By Julie Nathan
1 December 2016
The Executive Council of Aus­trali­an Jewry (ECAJ), the elected rep­res­ent­at­ive national body of the Aus­trali­an Jewish community, released their annual Report on Antisemitism in Australia, for 2016. The ECAJ Report records antisemitism in two broad cat­egor­ies: incidents and discourse. A link to the full report is at the end.
The 12-month period ending 30 September 2016 saw continued antisemitic discourse in Australia, some of which was doc­u­mented in the annual Report on Antisemitism in Australia published by the Executive Council of Aus­trali­an Jewry (ECAJ).
The Report divides discourse into several cat­egor­ies, according to the source: main­stream media and society, organ­isa­tions and online, Christian, Muslim, and the anti-Israel movement. A summary of some of the issues, and a small sample of typical online comments express­ing antisemitic views, within each category follows.
Main­stream Media and Society:
The ABC, Australia’s national public broad­caster, continued to allow itself at times to be a conduit of antisemitic expres­sions and images, par­tic­u­larly on its Facebook pages. The ABC has become something of an icon for anti­semites, as those who are hostile to Jews have found a place where they are free to promote their antipathy towards Jews on ABC social media platforms, including antisemitic fab­ric­a­tions and Holocaust denial, and have been able to do so con­sist­ently and fre­quently over the years without being banned or facing other adverse con­sequences for their racism. An ABC doc­u­ment­ary from February 2014 continues to enjoy viewing across numerous Youtube sites and continues to elicit virulent antisemitic posted comments.
On the Facebook page of ABC News, in response to two stories about the Holocaust there were comments accusing Jews of: com­mit­ting their own “genocide” against the Palestini­ans; being “Christ-killers”; con­trolling the banks; “milking” the Holocaust for money; and being greedy and of caring only about them­selves. There were jokes and comments about ovens, and of telling Jews to get over it. Images of Jews as parasites and shysters were posted. Many images mocking the Holocaust, gas chambers, showers and con­cen­tra­tion camps were also posted. The Holocaust was denied or minimised.
Organ­isa­tions and Online:
Through­out Australia, there are many organ­isa­tions and groups who promote antisemitic beliefs and ideo­lo­gies. These tend to be on the far right of the political spectrum. During the period in review, most but not all of these groups were more of a nuisance than an organised threat to Jews, either indi­vidu­ally or as a community. Other far right groups posed more of a threat. The rise of anti-Islamist groups, has in some instances, gal­van­ised disparate voices into a coalition of racists, including white suprem­acists and anti­semites, and into activity. For example, the leader of the prominent anti-Islamist ‘United Patriots Front’ is Blair Cottrell, who is not only an antisemite but also a neo-Nazi.
Examples of online rhetoric by some of these indi­vidu­als and groups include:

• “the Holocaust is a hoax”

• “The Jews do nothing but destroy”

• “Adolf Hitler – we need another one!”

• “Our nation is now com­pletely under the control of the Inter­na­tion­al Invisible gov­ern­ment of World Jewry.”

• “Through­out his history, the Jew has been a destroyer of civil­iz­a­tions, a plunderer of nations, and a killer who invented the very idea of genocide.”

• “It’s all humans duty to kill Jews on sight , quickly before they wriggle into a hole”

• “how sick, and dis­gust­ing the JEWISH RACE is”

• “Gas the kikes race war now!”

• “we did hummanity 6 million favors”

• “God kicked you rotten parasitic Jews out of the middle east when you killed his son Jesus Christ”

Christian:
There have been incidents of main­stream Prot­est­ant Christian preachers express­ing and promoting the idea that the Jews are respons­ible for the death of Jesus. When these matters have come to attention of the ECAJ and/or the state Jewish body, sometimes from Chris­ti­ans them­selves, the Jewish body has com­mu­nic­ated its objec­tions, and those in authority at those places have invest­ig­ated and assured the Jewish community that such expres­sions are unac­cept­able and will not be tolerated. Also of concern are the many high-profile Prot­est­ant Chris­ti­ans, including clergy, who are actively and vocally involved in the promotion of the BDS campaign and the demon­iz­ing and del­e­git­im­iz­ing of Israel as the nation State of the Jewish people.
Comments posted on the Facebook page of one Christian cleric include:

• “the murdering Zionists”

• “the Zionist con­trolled media”

• “these filthy Goldman Sachs Zionist criminals”

• “the Jews are there to loot whatever they can carry”

• “they have too much money in this world. If need be they can buy off anyone.”

