Let’s scrutinise this article by Liberal MP Julian Leeser, a supposed champion of Aboriginal rights, who also wears the mantle of “antisemitism” crusader. Is this someone concerned about human rights? Or just another deceitful political opportunist, creating division with lies and using faux antisemitism, to silence opponents of Israel’s Genocide against the Palestinian people?
Source of quote in response to Israeli PM Netanyahu’s denial of genocide – ICC referral (endorse) 1
Leeser’s article is reproduced – (with helpful annotations) – in full below.
Leeser makes demand after demand in this article. Full of outrage about the “hurt”,
criticism of Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people is causing his fellow Zionists
Leeser (L): This long weekend we celebrate and reflect on the story of Australia. For Jewish Australians it is a weekend of mixed emotions. On Friday we reflected on our country with Australia Day and on Saturday we pause for Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Like so many migrant and religious groups, historically Australia has been generous to Jewish people. It has been one of the few nations where Jews have not experienced any form of discrimination.
Dingo News (DN): That’s patently untrue.
“The Bulletin and Truth both highlighted the economic peculiarities of Jews, and during the Russian immigration scare the Bulletin commented: “Even the Chinaman is cheaper in the end than the Hebrew …the one with the tail is preferable to the one with the Talmud every time. We owe much to the Jew – in more sense than one – but until he works, until a fair percentage of him produces, he must always be against democracy.”
Disturbed by this rising antisemitism, established Australian Jews expressed concerns about the arrival of a flood of Eastern Europeans. This became the prevailing pattern of the wider Australian society towards any new wave of immigrants.” – The Jews in Australia – Suzanne Rutland – Cambridge Org
The ruling class Leeser’s political party represents, kept Jewish people out of their circles for as long as possible. “The Melbourne Club has long been suspected of having a policy of subtle anti-Semitism, although it always manages to have a few Jewish members. Nevertheless it is hardly surprising that few Jews seem interested in joining a Club where they might feel they were accepted as tokens.” – CLUB LAND – Geoffrey Barker – AFR
The emergence of Van Tongeren’s Australia Nationalist Movement (ANM) in the 1980s never happened according to this myopic ‘historian’. The ANM was an anti-Asian movement relying on our sordid racist past for inspiration. However, posters depicting ugly Jewish caricatures with hateful captions such as “Jews are ruining your life” were also part of their Neo-Nazi repertoire.
L: Australia is so different from the rest of the world. As a people we’ve chosen to import heritage but not conflict; we celebrate our collective gifts and not grievances; and we take history as a teacher rather than a master. This acceptance of all people is the gift of Australia. I like to think my life reflects it. I’m a Jewish Australian who was educated in an Anglican school, worked at a Catholic University, has a best friend who is a Muslim, enjoys the company of my Indigenous friends and who is always made welcome by the monks at the local Buddhist monastery, and worshipers at the Hindu Mandir and Sikh Gurdwara.
That’s Australia – and as one lark said to me, I’ve been hedging my bets in the afterlife.
This acceptance of people no matter their race, religion, gender, sexuality or any immutable attribute is something we must treasure as Australians. However, I don’t believe history is linear or, as many believe, the “long arc of history (automatically) bends towards justice”.
DN: Leeser’s Pollyanna view of Australian history is either disturbingly naive or offensively misleading. Does he really believe we’re all ignorant? Of not only Australian history, but our own personal histories? Who hasn’t suffered (or witnessed) the slings and arrows of racism, sexism, homophobia, classism, etc… Not to mention censure, violence and even arrest and imprisonment for our beliefs in Australia? He does realise his audience is composed of people who actually live in Australia? People who can see and hear this bigotry expressed constantly? Even Leeser’s protected class aren’t immune from these ubiquitous slings and arrows.
As one lark said to me, “What the fuck is that guy on?”
L: As we have discovered in recent times, freedom must always be defended.
DN: Leeser’s Liberal Party (akin to our New Labor Party) is about the freedom for domestic and foreign corporations to maximise their profits and sell off our resources with the minimum benefit to the Australian people. The militarisation of police, “disinformation“, “terrorist” and anti-protest laws, clear signs our freedoms are being eroded.
“Genocide brings to mind Hitler and the Jews, not Australia and Aborigines” – Sarah Maddison, 2007
A cartoon (Editor – retouched) by Phillip May, published in The Bulletin magazine, 1886. National Museum of Australia
Similar caricatures and prejudices were used by the Australian Nationalist Movement in WA (1980s)
Anti-Chinese sentiment has recently been whipped up through COVID and AUKUS propaganda
L: Though our history when it comes to Jewish people is a shining light, in more recent times we have seen the poison of anti-Semitism find a new foothold in the country we love. It came to the fore in the months following the inhumane Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel, but has festered for some time.
