Speech from the Mayor to the Summit Against Antisemitism

Thursday 4 September 2025

Inner West Mayor Darcy Byrne
Speech to Mayor's Summit Against Antisemitism

I am here to join in the collective effort to combat antisemitism and indeed racism in all its forms.

I am here because of the shocking rise of antisemitic attacks and vilification in my own community.

The attempted firebombing of the Newtown Synagogue.

Antisemitic memes and tropes being sprayed over buildings each week.

The abuse and harassment of Jewish citizens in our own Council chamber.

A shameful occurrence.

These are signs that the oldest form of racism is once again getting out of control in our own backyard.

When I decided to come here today, some people said that I had to choose between resistance to antisemitism and opposition to the atrocities that are being committed against Palestinian civilians.

But I say that these two principles are not contradictory.

In fact, they are both central pillars of upholding human rights, at a time when human rights are increasingly threatened.

I want to be straight with everyone at this summit.

I know that many here won't agree with me.

I believe profoundly that citizens such as myself, who oppose Netanyahu's vicious regime, also have an obligation to stamp out antisemitism and racism in our own country.

And furthermore, this must be said:

Any accusation that that the majority of citizens who protest peacefully against the abominable death toll in Gaza are perpetrating antisemitism is just plain wrong.

And I am here to speak to the Inner West Council's Anti Racism Strategy, the first of its kind in local government in NSW.

It was released in February this year when I convened a roundtable with Mayor Nemesh from Waverley and Mayor Manoun of Liverpool on protecting social cohesion and combating antisemitism.

Our council developed an anti-racism strategy, rather than an antisemitism action plan.

This is because we know that the only way to combat racism at the grassroots level is to fight against xenophobia in all its forms.

For renewed antisemitic vilification is spreading dangerously now.

But we also know that scourge of racism continues to be inflicted on so many Australians, from so many backgrounds.

The still shocking bigotry displayed to Indigenous Australians.

Just this weekend there were Nazis brazenly attacking Aboriginal people on the streets of Melbourne.

The sharp rise of racist abuse against Chinese Australians throughout COVID.

And the persistence of Islamophobia over many decades.

These are all elements of the discrimination and bigotry that still spreads far too freely through our communities.

And we are all here because we know that solutions to the curse of racism and antisemitism can, and must, be implemented from the bottom up.

Ends