In a Hanukkah message, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese urged Australia’s Jewish community to reject hate by proudly continuing their traditions.
Albanese reiterated his condemnation of the “poison of anti-Semitism” and acknowledged that the time of celebration also comes with pain, grief and loss.
The eight-day Jewish holiday, also known as Hanukkah, runs from the evening of December 25 to January 2 this year in a rare overlap with the Christian celebration of the date of Christmas.
The prime minister acknowledged that it was a time of celebration and a time to reaffirm faith and identity.
“What shines through all of this like the brightest threads is a message of hope, something that has taken on greater significance,” he said.
“For Jewish people during this time, any sense of celebration carries with it a counterweight of pain, grief and loss. “And for many, there is the agony of waiting for the hostages to finally return home. None of this should be the case.”
Albanese has come under increasing pressure over his response to anti-Semitic incidents in the past year as tensions over the Gaza conflict have escalated in communities across Australia.
He used the letter to Jewish Australians on Thursday to express a desire for there to be “no sense of the shadow of the past extending into the present”.
“We condemn the poison of anti-Semitism and we are steadfast in our determination to combat it,” he said. “Jewish Australians are an integral part of the Australian story and, like all Australians, should feel safe and secure in our modern, multicultural nation.”
“The most powerful way to reject hate is to continue to live as proud Jewish Australians.
“As you proudly light the menorah, you are sending a message to all Australians that hate does not win.”
Albanese wore a yarmulke, a Jewish head covering, to show solidarity with Jews.
When he wanted to please the supporters of Hamas terrorism in the form of supporting Palestine, his position was subordinate to Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who is ignorant of matters because she has never read the Quran in her life, and does not know the Islamic plan to occupy the world, and does not know that the Palestinians themselves used their children as human shields to protect Hamas, and when these children die, they film their parents carrying their dead children to announce on the Internet and the news that Israel is the one who did it.
Penny Wong probably does not know about all of this, and Albanese was subordinate to her in what she says, and did not object once to her words.
If Albanese and Wong know about the Islamic plan to occupy the world and eliminate the Jews wherever they are in the world, this is a disaster because they know and do not take strict measures to prevent the crime.
If they do not know that there is a plan against the Jews and that they want to pursue the Jews anywhere in the world to eliminate them and Islamic control over the world, including “Australia”, this is a greater disaster, because in this case they are two ignorant leaders, and all they care about is flattering the criminal to gain his vote in the elections. If world leaders do not wake up soon, the disaster will repeat itself and terrorism will spread more and more.