DN: The aforementioned historical record of antisemitism makes Leeser’s claims an absurdity, as do the Antisemitism Reports compiled by various “Jewish lobby” (careful) groups such as the Executive Council of Australian Jewry. (ECAJ)
So much for Leeser’s, “Though our history when it comes to Jewish people is a shining light…” blather
Leeser’s “shining light” regarding Australia’s acceptance of Jewish people is as believable and evidenced as Labor’s “light on the hill”.
The mass slaughter of 32,000 Palestinian civilians (and the razing of Gaza) a far greater crime than the response to 75 years of Israeli oppression by Hamas. Logic and simple math tells us that.
Unless of course, one shares Leeser’s view that Palestinian lives are of no import. A belief common amongst Israelis.
Leeser needs to expunge the historical record of antisemitism in Australia, in order to blame Hamas’s response to Israel’s brutal occupation (and of course The Greens and those woke uni folk) for its alleged emergence now. 2
Daily death rate in Gaza higher than any other major 21st Century conflict – Oxfam
Downer: “It is the only party that has refused to accede to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism”
Downer employs the same RW culture warrior accusations borrowed from UK and US sources as Leeser. Downer including the absurd accusation, that antisemitism, “…is rampant on the left of the British Labour Party.” He even threw in a barely concealed threat to Australia’s Labor Party, “Don’t treat (The Greens) as allies, or you will be tarred with their hideous ideology.” A fear of being accused of “antisemitism” just another reason Labor is backing in Israel’s Genocide in Gaza.
Think “Albo’s” got the message
Albanese’s Labor government have voted to support Israel’s invasion of Gaza. Supplied armaments to Israel and awarded
Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit a $917,000,000 contract. Labor stopped funding to UNRWA and sent more of the ADF to fight the Houthis.
Both the Government and the MSM, have downplayed a bomb threat and a fire-bombing against Palestinian supporters, while enacting laws to protect
Zionists from doxxing and the Israeli government from criticism. It’s clear why the Labor government has been implicated in Genocide. (Sign ICC referral here)
Morry Schwartz’s “The Conversation” points out the obvious, albeit in Zionist-speak, “Jewish and civil rights organizations both in the U.S. and in other Western countries reported a rise in antisemitic incidents following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and the subsequent Israeli military response.”
Let me translate that, “When Israel commits atrocities and acts of terror against the Palestinian people – criticism against the Israeli ethnostate increases.”
Pro-Israeli interests label any criticism of Zionism and apartheid as “antisemitism” to justify measures to silence pro-Palestinian supporters. Zionists hope to establish the lie that any criticism of their ultranationalist goals is somehow an attack on all Jewish people. The legions of Jewish people opposed to Israel’s genocidal policies make such attempts nonsensical.
“Supporting Palestinian rights is antisemitic because Israel wants it to be” –
L: On October 5, two days before the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel, High Court Justice Jayne Jagot called out the growth of anti-Semitism on Australian campuses in her Sir Zelman Cowen lecture.
Justice Jagot, quoting the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion and belief, reminded us anti-Semitism is “the canary in the coalmine of global hatred”. More than a threat to Jewish people, anti-Semitisim is a broader symptom of an underlying loss of confidence in liberal, democratic ideals and practices. Anti-Semitism has always existed among the tin-foil nutcases of the far right, but more recently it has been growing exponentially among the inner-city left. It is festering in universities where vice-chancellors are turning a blind eye, and in the inner cities where it is now a feature of the Greens’ extremist agenda.
“…conflating anti-Zionism with Jew-hatred is a tragic mistake” – Peter Beinart
DN: Naturally to Leeser – (that hero of Aboriginal rights) anti-Semitism becomes our prime cause of concern, in a nation founded on the brutal suppression and dispossession of the indigenous population. Again, any revulsion at Israel’s brutal actions against Palestinian people is labelled as anti-Semitism.
It is natural, that Israel’s role in oppressing Palestinian people, would be critically examined and promulgated in academic environments. Settings traditionally opposed to fascism and apartheid. A tradition still fostered by Jewish academics and intellectuals. Just as it’s natural for a colonialist Australia to support Israel and persecute dissident voices in universities.
“At this point, if all these frightened university administrations and incensed boycotters have their way, the only debate on campus left to have will be over options in the cafeteria” – Should an Israeli University Fire an Academic Who Said Hamas Atrocities Are ‘Lies’?
L: The petri dish for growing anti-Semitism is our university campuses. Last year, prior to the Hamas attacks, the Social Research Centre released the Australian Jewish University Experience Survey. This found 64 per cent of Jewish students experienced anti-Semitism at university and 88 per cent of these had experienced anti-Semitism on campus in the preceding year As well, 57 per cent of Jewish students had hidden the fact they were Jewish at university and 19 per cent had stayed away from campus because of anti-Semitism. When anti-Semitism occurred, 85 per cent of students did not make a complaint. Of those who did complain, 61 per cent were dissatisfied with the outcome.
