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News Brief

December 7, 2005
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Anti-Jewish attacks fell in Australia last year, but remain well above average. The 322 recorded incidents remain 10 percent above the average for the past 16 years, according to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry. Jeremy Jones, a former president of the council, who presented the report to the organization’s annual general meeting, told JTA that no criminal charges had been pressed in the statistical year that ended in September, but two racial hatred cases are before the Australian Federal Court. Recorded incidents include arson attacks on synagogues, Nazi graffiti on Jewish-owned property, physical assaults on Jews and anti-Semitic content used in the vandalization of synagogues and Jewish schools. “There has been an explosion of anti-Jewish invective on Web-based bulletin boards and discussion groups,” Jones said, but added, “the reality is, the Australian federal and state parliaments have passed strong unanimous resolutions condemning anti-Semitism, and there is a growing awareness of the responsibility of the mass media to avoid being hijacked by racists.”

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