The undercurrent of antisemitism in Australia

Those familiar with Australia will know that it is often affectionately called “Down Under”.  The origins of the name are obvious.  Being located deep in the southern hemisphere, Australia is “down” and “under” almost all other land masses.  Yet, there is also a spiritual parallel to this geographic description.  Australia is going down spiritually and is suffering under deception, particularly that deception which manifests in Jew-hatred. Unfortunately, in recent weeks, Australia has been the focus of two high-profile events which highlight this wicked undercurrent which exists across the cultural landscape of Australia. 

The Miracle in Mid-Air

First is the Australian connection to what we have quickly come to realise was a miracle in mid-air.  Of course, this is a reference to the plot aboard Flydubai flight FZ1073 involving Omani national Hammam al-Hammami who allegedly attacked the captain with a crash axe. 

According to the New York Times, their investigations revealed that al-Hammami studied at RMIT University in Victoria after he was granted a student visa in 2014.  Allegedly, it was during his time in Australia that he drifted towards terrorism and extremism, before leaving the country in 2017.  According to an ABC news report in Australia, (which quoted from the UAE's state news agency, in comments attributed to the attorney-general): "During that period, he was influenced by takfiri [radical] ideology through reading extremist literature and following online content glorifying terrorist organisations and suicide attacks.  [Al-Hammami] also said that he had prepared himself both psychologically and physically to carry out the plot by intensifying his exposure to material promoting terrorism and training in boxing under a private coach.”

The report raises an interesting point when placed alongside that of the radicalisation and actions of the terrorists who perpetrated the Bondi Beach terror attack in Australia last year.  In the case of al-Hammami, his radicalisation appears to have begun in 2017 which then resulted in his 2026 actions.  Similarly, one of the Bondi Beach terrorists was radicalised at around age 17 but did not carry out an attack until age 24.  Counterterrorism risk assessments have been relying on empirical findings from the US, Australia and Europe that indicate the period between radicalisation and actual violence was shortening.  However, in the two cases cited, we see a nine-year gap and a seven-year gap respectively. 

From an intelligence perspective, a radicalisation period which spans many years does not generate the volume or variety of indicators that would compel intelligence agencies and local law enforcement to flag an individual for sustained attention.  What will no doubt be unnerving to Australian officials is that we now have two high-profile examples of radicalisation that, from an intelligence perspective, were unnoticeable.  However, from a religious perspective, they appeared to be anything but.  The trajectory of their radicalisation may have escaped the attention of law enforcement officials, but it was obviously persistent enough to move these men in the direction of terrorist atrocity.  It is this low-signal environment which makes it incredibly different for counterterrorist agencies to identify and halt attacks before they happen and is causing significant anxiety throughout Australia’s Jewish community.

Ranting Randa

Doctor Randa Abdel-Fattah is an Australian-born pro-Palestinian activist of Egyptian and Palestinian descent.  On 5 October 2026, Nine News Australia reported that at a recent book event in London, Randa claimed that Australians were “nutcases” and that the country is full of “white supremacy institutions”.  Randa was most upset at being disinvited to a writers’ festival earlier this year after organisers grew concerned about her anti-Israel and anti-Zionist position.  Although Randa has a long history of making inflammatory remarks, let me highlight just a few.   

On 31 December 2024 The Australian Jewish News reported that Randa made the following claims: “May we see the abolishment of the death cult of Zionism and the end of US empire and finally a world where the slaughter, annihilation and torture of Palestinians is no longer daily routine. May every baby slaughtered in Zionism’s genocide haunt you who openly support or acquiesce through your gutless silence.”  They also reported on another of her social media posts which read: “Daily, hourly slaughter. Zionism is a Palestinian slaughterhouse and still there are people supporting this abomination of a regime and ideology. To hell with you all. Every last Zionist. May you never know a second’s peace in your sadistic miserable lives.”

But I would like to end by focusing on a social media post she made in 2024: “To be crystal clear- Israel can't be rehabilitated or saved. This isn't a rehab project for a state built on theft & ethnic cleansing, sustained on genocide. This is a liberation movement to end a brutal settler colonial apartheid regime that inflicts this misery & enjoys it.”  Randa’s statement that “Israel can’t be rehabilitated or saved” puts her at direct odds with the promises made by the God of Israel.  So, in contrast to Randa’s rant let me outline some of the promises made to Israel, God’s chosen people:

• Isaiah 54:17 – No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue which rises against you in judgement you shall condemn.  This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is from Me, says the LORD.

• Romans 11:25-26: For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.  And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; for this is My Covenant with them, when I take away their sins.

• Zechariah 8:7-8: Thus says the LORD of hosts: “Behold, I will save My people from the land of the east and from the land of the west; I will bring them back, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem.  They shall be My people and I will be their God, in truth and righteousness.

In an essay entitled “What is a Jew?”, Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy ended by saying: “The nation which neither slaughter nor torture could exterminate, which neither fire nor sword of civilizations were able to erase from the face of the earth, the nation which first proclaimed the word of the Lord, the nation which preserved the prophecy for so long and passed it on to the rest of humanity, such a nation cannot vanish.  A Jew is eternal; he is an embodiment of eternity.

The history of the Jewish people has been one of constant conflict. Nation after nation has tried to erase them from the pages of world history. From the Pharaohs to the pogroms, from Haman to Hitler, from Antiochus Epiphanes to academics to the eventual Antichrist, the Jews have been the target of those with a deceived mind and a wicked heart.  Yet, the people of Israel live and will continue to do so because of God’s faithfulness to His covenant promises.