We tracked antisemitic incidents in Australia over four years. This is when they are most likely to occur

The Conversation published a new article on antisemitism in Australia by Dr Matteo Vergani and Mr Dan Goodhardt. The article presents the findings of new research using antisemitism community reports collected by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.

The article found that:

• weeks with Jewish celebrations were more likely to coincide with incidents of hate speech, such as verbal abuse and offensive gestures;
• antisemitic incidents occurred during the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict, however, were significantly more likely to involve violence towards people (such as throwing objects);
• incidents that occurred after the establishment of Antipodean Resistance were more likely to involve indirect forms of hate speech (such as the neo-Nazi stickers defacing an aged care facility in Melbourne housing Holocaust survivors), and be claimed by the hate group.

The findings are part of a research article currently under peer review at a scientific journal, where the team sets out to discover more about what triggers these specific acts of hate in Australia, analyzing 673 incidents of antisemitism across Australia from 2013–17 to determine if they were more likely to occur — or if they were more serious in nature — during specific events.