Defend Muslims, immigrants, supporters of Palestine!

The response to the despicable 14 December Bondi killings will be brutal. More gun control. More draconian laws against protests. Muslims increasingly persecuted. Anyone who says they are for Palestine is set to be labelled a terrorist. The Sydney Harbour Bridge march in August is already being smeared as laying the groundwork for this attack. From government “anti-Semitism envoy” Jillian Segal, to reactionary shock jock Andrew Bolt, a conga line of Zionists and right-wing demagogues are galvanised and pressing the offensive. One Nation’s Pauline Hanson has the wind in her sails. Even the Labor government’s token recognition of a Palestinian state is being gone after for “enabling terror,” and further gestures are now verboten as Albanese is eager to prove himself a full-throttle “opponent of anti-Semitism.”

Those who will bear the brunt of these blows will be Muslims, workers and all the oppressed. Heavily Muslim working-class neighbourhoods of Western Sydney, who have faced years of “anti-terror” sieges, raids and arrests, now face even more repression. This is bad news not just for those immediately under the gun but the workers movement as a whole. If supporters of Palestine are to be labelled as terrorists, this gives the state a battering ram to go after anyone who opposes the genocide—including unions that endorsed the protests that are now labelled as a cause of the massacre.

Many on the left—including Solidarity, Socialist Alternative and Socialist Alliance—can correctly point out that this attack is being used to smear supporters of Palestine as anti-Semitic. But these smears are just the beginning of a broader campaign of repression. The ruling class is promising fire and fury against anyone in its crosshairs. This national unity campaign must be fought. Workers and oppressed: prepare for defensive struggles!

Defeating this ruling-class offensive requires taking head-on its rallying cry of “fighting anti-Semitism.” It is true that anti-Semitism has been growing, but its rise has been fuelled by the Zionist regime that has waged a genocidal war against the Palestinians in the name of defending Jewish people. The Labor government’s coming attacks in the name of “eradicating anti-Semitism” will only add fuel to the fire. A genuine fight against anti-Semitism can only happen on an anti-Zionist basis, the first step of which is bringing together in struggle workers and the oppressed against the coming reaction.