6th August 2013
by Julie Nathan,
Research Officer,
Executive Council of Australian Jewry
Palestinian and Hezbollah flags flew at the Al-Quds Day rally in Arncliffe, Sydney, last Friday. Around 150 people attended, plus a police contingent of over a dozen officers. An Israeli flag at the rally had the words “Delete Zionists” painted on the blue stripes, and the Star of David was circled and crossed out.
Inciting people to “Delete Zionists” is a call not only for the destruction of Israel, but for the destruction of Israelis, and of those who support Israel and the right to self-determination of the Jewish people. It is a call for the annihilation of millions of Jews, in Israel and the diaspora. It is a call against people, not against a belief or a state.
The protestors gathered outside Arncliffe railway station and after several speeches, the crowd marched to Arncliffe Park while chanting “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, “Down down Israel”, and “Netanyahu you will see, Palestine will be free.”
Let no-one be fooled into thinking that the protest was simply against Israel’s “occupation” of the West Bank. Designating the whole of the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, which includes Israel’s heartland, as “Palestine” is a statement against Israel’s very existence.
Father Dave Smith (left in pic), of the Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Dulwich Hill, addressed the crowd in the park, most of them Shia Muslims from the nearby Arncliffe mosque. He stated that “the greatest crime ongoing in the world today is the oppression of the Palestinian people. From 1948 until now, the Palestinian occupation continues. How has humanity allowed this injustice to go on for so long? The injustice of the Palestinian occupation stains the whole world with the blood of the innocent… We call on governments to remove this stain.”
Just listen to his words: “the greatest crime ongoing in the world”, “from 1948 until now”, “this stain”. He was saying that all of Israel, not the West Bank, is an “occupation”, a “crime”, a “stain”. He was inciting people to hate and destroy Israel. Yet he began his speech by saying that he did not agree with those calling for Israel’s destruction. That sentiment rings hollow in light of his subsequent rhetoric.
The MC for the event demanded “We want the Zionists out of Muslim lands. If it wasn’t for the USA, Israel would not last a day.” A female speaker referred to genocide being committed against the Palestinians.
Jamal Daoud, an organizer of the rally, lamented that the Arab Spring and the Syrian civil war had “shifted the focus from the Palestinians.”
Several Shia sheiks addressed the crowd. Sheikh Nami Farhat al-Ameli called on “humanity to stand against the evil Zionist regime and big devil America.”
Tim Anderson, another speaker, said that “imperialism has its tools, and Israel is one of those tools.”
This was the second year that an Al-Quds Day rally has been held in Australia, both times in Sydney. This year saw the first rally held in Melbourne. An early video of the Melbourne protest was embedded with the antisemitic imagery of a Jew eating a gentile child.
Al-Quds Day was inaugurated by Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran in 1979 as a call for international protests against Israel and to promote the Muslim rule of Jerusalem.
The Al-Quds Day Committee Australia stated on its Facebook page in July that “Al-Quds is the Arabic name for Jerusalem, which along with all of Palestine is under occupation by the Zionist Regime.” In 2012 this Committee called “Israel, the enemy of mankind, the enemy of humanity…”
A few days before the rally last week, the Committee made a bizarre accusation: “this year the Zionists have left the job of trying to sabotage the rally to organisation/s that claim to be pro-Palestinians” and of “plots to sabotage the movement.”
It is unclear what they are referring to, but perhaps it fits in with Iranian leaders who see “Zionist plots” anywhere and everywhere, even under the bed, and apparently too even in the Sydney suburb of Arncliffe.

 

Contact:
Peter Wertheim AM | Executive Director
phone: 02 8353 8500 | m: 0408 160 904 | fax 02 9361 5888
e: pwertheim@ecaj.org.au

6th August 2013
by Julie Nathan,
Research Officer,
Executive Council of Australian Jewry
Melbourne held its first Al-Quds Day rally this year.
The short video of the rally and march shows about fifty people gathered on the steps of the State Library, with speakers giving speeches, and protestors waving anti-Israel banners. The crowd then marched down the street.
In the middle of this two minute video of the anti-Israel protest several photos and cartoon images have been inserted. Some of these images are overtly anti-Jewish.
One image is of a Jewish man, identified as such with a kippah (skullcap) and Star of David, and with a stereotypical huge hooked nose, holding a small and limp child in front of him. The Jew is poised to take a gigantic and deadly bite out of the child.

