Australia’s “antisemitism envoy” Jillian Segal has released a new report claiming that the primary threat to Jews in our country comes from left-wing pro-Palestine activists, which Segal hilariously labels “issue-motivated antisemitism”.
Segal repeatedly warns that antisemites are guilty of the “conflation” of Jewish people with the state of Israel while also repeatedly going out of her way to lump Jews in with support for the Israeli state, complaining of the view that “anyone who identifies as a Zionist is themselves fundamentally wicked, notably including the overwhelming majority of Jewish Australians who, as an inextricable part of their Jewish identity, hold a belief in the right of Israel to exist.”
To help curb the actions of the “issue-motivated” antisemites, Segal recommends the implementation of exclusion zones for protesters, a ban on face coverings for demonstrators, extra review measures for people who are in this country on visas, and extra oversight of public broadcasters the ABC and SBS to ensure fair and balanced coverage of Israeli atrocities.
As you might expect, the Australian press are dutifully regurgitating Segal’s left-punching propaganda with zero pushback. The Australian ran the story on the new report with the headline “‘Pervasive progressive hate’: antisemitism envoy’s new blueprint,” while The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald went with “New wave of Australian antisemitism comes from progressive social justice critics, says antisemitism envoy.”
The first except in bold and italics is extremely ridiculous. It’s a wild implication that the point of “far-left activists” is some conspiratorial antisemitic plot, rather than economic change and improved conditions for society as a whole. No good-faith interpretation of the mainstream nor radical progressive causes can possibly see them as movements which champion bigotry such as antisemitism. I’ve only heard of one case, in five years, of someone trying to participate in an open community discussion taking an antisemitic perspective, and they were quickly made to leave the premises. We don’t tolerate bigotry.
I have said it before and I will say it again: anyone who talks about “left-wing antisemitism” like it’s a real problem which presents a real threat is a lying manipulator and should be treated as such. They are pretending to believe things that no one actually believes in order to promote the interests of a genocidal apartheid state.
Many of my comrades are anti-Zionist Jewish people, a tendency which predates the “State of Israel” by over 50 years which cannot be trivialised. JAO48 are front and centre in almost every protest on the ground I’ve seen in Sydney.
Segal recommends the implementation of exclusion zones for protesters, a ban on face coverings for demonstrators, extra review measures for people who are in this country on visas, and extra oversight of public broadcasters the ABC and SBS to ensure fair and balanced coverage of Israeli atrocities.
For those who didn’t see, ABC and SBS already said “No.” to an ombudsman for antisemitism. Of course, but still good to see.
@geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml: When you’re quoting, please consider using quote formatting to make it clear that you’re not making personal observations there:
> An example quote. > > It has multiple paragraphs.…looks like…
An example quote.
It has multiple paragraphs.
