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Local council initiatives tackle antisemitism

Leading local council leaders will discuss strategies at a conference on the Gold Coast which has attracted controversy.
Michael Visontay
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Graffiti in Northcote, Melbourne

Anti-Zionist graffiti in Northcote, Melbourne (Image: Anti-Defamation Commission).

Published: 28 August 2025

Last updated: 28 August 2025

A policy of removing antisemitic graffiti within an hour of being reported is one of the key case studies that will be presented by Australian mayors at an antisemitism conference on the Gold Coast next week.

Melbourne Deputy Lord Mayor Roshena Campbell will discuss her council’s innovative strategy with other mayors and councillors at the 2025 Australian Mayors Summit Against Antisemitism from September 3-5.

Over the past 12 months, Melbourne City Council has removed about 3,000 instances of antisemitic, anti-Israel and other racist material within one hour of it being reported, Campbell told The Jewish Independent. The graffiti removal policy, implemented during Covid to address anti-lockdown protests, was upgraded to 24/7 activity and one-hour removal, with daily monitoring of hotspots, in April 2024.

“The policy covers a broad range of material. It's not just graffiti,” Campbell said. “It's stickers and other material that is posted after protests that occur in the city on the weekends and involves the removal of graffiti from the two synagogues located in the city of Melbourne.”

The Council deploys a “clean team” within the CBD hotel grid, with one person responsible for each of the major streets. “They literally walk up and down that street all day, not just looking for graffiti. They are responsible for cleaning of that street. If they can't do it on the spot, they report it.

“In addition, we've got teams that are deployed after the protests, not just the pro-Palestinian protest. And any individual can use our council website to report antisemitic or racist material or any graffiti. We will respond to all of those reports."

Asked to assess what impact the one-hour policy has had, Campbell said she did not think it has led to a reduction in the amount of graffiti. “But it has led to a real difference in how much antisemitic material people see. There are 3,000 bits of material that could have been visible for days, weeks, months.

“That could have led to Jewish people who came to our city feeling unsafe. That could have led to the sentiments in that graffiti having wider exposure. So we do think that makes a difference to how safe people feel in our streets. We want every member of our community, Jewish and others, to feel safe coming to Melbourne.”

Catching offenders

Campbell said there had also been an immediate and tangible benefit from Council’s increased investment in CCTV cameras, in the wake of the recent attacks on Miznon and the East Melbourne synagogue, which both occurred on a Friday night.

“It was the council's CCTV cameras that were used to ultimately identify the people who were arrested for those crimes,” she said. “We were really proud that we were able to use these assets.

“The control room is run from Town Hall. In many instances, the data is used to apprehend people while a crime is taking place. If someone is tagging something or putting antisemitic material up, we will tell Victoria Police as it's happening, and that person will then be arrested.”

Councils speak out

Carol Tannous-Sleiman, a councillor at Sydney’s Hunter’s Hill Council, will use her position on the panel to model the importance of speaking out against antisemitism at a local government level. She told TJI that Hunters Hill had passed a motion in July “acknowledging the rise in antisemitism, committing to oppose it, and setting out a local strategy to help ensure the safety and dignity of Jewish residents”, after the office of a NSW MP had been targeted in an incident.

“I’ll be highlighting that it takes leadership at all levels – councils, institutions, and individuals – to safeguard our multicultural society,” she said.

Glen Eira Mayor Simone Zmood will discuss “scaling up impact through our leadership of the Social Cohesion Taskforce” and other state-local community bodies, a spokesperson said.

The Deputy Lord Mayor of Sydney Zann Maxwell and Inner West Sydney Mayor Darcy Byrne will also speak about their councils’ efforts to combat antisemitism at the conference.

Controversy over organisers

The summit is being organised by the US advocacy group Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), which has attracted some controversy.

CAM has been criticised over a social media post which suggested this month’s march across the Sydney Harbour Bridge was an example of antisemitism “taking over” the city.

“These demonstrations were not about Gaza,” the post said, highlighting a poster of the Iranian leader Ayatollah Khamenei, and a sign saying “Zionists are neo-Nazis” among an estimated crowd of between 90,000 and 300,000 people.

Mayor of Inner City Council in Sydney Darcy Byrne told The Guardian that he had been under pressure to withdraw from the conference after the post. Byrne said he would “be stating categorically in my remarks at the event that depicting the citizens who attended the March for Humanity over the Harbour Bridge as antisemites is preposterous, absurd and insulting”.

A CAM spokesperson told The Guardian it had not condemned the march itself, but highlighted “numerous manifestations of antisemitism”. TJI approached Byrne for comment about the report and the summit, but he did not respond.

CAM has taken the unusual step of offering mayors and councillors across Australia all-inclusive travel and accommodation to attend the conference, an offer which would be funded by Australian companies and Jewish groups. The Jewish Independent does not suggest the offer breaches any rules.

Mayor of Glen Eira, Cr Zmood, has accepted the offer. “The Mayor is an invited speaker and her travel will be provided by the conference organisers,” a council spokesperson confirmed to TJI. “We believe it’s important for Glen Eira’s voice to be part of national conversations that condemn antisemitism and work to prevent all forms of racism and hatred.”

Most councils have decided to pay their own costs to send representatives.

The summit is co-chaired by David Gonski, Chancellor of the University of New South Wales, and property developer Stanley Roth. Other members of the organising committee are Rabbi Orna Triguboff, from the Emanuel Synagogue, and Ron Weiser, a former president of the Zionist Federation of Australia.

Other local speakers at the event include former senator Nova Peris and Australian Human Rights Commissioner Lorraine Finlay.

The list of overseas speakers include the President of the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy, Dr Charles Asher Small; a former neo-Nazi in the US, Jeff Schoep; and a former Canadian Jihadist, Mubin Shaikh. These speakers are being brought out by CAM.

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About the author

Michael Visontay

Michael Visontay

Michael Visontay is Commissioning Editor of TJI and was Editor-in-Chief from 2017-22. Michael is a former Assistant Editor of The Sydney Morning Herald and columnist with The Australian Jewish News. He has written six books, including Who Gave You Permission? with Manny Waks, and Welcome to Wanderland: Western Sydney Wanderers and the Pride of the West. His most recent book is Noble Fragments: the Maverick who broke up the world's greatest book (Scribe, 2024).

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