Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications) Share this | Hansard source

As honourable members will be aware tonight is the sixth night of Hanukkah, an important Jewish festival which celebrates the success of the Jewish people in reconsecrating the temple in Jerusalem in about 165 BCE, which had been defiled by the Hellenistic monarchy in Syria, which at that stage was ruling Judea and that part of the world. Judas Maccabeus and his supporters rebelled, and when they finally recaptured the temple they did not have enough sanctified oil to burn for more than one night—and they had to keep it burning for eight nights. The miracle of Hanukkah is that this one flask of oil burned for eight nights. It is celebrated by the Jewish people, and honoured by all people, as an example of Jewish courage, indomitability, resilience and of course the hope of the Jewish people always to be a light unto the world. When you consider that the two great monotheistic religions of the world, Christianity and Islam, are both directly derived from Judaism, there is some considerable force in that.

But in the midst of all this light there can sometimes be, and regrettably all too often is, darkness. On 25 October in my electorate of Wentworth there was an attack on some Jewish families who were returning home after their traditional Shabbat dinner on Friday night. They were attacked by a group of eight men who abused them with racial slurs and anti-Semitic language. It left one of them, 66-year-old Eli Behar, unconscious with internal bleeding in his head; his wife, of a similar age, was also injured. Their son Shlomo had a finger broken and required stitches in his head. Two others were also injured and abused in this attack.

Everybody has condemned this attack, and it is important that we always do that. Racial attacks, racism, racial abuse—whether against Jews or anybody else—are utterly unacceptable in our society. So, as we celebrate and honour the festival of Hanukkah, it is important to remember that, just as we celebrate that light and that indomitable spirit of the Jewish people, we stand up and oppose racism and racial abuse—in whatever form, against whomever, by whomever—in our society.

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