'When hate is left unchecked, it festers’: NSW Opposition Leader Mark Speakman

Australian Community Media

NSW Premier Chris Minns and Opposition Leader Mark Speakman address the rise of anti-Semitic acts in speeches on February 11, 2025. Video by Parliament of NSW via AAP

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00:00Over summer, we have witnessed scenes of depravity and hatred most of us thought we would never

00:05see in New South Wales—a holy synagogue defiled by a hateful swastika, a childcare

00:13centre deliberately set on fire, Nazi slogans copied from the darkest pages of history spray-painted

00:20across Jewish cars and Jewish property.

00:24To a person, these have been cowardly acts, conducted under the cover of darkness, designed

00:29to bully and intimidate and threaten the Jewish people of our great state.

00:35But we are here today as a parliament, as representatives of this open and tolerant

00:40state, to say in an unambiguous way that this campaign of hatred will fail.

00:48It will fail because the Jewish community is strong.

00:51It will fail because our Jewish friends have an entire state behind them, with the laws

00:56and resources and the solidarity needed to destroy the poison of anti-Semitism wherever

01:03it takes root.

01:06These attacks are a crisis of intolerance, a threat to social cohesion and a direct challenge

01:12to the values we all hold dear.

01:15And they aren't just an attack or an assault on Jewish Australians.

01:18They are an assault on the very idea of a harmonious, inclusive society.

01:24If any group feels unsafe, the integrity of our social cohesion is at risk.

01:30Today it's the Jewish community under threat.

01:32Tomorrow it could be another faith, another culture or another minority.

01:37When hate is left unchecked, it festers.

01:40It grows.

01:41It seeks new targets.

01:54For more UN videos visit www.un.org

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