14 March 2025
CEO Update
A caravan load of cracks in our cohesion
On Monday, the Australian Federal Police announced that a caravan found laden with explosives and antisemitic material in Dural on 19 January 2025 was part of a “fabricated terrorism plot – essentially a criminal con job”.
This revelation “adds a chilling new element to the antisemitism crisis”, to use the words of Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-CEO Alex Ryvchin. But it should come as no surprise to people with an understanding of serious and organised crime, antisemitism, and the current state of social cohesion in Australia.
What we are seeing is a troubling shift from bystander to willing participant – a failure to be guided by our core values - and it should be raising alarm bells for all Australians.
As NSW Premier Chris Minns said yesterday, while the caravan was part of a criminal conspiracy, and not the plot of a terrorist organisation "it was still appalling racial hatred".
Antisemitism, the world’s oldest hatred, is “irrational, delusional and absurd” as described by Deborah Lipstadt, a leading authority on the issue. By contrast, organised crime is calculated, deliberate and purposeful – for profit, power or in this case, leverage. Together, they form a dangerous and reckless pair – a grotesque marriage of baseless hatred with greedy indifference.
It is not the first time that organised crime and extremism have jumped in bed together and it was almost inevitable that the sordid affair would be rekindled in the current climate.
Co-designed to terrorise us all and benefit the deranged masterminds, it sends a dangerous message about where our society is at. This is no longer just about extremists on the periphery. It is about the ordinary Australians, with no skin in the game, willing to act at the behest of criminals, for little more than a meal ticket.
Following the arrests of fourteen people under Strike Force Pearl, NSW Police Deputy Commissioner David Hudson said the individuals arrested did not display any antisemitic ideology. But there are, very real burn marks and hate symbols on synagogues and childcare centres. So, what is going on?
In 2024, the NSW Crime Commission reported on the use of “contract crews”, hired by organised crime networks (OCNs) to undertake acts of violence, including murder, kidnapping and drug theft. OCNs are adaptive and opportunistic – they see a niche in the market, and they exploit it.
Unfortunately, there was a market for antisemitic attacks in Australia – seen through hundreds of incidents and hateful rhetoric - the Sydney Opera House, the doxxing, the boycotting of Jewish businesses, the encampments.
OCNs prey on vulnerable people with a low moral compass, willing to do dirty jobs for dirty money. They pose a risk to our economy, to public health and public safety, and now, to social cohesion.
The 2024 Mapping Social Cohesion Study published by the Scanlon Institute, reported the lowest ever levels of social cohesion in Australia since their indexing began in 2007. The findings indicate that social cohesion is under pressure but has not cracked and there were clear positive indicators, including 85% of participants agreeing that multiculturalism is good for Australia. Similarly, an independent 2024 National Social Acceptance Survey ('The Tolerance Project') commissioned by The Dor Foundation found that Australians valued fairness, respect and tolerance.
But the problem is, most people won’t act to prevent wrongdoing– only 21% of participants surveyed by The Tolerance Project said they would intervene in a public racist incident. That means that eight out of 10 of us would stand by and let it unfold.
This apathy for action by the public, and the influence of sinister actors motivated by ideology, or personal benefit, or both, places good Australians at risk of causing harm, even where they are not ideologically motivated to do so. So long as the unholy alliance of organised crime and extremism exists, and so long as indifferent Australians allow themselves to be exploited, the slope from bystander to perpetrator will continue to steepen.
In other words, the bar for negative action is too low, and the bar for positive action is too high. This needs to be reversed.
The Tolerance Project found that younger Australians, aged 18-35 are at risk of developing negative attitudes towards minority groups, if not positively educated, in a way they understand – particularly online. Without education that promotes critical thinking and a return to the core values that we say we care about – fairness, respect, equality, honesty and tolerance – Australians are at risk of shifting apathy into negativity, inaction into destruction.
And that’s how we land up with caravans laden with explosives.
Today, the Jewish community celebrates Purim and we recount our survival of antisemitism in Ancient Persia more than 2000 years ago. Antisemitism morphs and mutates across time and space. The version we see today in Australia is different from the one we saw back then, and its responses, too, need to be purpose-built to meet local, contemporary challenges. If we are to truly shift the dial, we must work across a continuum that not only calls out, reduces and disrupts hate, but draws on research, data and evidence to prevent it at its source, and promote a cohesive Australia.
Tahli Blicblau, CEO of The Dor Foundation and former Director of Strategic Intelligence & Capabilities at the NSW Crime Commission