Social cohesion is supposedly the order of the day. Our rights are being steadily eroded in its honour.
One would hardly imagine that a religious institution would host a political figure for whom fear and division are lifeblood. Yet, on February 20, Emanuel Synagogue hosted Opposition Leader Peter Dutton.
Dutton’s current shtick is weaponising antisemitism for political gain, specifically to intensify the persecution of immigrants, asylum seekers, welfare recipients, environmental defenders, and of course pro-Palestinian activists.
For Jews who quake at the growing influence of the far right in this country, his welcome into a synagogue is profoundly unsettling.
In the looming shadow of the laws against protest near places of worship, which had not then been passed, three anti-Zionist Jewish women decided to challenge this egregious abuse of the sanctity of the synagogue.
Surely, a place of worship relinquishes its status as a sacred space when it becomes the venue for a political event?
Two of us, Judith Treanor and Suzie Gold, stood several metres from the synagogue entrance, holding small innocuous signs.
The head security wrangler quickly arrived and asked why we were there and if we were part of the community.
Treanor pointed out that the latter wasn’t his concern, but confirmed our Jewish identity and intention to protest Dutton’s attendance at the synagogue. She found it deeply enjoyable to tell him her name means “woman of Judea”. All this took place on a public footpath.
He approved as long as we maintained our distance.
When Michelle Berkon arrived, we moved slightly closer but still away from the entrance.
The security phalanx offered more obstruction to pedestrians than we did, but security felt compelled to protect the community from the trauma of democracy.
He forbade us from approaching further and from walking past the synagogue, threatening to call the police if we didn’t move on.
We stayed put.
Within a few minutes, a police car and a patrol wagon arrived. Mention keffiyehs and the crisis in police response times evaporates.
The officers conferred with security and synagogue officials before approaching us and asking our purpose. We reiterated our intention to protest a political event and reminded them that the law restricting protest had not been passed.
The sergeant said we were “causing fear and alarm” and issued a move-on order, warning that if we didn't comply we’d be put “in a cage”, taken to Waverley Police Station and charged.
We complied, albeit in a non-compliant manner. Two “Duttons-in-waiting” straining at the leash barked orders to “MOVE!” One made an attempt to intimidate Berkon.
We considered remaining at our designated spot on the corner of Ocean and Oxford Streets but, anticipating Dutton’s exit, headed for the rear entrance of the synagogue.
A security guard spotted us, alerted her team, and said we weren’t permitted anywhere in the vicinity. Gold asked her, nicely, to take our photo, but she declined. We hung about for a while and then returned to our corner.
Within a few minutes, a different posse of police arrived. The sergeant explained he was issuing another move-on order to protect the good burghers of the synagogue from “alarm and distress”.
We explained again that we were Jewish ourselves, and were protesting a political event. Berkon recounted her childhood connection with Emanuel and her parents’ funeral services there.
The sergeant demurred that they would have taken place at the funeral home Sydney Chevra Kadisha. His “gotcha moment” was short-lived. He now knows it’s not okay to tell Jews about Jewish cultural practices. He did have the grace to look sheepish. Heeding the call of his earpiece, he wandered away.
The two constables were interested in hearing our views on Palestine, Judaism versus Zionism, and family Holocaust histories.
Treanor fought back tears as she expressed her heartbreak that a far-right politician was speaking in a synagogue. They were clearly disheartened by what was unfolding.
The sergeant reappeared, fortified by new arguments. He asserted boldly that we only objected because we don’t like Dutton. We replied, truthfully, that we were defending people’s right to protest any political event.
He then said our keffiyehs were “causing intimidation and harassment”, but when we removed them, he said it was “too late” and, anyway, it was actually our signs.
Gold informed him that she had been using that sign for 16 years without issue. He then narrowed it down to Berkon’s sign because of its “German-looking font”.
She gave him a short lesson on her right to Holocaust memory. If it weren’t so deplorable, it would have been pure farce.
The sergeant instructed us to move on, as people were leaving the synagogue. We dallied until he threatened: “We don’t want to take this further but we will”, telling Berkon she’d be charged with breaching the peace if she didn’t hurry up.
Apparently, her expression was too loud because he said, warningly: “Don’t look at me like that”. She replied, “I’ll look at you any way I want” and, to make it perfectly clear that she understood both the implied threat and her privilege as a white woman, she remarked: “I’m not Black so you won’t shoot me”.
The sergeant blustered that this was “intimidating”, reflecting the vacuity of the entire raft of police allegations.
He then warned that if we didn’t provide our identities there’d be trouble, and appeared somewhat deflated when we proudly complied.
Treanor, seeking once more to impart knowledge, mentioned the Gaza genocide. Probably believing that at last he had logic on his side, the sergeant retorted, “we all have different views on that”, and received another short lesson, this time on the fact that international law wasn’t a matter for his opinion.
Ultimately, we were forced to disperse or risk arrest.
Attendees were walking past, scowling and muttering. One man accused Gold of harassing him and his wife and, to be fair, she was walking in the same direction.
Another foamed that we were “shameful and disgusting”. It was utterly absurd.
Berkon took a photo of a woman who had been particularly nasty. She turned around and shrieked, “Shanda (shame)!” Her husband told us to “piss off” and called us “shit”.
A few days later, we learned that a Jewish officer in the Australian Defence Forces had been stripped of his security clearance. He did not consider Israel a foreign state and was willing to share classified information with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
This officer spent nine years with Sydney Community Security Group (CSG), which provided security for Emanuel Synagogue for this event.
He was trained in Israel by former members of the Israel Security Agency, through an organisation funded by the Israeli government.
Via grants disbursed by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ), CSG has received millions in Australian government funding.
Antisemitism thrives on dual loyalty tropes.
The Jewish establishment’s support for Israel and consequent bromance with the Zionist far-right thereby cultivate antisemitism, putting Jews at risk.
We insist not only on our democratic right to protest any political event, regardless of the venue, but on our obligation to protest the use of our synagogues as networking centres for ideologies inherently injurious to minority communities and supportive of a foreign state engaged in egregious criminality.
[This article was first published by Pearls and Irritations. Judith Treanor, Suzie Gold and Michelle Berkon are members of Jews Against the Occupation ‘48.]