The following article has been published in The Jerusalem Post by Julie Nathan.

After Brendon O’Connell, who had attended an anti-Israel action in Perth organized by Friends of Palestine WA (FOPWA), was convicted by a jury of racial incite­ment, Alex Bain­bridge of FOPWA announced that the group “makes a conscious policy of con­demning expres­sions of antisemitism and other forms of racism.” He added, “We are friends of Palestine, not enemies of the Jewish people.”

Regard­less of how genuine Bainbridge’s claims were, there is very real and insidious anti-Jewish content within the discourse of pro-Palestini­an, anti-Israel people and organ­iz­a­tions in Australia. Many sup­port­ers of the Palestini­an cause claim their support is based on a social justice and anti­racism platform. Anti-Israel, pro-Palestini­an indi­vidu­als and organ­iz­a­tions often make the claim that they are simply anti-Israel and not anti-Jewish.

However, many of these people and organ­iz­a­tions cross the line from legit­im­ate criticism of the State of Israel into outright antisemitism.

Pro-Palestini­an, anti-Israel organ­iz­a­tions utilize both websites and facebook to promote their beliefs, propagate articles and news and advertise upcoming protests, forums and other actions. Organ­iz­a­tions set up many different facebook sites, often for specific events. Facebook is one area in par­tic­u­lar where members can post comments, links and other material. It is on these official websites and facebook pages that anti-Jewish content is to be found.

When anti-Jewish comments, such as the post “i don’t give a f***, jews are pricks!!!!!” and another post advoc­at­ing to protest in a “major jewish [sic] suburb” in Melbourne, are posted on the facebook sites of Students for Palestine (Melbourne), and are not removed, then a tolerance, or even approval, for antisemitism can be produced.

Videos are another means of propagat­ing anti-Jewish sentiment, con­spir­acy theories, or similar sinister insinu­ations about Jews. Such videos, posted on the facebook site of the Aus­trali­ans Friends of Palestine Asso­ci­ation (AFOPA), based in Adelaide, include videos entitled “Zionists are a Satan wor­ship­ing Cult!,” “Dangers Of A ‘Jewish’ State,” and “The Hitler Speech They Don’t Want You To Hear.”

The first two titles sound anti-Israel, yet the synopsis of the first states: “To help you under­stand the dif­fer­ence between the “true Israel” and the Synagogue of Satan.” This is the familiar ter­min­o­logy of far-right religious antisemitism.

The second video repeats this theme, as it states: “Jewish elitism has permeated every aspect of our nation’s infra­struc­ture.…

If this trend continues then a Judaic tyranny never before exper­i­enced in American life will dismantle all that Chris­tian­ity has bequeathed to our once free and pros­per­ous nation.”

The third video claims to be the English trans­la­tion of a speech by Hitler which blames Roosevelt for WWII and portrays Hitler and the Nazis as innocent and peaceful, which is a standard neo-Nazi theme.

When, for example, AFOPA allows antisemitic videos which demonize Jews and sell Hitler as a hero to be posted and kept on their facebook page, this belies the claim that they are only anti-Israel. It shows, at best, an unac­cept­able tolerance for those who are deeply and overtly hostile to Jews.

When pro-Palestini­an websites, like Aus­trali­ans For Palestine (AFP) and AFOPA, republish articles from overseas which use antisemitic language, this only rein­forces the negative portrayal of Jews. An example is an article which uses the term “Talmudic rituals.”

This term, a coded expres­sion for attacking Judaism, is used on many Islamic websites such as Isla­mOn­line, and by Arab journ­al­ists such as Khalid Amayreh.

As one study of antisemitism has noted, “The term ‘Talmudic rituals’ used by Amayreh (2009c) and Islam- Online (2009a) in reference to Jews near Al-Aqsa is a coded allusion to some sort of ‘sinister’ Jewish rituals, given that his­tor­ic­ally the Christian author­it­ies condemned and burned the Talmud as an allegedly sinister Jewish text in an effort to convert the Jews to Chris­tian­ity” (ADL 2003).