DN: A Social Research Centre survey, with “a skewed sample intended for political purposes: to beat up universities about an alleged epidemic of antisemitism…”
Young Jewish people, with that pesky Jewish tradition of intellectual discernment, would
find the Greens a refreshing alternative to the major parties and Leeser’s article a nonsense.
Why Young Australian Zionists Are Backing the pro-Palestinian Greens – Judy Maltz – Haaretz
L: The cause is clear – it is what is taught on campus. In recent years, the teaching of universities has gravitated to seeing the world through the lens of oppressed and oppressor. From engineering to journalism, concepts such as “white privilege”, “decolonisation” and “intersectionality” have taken hold across the curriculum.
DN: “Petri dish” exposes Leeser’s contempt for opponents of Israel’s genocide. They are bacteria attacking the body politic of Zionism. Dissent and protest – necessary to maintain at least a semblance of democracy – infections that must be eliminated. Speak out against Israel’s genocidal depravity in Australia and your livelihood and reputation are in peril.
Allendra was forced to reaffirm her support to Israel and make spurious allegations against UNRWA, to prove her worth, as yet another political dogsbody for Zionism.
The cause should be clear. A growing awareness of Israel’s oppression of the Palestinian people. Social Media, with its videos and eye-witness accounts has made Israel’s barbarity far harder to conceal. This despite the IOF’s determination to kill any journalist exposing their crimes.
Daily death rate in Gaza higher than any other major 21st Century conflict – Oxfam
“Woke” opposition to genocide becomes “Jew hate”
Leeser’s attempts to conflate this recognition of Israel’s crimes against humanity with antisemitic “wokeness” is just another deflective ploy used by right wing culture warriors of his ilk.
Mr Leeser is nothing, if not unoriginal. Addressing “antisemitism” on campuses is just one of the many campaigns at play in the US and UK to combat criticism of Israel’s brutal occupation.
Aligning one’s agenda with the American Far Right striving to demonise Critical Race Theory is probably not a good idea if you’re Jewish. It’s also very insulting to the memory of Jewish activists who aided the civil rights struggle in the USA.
CAMERA UK even has a blog devoted to campus issues – From: Zionist “Israel as victim” propaganda beyond parody – Mick Lawless
Leeser’s Right Wing views and disinformation published by the billionaire class, inadvertently reveal the true aims of his advocacy for the Indigenous Voice for Parliament. Control of Aboriginal policy and dissent, with the aid of government approved “leaders”. Quite simply, his supporting the Israeli ethnostate’s genocide of brown people, is antithetical to the views Aboriginal people hold of colonialism.
Aboriginal leaders Lidia Thorpe and Gary Foley (The Progressive NO faction) who refused to be conned
and intimidated by a Labor government, that has constantly sided with imperialist powers and ignored Aboriginal voices
“The bills banning CRT are dishonest. They create an imaginary demon and then outlaw it, all for political propaganda purposes” – Allen R. Kamp – (Source)
L: This is not only an Australian phenomenon. A recent Harvard Harris poll found two-thirds of American voters aged 18-24 believed Jews were a class of oppressors. This compares with 9 per cent over the age of 65. Think about that – a group of people who faced the brink of extinction three-quarters of a century ago and who have been scattered to the four corners of the Earth as refugees are now considered oppressors.
DN: Again, the possibility that 75 years of brutal oppression against Palestinians in their homeland by Israelis, might be the causative reason for people worldwide believing “(Zionists) were a class of oppressors” is never permitted space in Leeser’s self-serving equation. Nor is the Harvard Harris poll he cites in any way convincing.
In deference to our Jewish comrades, (and reality) the Left has been separating Zionists from Jewish people/Judaism when denouncing Israel’s genocidal practices. Something Zionist-bent organisations and their lapdogs are trying desperately to conflate. The Orwellian aspects of the “everything is antisemitic” drive are demonstrated by moves to censor criticism of Zionism as… (wait for it) …antisemitic.
“It’s high time we kick this ghastly trope, this despicable manoeuvre equating anti-Zionism with antisemitism into the dustbin of dirty tricks” – Eugene Doyle
Part 2
Notes
1. Andrew Josef Feinstein (born 16 March 1964) is a South African former politician, activist, filmmaker and author. After the first democratic elections in South Africa in 1994, Feinstein was a member of parliament from 1994 to 2001 as a member of the ruling ANC party.
2. “Alleged” because most of this ‘antisemitism’ is the understandable revulsion people feel towards Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people. Leeser’s attempts to conflate criticism of Israel with “Jew hate” is a tactic we see in the surveys and articles being used by a mostly complicit mainstream media to portray Zionists as the victims.
3. Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, instructed ASIS to undertake surveillance activity in Timor-Leste in order to ascertain the Timorese Government’s position as to the location of the maritime boundary and its impact upon the distribution of the potential oil riches from the Sunrise field. Alexander Downer later obtained a highly paid consultancy with Woodside Petroleum, the company responsible for exploiting the oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea.
