Politicians call for Jewish community to be given space to grieve atrocities on October 7 anniversary

The first anniversary of the Hamas attacks in Israel must be a time for the Jewish community to mourn and have the space to grieve the devastation of the year-long conflict in the Middle East, a Labor MP has pleaded.

Josh Burns, who is Jewish, said his community was entitled to mark the loss of life on October 7.

Liberal MP Julian Leeser, another Jewish member of Parliament, said it should also be a day for reflecting on the rise of anti-Semitism in Australia over the past year.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will attend a commemoration in Melbourne on Monday evening while Opposition Leader Peter Dutton will attend a similar event in Sydney.

Mr Burns said it was a day of mourning and everyone should respect that.

“This conflict hurts. It hurts people across many different communities, and today we’ll be marking a year since the atrocities committed by Hamas against the Israeli people. But obviously, I recognise that if … a member of your family in the region, in Gaza or in Lebanon, these times have been extremely difficult for you,” he said.

“Today, the Jewish community needs a bit of space. It needs time to reflect and to mourn and to mark the loss of life of family, of friends, of innocent people.

“I don’t think grief is a competition.

“I think it’s something where, as Australians, we have to hold space for each other and we have to seek empathy for each other, because if we don’t do that for each other, and if we don’t hold compassion and space for one another, how on earth can we expect people in the region to?”

Mr Leeser said it would be a highly emotional day, and urged the whole Australian community to reflect on the response here as well as the conflict in the Middle East.

“Today is a very particular day for grief about the events of the seventh of October, and it’s about also reflecting on the country that we are given the anti-Semitism that we’ve seen this country over the last year,” he said.

“What we’re seeing in this country is anti-Semitism unanswered by too many people in positions of leadership who’ve turned a blind eye to it.

“Where politicians have been equivocal, where police have failed to arrest and prosecute people, where there’s support for the actions of Hamas on campuses that we’ve seen around the place. We need leaders to set and enforce norms of behaviour.”

Mr Albanese earlier said the first anniversary of October 7 was a time to pause and reflect on “the horrific terrorist atrocity that reverberated around the globe”.

In a vide message, he said Hamas had inflicted brutality with cold calculation.

“Since the atrocities of October 7, Jewish Australians have felt the cold shadows of anti-Semitism reaching into the present day — an as a nation we say never again,” he said

“We unequivocally condemn all prejudice and hatred. There is no place in Australia for discrimination against people of any faith.”