In com­par­is­on, a less active website, Palestine Solid­ar­ity Campaign Melbourne, has the same story but from the Maan News website, where the article contains nothing inflam­mat­ory or antisemitic. This shows that there are various ways to choose to tell a story and that anti-Israel organ­iz­a­tions like AFP and AFOPA have chosen to use and republish articles with anti-Jewish language and content rather than articles that are not antisemitic.

Of even graver import is when pro- Palestini­an websites republish anti- Semitic articles. Aus­trali­ans For Palestine (AFP) repro­duced in full an article from the antisemitic and Holocaust-denying website Institute for His­tor­ic­al Review.

Antisemitic claims in the article include: “In reality, the Jewish hold on American life is far more dangerous…

Through­out history Jews have time and again wielded great power to further group interests that are separate from, and often contrary to, those of the non-Jewish pop­u­la­tions among whom they live… Now we are engaged in a great, global struggle – in which two distinct and irre­con­cil­able sides confront each other. A struggle that pits a self-assured and diabol­ic­al power that feels ordained to rule over others, on one side, and all other nations and societies – indeed, humanity itself – on the other.”

By pub­lish­ing such blatant racism, and from an avowedly antisemitic website, AFP clearly shows that under­ly­ing its anti-Zionist veneer is a tolerance at best, an iden­ti­fic­a­tion with at worst, Holocaust denial, anti-Jewish con­spir­acy theories and the demon­iz­ing of the Jewish people. AFP is a major website of the pro-Palestini­an movement in Australia, repro­du­cing many articles and news reports.

AFP also reproduce classic antisemitic accus­a­tions, for example: “Such are the practices of the Jewish-owned media such as Murdoch and his ilk.

And it follows that the gov­ern­ment is no better. In fact, being a gov­ern­ment of feckless politi­cians, they too are manip­u­lated in their decisions by the local Melbourne Zionist fra­tern­ity, well organized and who have many such politi­cians under their control.”

Such state­ments serve to reinforce anti-Jewish con­spir­acy theories remin­is­cent of the The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

Cartoons are another means of express­ing anti-Jewish racism on pro- Palestini­an websites. One par­tic­u­lar cartoon appeared on at least three pro- Palestini­an facebook sites, including “Social Justice Network” and two others.

This cartoon plays directly on the 2,000-year-old depiction of Jews col­lect­ively as Christ-killers, an accus­a­tion which has incited centuries of per­se­cu­tion and butchery against Jews and was repu­di­ated by the Catholic Church 50 years ago.

The cartoon is rich in tra­di­tion­al antisemitic religious imagery. Using the symbols and images asso­ci­ated with classic antisemitism (e.g., claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to char­ac­ter­ize Israel or Israelis falls squarely within the European Union Agency for Fun­da­ment­al Rights (EUFRA) Working Defin­i­tion of Antisemitism.

An egregious example of will­ing­ness to engage in actions spe­cific­ally targeting Jews, rather than Israel, was the decision by two pro-Palestini­an organ­iz­a­tions, Students for Palestine and Socialist Altern­at­ive, to protest outside a synagogue in Melbourne last February.

Not only did they target a Jewish place of worship, but the protest was to be staged on a Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath.

The target was stated to be Joseph Gutnick, for his alleged support of families living in set­tle­ments in Hebron; yet Gutnick is not a member of the targeted synagogue, nor does he attend services there.

Students for Palestine and Socialist Altern­at­ive con­sidered targeting a synagogue an accept­able anti-Israel action.

This also shows that the protest organ­izers do not dis­tin­guish between ordinary Aus­trali­an Jews and Israel.

The pub­lic­a­tion of antisemitic content on pro-Palestini­an websites can lead to contempt toward Jews, and incite­ment of racial hatred, but it also lessens the cred­ib­il­ity of the organ­iz­a­tions that elicit and permit racist content.

Many of these organ­iz­a­tions claim to be only against Israel and not against Jews, and yet their websites and facebook pages tell a very different and dis­turb­ing story.

Julie Nathan is the research officer for the Executive Council of Aus­trali­an Jewry (ECAJ), the offi­cially elected rep­res­ent­at­ive organ­iz­a­tion of the Aus­trali­an Jewish Community.