerous way ... On my way to the event, I whipped up the Israeli flag." he said, noting the immediate reaction from the crowd.

However, the police's response was not to protect Birenbaum but to move him on. "When you pulled out the flag and the police came towards you. How did you feel in that moment when you were being moved on?" I asked. Birenbaum replied, "I was surprised. I know that typically when people rock up into pro-Palestinian protests and wave an Israeli flag, it's common practice to detain them and give them a move on order. We've seen that plenty of times. I didn't expect that to happen because I went to an Israeli event in a synagogue."

He also pointed out the irony of the situation: the protest was unauthorised. "I presented these facts to the commander and that didn't help. They treated me as if I crashed their event, not the other way around." Birenbaum explained that under New South Wales laws, a form one must be submitted seven days in advance, including the location. "So I knew there's absolutely no chance they submitted a Form 1 in advance with the location because that wasn't public information," he stated.

Despite this, Birenbaum received no apology from the police. "Apology? No. Another thing they said, I wasn't associated with the event, which I have tickets," he noted.

Reflecting on the broader context of rising antisemitism, Birenbaum expressed his lack of surprise at the police's handling of the situation. "When you have protesters, I've seen them personally with my own eyes, with Hezbollah flags, with pictures of terrorist leaders, praising them verbally, calling Nasrallah the hero of heroes, calling Sinwar a legend that will be remembered for centuries. You can't allow these kind of actions to go unmanaged for so long and then pretend to be shocked when it goes into violence," he argued.

Birenbaum's experience sheds light on what many perceive as a troubling pattern of policing in Australia and other nations in the West, where the protection of Jewish individuals at their places of worship seems secondary to managing the protests against them.

This incident comes amid last week's confirmed terror attack where the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne was firebombed.