Labor Routinely Condemns Perceived Antisemitism, While Ignoring Islamophobic Attacks

Sydney woman Kelly Farrugia was arrested by NSW police officers on Dharug Country at her Parramatta home last Sunday afternoon, 22 December, in relation to her threatening a Palestinian mother and daughter in Bankstown Kmart a few days prior, after the footage of the incident went viral. And the 39-year-old white Australian was then charged at Granville police station and refused bail.

The Palestinian mother captured the incident on video, with the footage showing Farrugia dramatically approaching the woman and her daughter, flailing her arms out to the side before gesturing the middle finger, as she moves down a main aisle in the Kmart store, before stopping right before her two victims and menacingly hovering over them and shouting.

“Are you proud of wearing ‘From the River to the Sea?’” Farrugia screamed at the Palestinian mother, wearing a shirt emblazoned with the famous phrase. “Get fucked, Allah. Every fucking day. Fuck off.”

Speaking over social media, the Palestinian woman later explained that Farrugia’s threatening behaviour certainly had it’s desired effect, as she was frozen stiff and she was not sure how she could protect her daughter. “She looked like she could do some harm,” the mother continued, “because prior to the video, she had started throwing boxes at me and my daughter in an aisle.”

This Islamophobic incident was obviously related to the Israeli-perpetrated Gaza genocide, as the mother was wearing pro-Palestinian messaging on her shirt.

Yet, federal Labor figures have not condemned the incident in a similar manner to which they’ve been speaking out against a number of recent antisemitic attacks, even though it’s questionable that prejudicial ideas about Jewish people are leading to at least some of the attacks being labelled as antisemitic.

An Islamophobic predisposition

“A woman has been charged with intimidation offences following an incident in Bankstown last week,” NSW Police News reported on 22 December. 

The post further revealed that after she’d arrived at Gladesville copshop, Farrugia was charged with a number of offences and refused bail, while she was scheduled to appear in Parramatta Bail Court the day following

The court heard on Monday that Farrugia had been involved in another incident out the front of Granville Boys High School on 18 December, which saw her attempt to rundown Shaykh Wesam Charkawi with her car.

Charkawi is a prominent Muslim teacher, who also works as a student support officer at the school.

In terms of the Kmart incident, NSW police charged Farrugia with publicly threatening violence on the grounds of religious belief, offensive language in a public place, offensive conduct in a public place and intimidation.

As for the incident at the school, Farrugia has been charged with common assault and intimidation.

The Daily Telegraph reported that police prosecutor Bassin explained that the prosecution will allege that Farrugia has a predisposition towards “racially motivated stereotyping or targeting”. And the sergeant added that the incident at the school had almost impacted a number of people. And the court heard that the offending comes after a number of similar incidents involving Farrugia.

Farrugia told the court that there is “a long story” behind the school incident. “I got a phone call from police telling me that they have been recording me and if I do anything they are threatening me with an AVO.” And she then suggested the school principal is using the school “as his own Pentagon”.

NSW Acting Magistrate Ray Plibersek then granted Farrugia bail on the proviso she stay with her father, keep a curfew between 5 pm and 9 am, as well as not go within 500 metres of Granville or Bankstown, to which she replied, “It’s theirs. They can have it.”

Biased politicking leads to biased policing

The Palestinian mother subjected to the tirade of Islamophobic and racist abuse met with her supporters to hold a rally outside of Bankstown police station, prior to sitting for a police interview last Sunday morning.

This demonstration was staged outside the NSW police station because after the incident, the Palestinian woman called the police, however, they didn’t show up within the two hour period that she waited for them, and she then received her first call from police 24 hours after the incident.

The Muslim woman outlined that many of those gathered had been subjected to similar abuse over the past 15 months of the Gaza genocide, and she underscored that this was no isolated incident, but rather it was “just well documented”.

The Palestinian further explained that such on-the-ground “micro-level” incidents are being encouraged “from the top-down” by “the leadership”, because ministers, like the PM, are only publicly condemning antisemitic incidents, whilst turning a blind eye to Islamophobic crimes.

“What we have learnt in the past 24 hours, this person who is on the loose, has threatened and assaulted various people in our community… and she attempted to murder one of our people,” the woman continued, and went on to describe the incident with Shaykh Charkawi.

“These fake authorities do not treat their constituents equally… and they will side with the perpetrators of the victim,” she continued just before entering the copshop.

“What we see from our governments siding with Israel – the criminals that history will never forget – is the police in our local suburbs are siding with the perpetrators.”

A dangerous conflation

Prime minister Anthony Albanese, foreign minister Penny Wong and NSW premier Chris Minns have all acted as apologists for the Netanyahu regime’s genocidal actions over the past 15 months, which have officially led to the deaths of over 45,000 Palestinians.

The true death toll relating to the Gaza genocide, however, is hard to ascertain in the walled-in site of a long-term mass slaughter, but it’s widely expected to be in the hundreds of thousands.

Albanese and Minns have been particularly quick to demonise community members for supporting the Palestinian people as criminal and antisemitic, even though they’re actively calling for an end to a settler colonial massacre, whilst these politicians are too propagating the conflation that equates anti-Israel sentiment and demonstrations with open antisemitic attacks.

This dangerous conflation serves to prevent making political criticism of the Israeli state, even in its perpetration of a genocide, to the point that if people oppose Israel or the mass slaughter in Gaza, they can be immediately shut down with the charge of antisemitism and the most extreme outcome of this, is that supporters of Palestine may be criminally charged for expressing anti-Israel sentiment.

And in deflecting criticism of the Israeli state’s mass murder, this conflation further serves to embolden people like Farrugia to act in such a manner, as if the authorities appear to be propagating Islamophobic, anti-Palestinian or anti-Arab sentiment, this example coming from the lawmakers and the law enforcers is providing a skewed idea of correct conduct.

“This woman came around from behind me,” the Palestinian mother who was the subject of the Kmart incident told Channel 10 on Sunday morning, “and put her arm around my body – locked my body in between her body and the shelves.”

And in describing actions that weren’t captured in the viral footage, the Palestinian woman added that Farrugia “made very slow hand gestures that she’s going to slowly slit my throat”.