Why is an image of a Jew eating a gentile child inserted into a video of an anti-Israel rally?

For a thousand years, Christians had accused Jews of murdering gentile children and draining their blood for use in religious rituals or for making matzah (Passover bread). This fabrication has been used against Jews to vilify and demonize them, and to incite the mobs to violently attack Jews.
Another image shows a dead Palestinian in loin cloth draped in the arms of a sitting woman, with fighter planes overhead. The figure is transposed from artwork of the dead Jesus in the arms of Mary. This image elicits the millennial accusation against Jews as “Christ-killers”.

This accusation was used to incite the mobs to go out and massacre Jews, often whole Jewish communities. This image in the video reconstructs the accusation and demonizing of the Jewish people as being innately murderous and absolutely evil, and of the Palestinian Arabs as being mild and meek as Jesus, and innocent.

The video was made by Alaa Al, and appears in several places.
The Al-Quds Day Committee Australia, the organizers of the rally, posted this video on their Facebook page, with the acknowledgment of its producer, through the introduction: “Video made by sister Alaa on the first Al-Quds Day Protest in Melbourne.” The video was also posted on the Al-Quds Day Committee’s Melbourne event Facebook page by Alaa. It also appears on Alaa’s Youtube channel.
Al-Quds Day was inaugurated by Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran in 1979 as a call for international protests against Israel and to promote the destruction of Israel and its replacement with a Muslim state.
This is reinforced by the Al-Quds Day Committee Australia in 2012 calling “Israel, the enemy of mankind, the enemy of humanity…”
So why the antisemitic images?
Anti-Zionists deny they are anti-Jewish, claiming they are only anti-Israel. They often accuse those who accuse them of using anti-Jewish stereotypes and imagery of using the ‘antisemitism card’ as a ploy to stifle and silence criticism of Israel. This is aimed at diverting the accusations of antisemitism away from the anti-Zionists, and of delegitimizing any claims of antisemitism.
A banner at the Sydney Al-Quds Day rally had the words ‘Delete Zionists’. This goes beyond calls for the destruction of a state. It is a direct call to kill people, specifically to murder millions of Jews in Israel and around the world.
In Toronto, Canada, a speaker at the Al-Quds Day rally called for giving Israeli Jews two minutes warning to leave Palestine, and then to start shooting any Jews they come across. This is another direct call and incitement to murder Jews, urged at an Al-Quds Day rally. The speaker’s words were:
“We have to give them an ultimatum: You have to leave Jerusalem. You have to leave Palestine… We say get out or you are dead. We give them two minutes and then we start shooting. And that’s the only way they’ll understand.”
If Al-Quds Day was about protesting against the Israeli control of parts of the West Bank and Jerusalem, or even of Israel’s existence, then why the antisemitism?
With all their rhetoric of ’justice’ and ‘human rights’ for all oppressed people throughout the world, and especially for the Palestinian Arabs, how can they justify using and promoting racist stereotypes and images about one segment of humanity, namely Jews, and only Jews? How do they justify portraying Jews as innately evil, and as the enemy of humanity?
It appears as though Al-Quds Day is not about Palestinian human rights at all, but about hatred of Jews. It appears that their problem with Israel is that it is the state of the Jewish people.
As Al-Quds Day proponents have a vitriolic hatred of Jews they will oppose Jews wherever they are, whether in a Jewish state or dispersed throughout the world. Their focus for now is on where Jews are concentrated most – in Israel.
To Al-Quds Day supporters, the Jews’ greatest crime is not to have re-established a state in the ancient homeland, but to survive and thrive, despite or in spite of, whatever hatred, demonization, and violence is used against the Jewish people.

 

Contact:
Peter Wertheim AM | Executive Director
phone: 02 8353 8500 | m: 0408 160 904 | fax 02 9361 5888
e: pwertheim@ecaj.org.au