antiSemitic

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says Australia will also designate the IRGC as a ‘terrorist entity’.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has accused Iran of directing at least two anti-Jewish attacks in his country and announced plans to expel Iran’s ambassador to Canberra.

Speaking to reporters in the Australian capital on Tuesday, Albanese described the attacks as attempts to undermine social cohesion and sow discord in Australia.

“It is totally unacceptable, and the Australian government is taking strong and decisive action,” he said. “A short time ago, we informed the Iranian ambassador to Australia that he will be expelled.”

The prime minister said Australia has also suspended operations at its embassy in the Iranian capital, Tehran, and moved all of its diplomats to a third country.

“I can also announce the government will legislate to list Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC, as a terrorist organisation,” he added.

The attacks took place last year, at the Lewis Continental Kitchen in Sydney on October 10 and the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne on December 6, according to Australian officials.

Penny Wong, the Australian foreign minister, said the Iranian ambassador, Ahmad Sadeghi, and three of his colleagues have been declared persona non grata and given seven days to leave the country. She said the move marked the first time that Australia has expelled an ambassador since World War II and that the country has also withdrawn its envoy to Tehran.

Still, the Albanese government will maintain some diplomatic lines with Iran to advance Canberra’s interests, Wong said, advising Australians in the Middle Eastern country to return home. She also warned Australians considering travelling to Iran to refrain from doing so.

More soon.

July 5 (UPI) — An Israeli restaurant and a synagogue in Melbourne were damaged in separate overnight incidents, according to police officials.

Around 20 people were inside the synagogue in the eastern part of the city when someone used flammable liquid to start a fire on the exterior of the building, the Victoria Police Department confirmed.

No injuries were reported and police have not reported any arrests or said if they have identified a suspect.

“Last night’s attack on a synagogue in East Melbourne is cowardly, is an act of violence and anti-Semitism and has no place in Australian society,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on X, accompanied by a video.

A post about the incidents on the Victoria Police Department website has since been removed.

Not far from the East Melbourne Synagogue, protesters charged into the Jewish-owned restaurant, overturning tables and breaking a window, leading to the arrest of one man.

“Antisemitism has no place in Australia,” Albanese said on X.

“Those responsible for the shocking acts in Melbourne last night must face the full force of the law and my Government will provide all necessary support toward this effort.”

Local media reported the man attempted to get inside the synagogue but people inside did not recognize him and left the door closed. His image was captured on camera before leaving the flammable device on the doorstep.

“That is the really scary thing. They could have opened the door to a person who clearly had bigger plans. You wonder if he had more stuff in that bag to do more harm,” East Melbourne Hebrew Congregation Rabbi Dovid Gutnick told The Age in an interview.

The two incidents are the latest in what officials call a wave of anti-Semitic behavior in the country over the last several months, due to the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

In January, federal officials confirmed they were looking at whether or not “overseas actors of individuals” were recruiting and paying local Australians to carry out anti-Semitic acts violence or vandalism.

Earlier that month, lawmakers passed new legislation prohibiting people from performing the Nazi salute in public and from displaying Nazi symbols in Australia.

“Every Victorian deserves to live in peace and dignity, but the acts we saw last night at the East Melbourne Synagogue – and elsewhere in the city – are designed to shatter that peace and traumatize Jewish families,” Victoria Premier said on X following the incidents.

“Any attack on a place of worship is an act of hate, and any attack on a Jewish place of worship is an act of anti-Semitism. There should be no hesitation in calling this what it is. It is disgraceful behaviour by a pack of cowards.”

It was a normal Teams meeting at the end of a busy week. Colleagues were discussing the hospital weekend plans. I was there too, nodding, half-present. My mind was elsewhere – on a message I’d sent earlier that morning to a friend in Gaza.

I glanced at my phone.

One tick.

WhatsApp users know the signs: one tick means the message was sent. Two ticks mean it was received. Two blue ticks, it was read.

For most people, it’s a minor delay. But when you’re texting a Palestinian friend in Gaza during a war, one tick carries a sense of dread.

Maybe his phone’s out of charge – normal in a place where power was cut off 20 months ago. Maybe there’s no service – Israel often cuts communication during attacks. But there’s a third possibility I don’t allow myself to think about, even though it’s the most likely outcome if you are living through a genocide.

Still one tick.

Back in the meeting. We wrap up. Plans are made and people start to think about their own weekend plans.

I glance again. Still one tick.

This is the curse of being Palestinian. Carrying the weight of your homeland, its pain, its people – while being expected to function normally, politely, professionally.

Then, I was told my Teams background was “potentially anti-Semitic.”

It was a still-life image: figs, olives, grapes, oranges, watermelon, and a few glass bottles. A quiet nod to my culture and roots. But in today’s climate, even fruit is political. Any symbol of Palestinian identity can now be interpreted as a threat.

Suddenly, I was being questioned, accused, and possibly facing disciplinary action. For a background. For being Palestinian.

