Up to 400 Jews and supporters joined an anti-Zionist Jewish rally outside the Victorian Parliament in Melbourne on Sunday morning in solidarity with Palestine.
The rally was called by a group of Jewish activists disgusted with the way that politicians and the media have been blaming the Palestine movement for a rise in antisemitism.
It was supported by the Loud Jew Collective, Jews Against Fascism and Free Palestine Melbourne.
Co-organiser David Glanz said: “The Australian and state governments have seized on tragic but isolated acts of antisemitism to create a narrative that Jews in Melbourne are living in fear.
“They are trying to criminalise the weekly solidarity rallies for Palestine by falsely linking them with the firebombing of the Adass Israel synagogue.
“We are rallying to insist that the real crime is the Israeli genocide in Gaza, which has on the most conservative reading taken the lives of more than 62,000 Palestinians and wounded some 110,000 more.
“Instead of slandering pro-Palestine activists, the Australian government should be sanctioning Israel and joining South Africa in its case before the International Court of Justice.
“Antisemitism is real but the politicians and media who put such emphasis on it have nothing to say about the rising tide of hatred faced by our Muslim brothers and sisters.
“Where was the outcry when arsonists torched a minibus in Adelaide belonging to a Muslim school or when racists attacked a ute belonging to a Palestinian Australian in Newport with a Molotov cocktail?
“And there is silence and inaction about Indigenous deaths in custody and the removal of Aboriginal children from their families at unprecedented rates.”
Speakers at the rally were:
• Jeffrey Loewenstein, born to Holocaust survivors, a former chair of the Anti Defamation Commission of Australia and New Zealand and a former member of the Jewish Community Council of Victoria
• Jacob Sacher, a Monash masters student and former president of the Melbourne University Jewish Students Society
• Mai Saif, Free Palestine Melbourne
• Debbie Morgan-Frail, a former National Aboriginal Education Officer with the Australian Education Union and a proud Wiradjuri woman.
A far-right group called the Lions of Zion organised a pitiful counter-protest of about 50.
The rally clearly touched a nerve, with Mark Leibler, a former president of the Zionist Federation of Australia and a current member of the University of Melbourne council, tweeting that anti-Zionist Jews are “repulsive and revolting human beings” and “vicious antisemites”.
But as rally speakers pointed out, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week praised Elon Musk as a friend of Israel—despite Musk’s Nazi salutes and support for the fascist AfD in Germany and Tommy Robinson in England.
“Netanyahu cuddles up to a Nazi fanboy—anti-Zionist Jews stand against all forms of racism, ethnic cleansing and apartheid,” said Glanz.