Muslim:
Although the Aus­trali­an Muslim community is eth­nic­ally, reli­giously and polit­ic­ally, very diverse, some segments exhibit high levels of hostility towards Jews, from a religious per­spect­ive, and not just from a political per­spect­ive based on the Arab-Israel conflict. While many Muslim media sites and organ­isa­tions act respons­ibly, others do not. Of concern, are visiting Islamic speakers from overseas. One such speaker was Pakistani Sunni cleric, Muhammad Raza Saqib Mustafai, who has called for the exterm­in­a­tion of all Jews from the earth. To the credit of his Islamic hosts, as soon as the media provided evidence of his state­ments, his hosts cancelled the rest of Mustafai’s talks and he was asked to return to Pakistan.
Examples of comments on Muslim Facebook pages include:

• “You lot learned nothing from WW2. Not sur­pris­ing really… God sent you Jesus & you killed him, then he sent Mohammad but still you shunned the true message of God.”

• “Hitler said the reason why he never killed all Jews is to show the world how dangerous they are”

• “Israel justifies that Hitler was correct to anni­hil­ate them”

• “What an insult to think God Almighty would ‘choose’ child murdering zionists as His chosen ones over the billions of pious law abiding human beings He has created through­out time.”

• “jewish parasites should bre expelled”

Anti-Israel movement:
One of the most insidious and virulent sources of antisemitism is within parts of the anti-Israel movement. Criticism of Israel is not per se antisemitic, but much of the criticism of Israel and the denial of Jews to a nation state in Israel, found on these sites crosses the line into antisemitism. Although the movement remains somewhat on the margins in Australia, overseas it has threatened the security of, and vilified, diaspora Jews. Of the dozens of anti-Israel groups and internet sites within Australia, several are cesspits of con­sist­ent and frequent Nazi-style anti-Jewish pro­pa­ganda, vili­fic­a­tion and demon­isa­tion. Even the anti-Israel lobby group, Australia Palestine Advocacy Network, composed of Christian clergy, academics and others, has not been immune from the virus of antisemitism.
Examples of comments on the Facebook pages of anti-Israel groups include:

• “Satans chosen people”

• “Synagogue of Satan”

• “milking and dehu­man­iz­ing the Goyim”

• “You Zionist Jew’s have a short memory……Remember Auschwitz and Dachau? Remember the Holocaust / Genocide…….Scum of the Earth……”

• “This is why hitler killed them”

• “They should have put all Israelis in the ovens !!!!!”

• “Think we need another Hitler”

• “Zionists and their putrid sup­port­ers are a cancer on the world”

• “Dis­gust­ing! And they call them­selves “THE CHOSEN PEOPLE”..Hahahahahahah…!!! The vomit of the world.”

• “Zionism murdered our Lord Jesus Christ”

In Con­clu­sion:
Although Australia remains a stable, vibrant and tolerant democracy, where Jews face no official dis­crim­in­a­tion, and are free to observe their faith and tra­di­tions, antisemitism persists. There are segments of Aus­trali­an society which are not only hostile towards Jews, but actively and publicly express that hatred with words and threatened or actual violent acts. As a result, and by necessity, physical security remains a prime concern for the Jewish community.
All people, regard­less of race or religion, should be able to live without har­ass­ment and hatred, without vili­fic­a­tion and violence. Antisemitism is pervasive and per­ni­cious. Violence does not occur in a vacuum. It is words, when given free reign, which create a poisonous atmo­sphere for those targeted by racism. It is words that incite hatred and violence.
The ECAJ Report on Antisemitism in Australia 2016 is available online at ECAJ Antisemitism Report 2016
Julie Nathan is the Research Officer for the Executive Council of Aus­trali­an Jewry and the author of the Report on Antisemitism.
This article appeared in the Times of Israel