Antisemitism envoy Jillian Segal has released a new report that smears left-wing and progressive activists as antisemitic and updates the envoy’s “priorities” for an authoritarian crackdown on the right to protest and free speech to silence opposition to Israel.
The pro-Palestine Jewish Council of Australia said the report’s claims “verge on conspiratorial” as it “suggests that the language of international human rights law, including allegations of apartheid, ethnic cleansing and genocide, has been appropriated to demonise Israel, dismissing serious findings and allegations made by international human rights organisations and United Nations bodies.”
The report labels leftwing opposition to Israel as “the most pervasive manifestation of antisemitism” in Australia today, targeting the argument that Israel is “a colonial project that is inherently racist” in particular. It smears opposition to Zionism, Israel’s existence as an ethnically exclusive Jewish state founded on the dispossession and genocide of the Palestinians, as antisemitic.
But for Segal, any support for Palestine is suspect as it can be a “gateway” to anti-Zionism.
The report comes in the lead up to the Royal Commission into Antisemitism’s recommendations, set to be released on 18 December.
The report demands more anti-protest laws, including “time, place and manner” restrictions, move-on powers for police and bans on face coverings at demonstrations. It also calls for a review and re-education program for prosecutors and judges.
It calls for more ruthless efforts to deny visas to people where there is a “risk of holding antisemitic views”.
Segal continues to demand an external oversight body to monitor the ABC and SBS, complaining that there has been too much coverage of Gaza, as if the media should have censored coverage of Israel’s crimes and the historic and appalling genocide since October 2023. It also includes calls for a further crackdown at universities and in the health and arts sectors.
As the Jewish Council’s Bart Shteinman put it, the report is driven by “a rightwing ideology that will go to incredible lengths to silence those drawing attention to Israel’s genocide in Gaza”. Its measures must be resisted.