Still one tick.

I felt silenced, humiliated, and exposed. How was my love for my culture, for art, for my people being twisted into something hateful? Why is my choice of virtual background more controversial than the devastating violence unfolding in real time?

This is not isolated. Many of us – Palestinians, or anyone else who cares about Palestine – are being challenged on our humanity across organisations, all driven by external pressure.

And then it happened. Two blue ticks.

My friend was alive. He messaged: they fled their home in the early hours of the morning. He carried his children, walked for hours, left everything behind. No food, no shelter. But alive.

How could I explain to him what had happened to me that day? That while he ran for his life, I was threatened with disciplinary action about a painting of fruit? That I was accused of racism for an image, while he was witnessing the destruction of entire families?

This is what it means to be Palestinian today. To constantly navigate a world that erases your humanity, silences your voice, distorts your identity. To be told your pain is political. Your joy is provocation. Your symbols are offensive.

I’ve worked in the NHS for 25 years. It’s more than a job – it’s part of who I am. And now, along with two colleagues, I’m taking legal action. Not for ourselves, but to protect the NHS from external political lobbying. To say, firmly and clearly, that our National Health Service should belong to its patients and its staff – not to those who seek to silence, intimidate or twist it into serving a toxic agenda.

What happened to me is not just unjust – it is unlawful. Speaking up against genocide is not only my moral responsibility as a human being, but also my right as a British citizen in a democratic society.

I don’t write this to compare my experience with my friend’s suffering. I write it to expose the absurdity, the cruelty, of how Palestinians are treated across the world. Whether under bombs or under suspicion, we are made to justify our existence.

It shouldn’t be this way.

Being Palestinian is not a crime. But too often, it feels like the world treats it as one.

The author is currently pursuing legal action, alongside two NHS colleagues, challenging, among other things, allegations of antisemitism.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

A federal task force threatens to cut all of Harvard’s federal funding over alleged violations of the rights of Jewish and Israeli students.

US President Donald Trump’s administration has accused Harvard University of violating the civil rights of its Jewish and Israeli students and threatened to cut off all federal funding to the institution.

The announcement on Monday is the latest action by the Trump administration against the United States’s oldest university after the institution rejected earlier demands to alter its operations.

In a letter sent to Harvard president Alan Garber, a federal task force said its investigation has concluded that “Harvard has been in some cases deliberately indifferent, and in others has been a willful participant in anti-Semitic harassment of Jewish students, faculty, and staff”.

The letter went on to say that the majority of Jewish students at Harvard felt they suffered discrimination on campus, while a quarter felt physically unsafe.

It also threatened further funding acts if Harvard did not change course.

“Failure to institute adequate changes immediately will result in the loss of all federal financial resources and continue to affect Harvard’s relationship with the federal government,” it said, without elaborating what the reforms needed were.

In a statement, Harvard pushed back against the allegations.

The university said that it had taken “substantive, proactive steps” to combat anti-Semitism on campus, and had made “significant strides to combat bigotry, hate and bias”.

“We are not alone in confronting this challenge and recognise that this work is ongoing,” it said, adding that it remains “committed to ensuring members of our Jewish and Israeli community are embraced, respected, and can thrive at Harvard”.

At a White House briefing later, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said discussions between the Trump administration and Harvard were taking place “behind closed doors”, but offered no further details.

Protests against Israel’s war on Gaza

US universities have faced controversy over alleged anti-Semitism on their campuses since the eruption last year of nationwide student protests against Israel’s war on Gaza.

Trump has called such protests “illegal” and accused participants of anti-Semitism. But protest leaders – who include Jewish students – have described their actions as a peaceful response to Israel’s actions, which have elicited concerns about human rights abuses, including genocide.

The Trump administration has frozen some $2.5bn in federal grant money to Harvard, moved to block it from enrolling international students and threatened to remove its tax-exempt status.

It has demanded that Harvard end all affirmative action in faculty hiring and student admissions and disband student groups that promote what it calls criminal activity and harassment.

It also called for changes to the admissions process “to prevent admitting international students hostile to the American values”, including “students supportive of terrorism or anti-Semitism”.

Harvard has rejected those demands, and sued the administration, calling its actions “retaliatory” and “unlawful”.

The Trump administration has also gone after top colleges, including Columbia, Cornell and Northwestern.

In early March, Columbia – whose protest camps were copied by students at colleges all over the country – had $400m in federal funding cut from its budget.

The school later agreed to a list of demands from the Trump administration. These included changing its disciplinary rules and reviewing its Middle East studies programme.

Separately, University of Virginia president James Ryan said last week he chose to step down rather than fight the US government as the Trump administration investigated the school’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

Around the same time, the Trump administration also launched a probe into hiring practices at the University of California system – which enrols nearly 300,000 students – to determine whether they violate federal anti-discrimination laws.

The universities have, meanwhile, said that the Trump administration’s actions threaten academic freedom and free speech, as well as critical scientific research.