The Right Is Exploiting the Bondi Massacre to Silence Dissent
In the aftermath of the Bondi Massacre, Australian politicians are pushing to restrict freedom of speech and the right to protest. Their target is the Palestine solidarity movement.
Zionist politicians in Australia like Special Envoy to Combat Anti-Semitism, Jillian Segal, argue that criticism of Israel is tantamount to anti-semitism. The Jewish Council of Australia disagrees. (David Gray / AFP via Getty Images)
- Interview by
- Chris Dite
The Bondi massacre in Australia was perpetrated by Islamic State supporters. But immediately following the killings, a chorus of right-wing voices began placing the blame on pro-Palestinian slogans, protests, and policies.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed the murders on Australia’s recognition of the state of Palestine. Australia’s Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism, Jillian Segal, claimed there was an obvious link between Bondi and the three hundred thousand people who marched across the Sydney Harbour Bridge against the genocide in Gaza. The premier of New South Wales, Chris Minns, said the implications of pro-Palestine protests could be seen in the massacre and banned protests in the state for at least three months. Other states promised to follow suit. Some government-connected trade union leaders echoed calls to end all protests for the foreseeable future.
The federal government announced a Royal Commission into the Bondi attack to appease some of its critics. Its choice of commissioner, however, was condemned by right-wing politicians for having previously ruled that freedom of political communication was an implied constitutional right. The Adelaide Writers Festival has now dropped a Palestinian writer from its lineup, implying some sort of link between Palestinian solidarity and danger. The South Australian premier slanderously supported the move, declaring “I do not support the inclusion of people who actively undermine the cultural safety of others, or celebrate the death of innocent civilians.”
The Jewish Council of Australia has been an active voice of opposition to those linking anti-genocide protests with violence. A growing group of progressive Jewish people who reject the equation of anti-semitism with criticism of Israel, the Jewish Council regularly faces the wrath of the Zionist political establishment and the Murdoch media. Jacobin spoke with Jewish Council representatives Sarah Schwartz and Max Kaiser about the dangers of the current moment.
There are always nefarious actors who see opportunity in big tragedies. Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli minister for Diaspora Affairs [Amichai Chikli] fit into this category. They spent the day after the attack trying to sway Australia’s political agenda to be more pro-Israel. Jillian Segal, the anti-semitism envoy, is another bad-faith actor. Her anti-semitism report was dead in the water in many ways, because it was widely becoming perceived as Trumpian and antidemocratic. She blamed the pro-Palestine protest movement in the immediate aftermath of the Bondi attack, seizing the opportunity to dust off her dead report and bash it over the government’s head. These are opportunistic and disingenuous responses by people with a very clear political agenda.
There is a difference between these actors and everyday people who have bought the narrative that “the Australian government appointed an anti-semitism envoy, she produced a report, the report wasn’t implemented, and now we have this mass shooting of Jewish people.” This might seem compelling for people within the Jewish community looking for something to blame. There’s not much understanding of Islamic State online radicalization, or any of the drivers that might have actually been behind this attack.
The narrative around anti-semitism is incredibly confused and politicized. A recent reputable survey found that anti-semitism is actually not more widespread in Australian society since October 7, 2023. But in the places where it has increased, it is a lot more virulent and violent. For someone who wears a yarmulke and has been abused on the street, that experience gets very purposefully mixed up with discourse around Israel-Palestine. Zionist groups, Israel, and the Murdoch media continually push this narrative that says “someone wearing a keffiyeh, or attending a protest, or saying free Palestine, all this is anti-semitism.”
Political actors on the right and the pro-Israel lobby are pushing that to the next level now, seeing this as an opportunity to fully go after the Palestine solidarity movement and everyone associated with it.
The Victorian and New South Wales governments have recently increased police powers and brought in protest bans. Why does the Jewish Council think that such moves make everyone — including Jewish people — less safe?
Unless you’re a corporation or you’ve got lots of money, mass protests are the main way you can tell those in positions of power what you want. State leaders who don’t want to listen to the people now have this great excuse to enact anti-protest laws. News South Wales premier Chris Minns has always wanted to give the police more powers. Now he can criminalize various forms of speech and hide behind the Jewish community. This will have the effect of making Jewish people less safe, because they can be blamed for increasing violent, oppressive, antidemocratic state power.
The protest movement is part of the solution rather than part of the problem. Protest, community, and solidarity are what make us safe.
Over the past couple of years there’s been a genocide, and a mass movement to oppose it. The Australian government has been complicit in continuing the violence. But Australia also has one of the world records for the most protests against the genocide. We’ve seen a very inclusive, multicultural, peaceful movement, which at one stage saw three hundred thousand people march across the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Many Jewish people have been involved in the Palestine solidarity movement, and our rights and the future of an inclusive society depend on encouraging these sorts of spaces and movements.
This mislabeling of the protest movement as anti-semitic can only lead to more racism, division, and polarization, and a more authoritarian society. It will have a chilling effect, where people will be intimidated against participating in these movements. It will also empower the far right, who are ready and waiting for their sort of politics to take hold.
Anti-semitism envoy Jillian Segal and prominent Zionist groups and figures have been criticized for downplaying attempts by violent neo-Nazis to enter the political mainstream. How does the Jewish Council explain this phenomenon?
There’s a pretty solid reason why Zionists aren’t very concerned with the far right: they’re mates. Over the last couple of decades more mainstream elements of the pro-Israel lobby have been happy to collaborate with far-right, Islamophobic, Christian Zionist groups. Jillian Segal’s husband is a major donor to Advance Australia, a mainstream far-right force in Australian politics that pushes very hard against what it calls “mass migration.” And there’s a very strong far-right movement within the Jewish community, from the Australian Jewish Association to the Lions of Zion.
Israel increasingly sides with the far right. The Israeli Ministry of Diaspora Affairs openly holds meetings in Europe with neofascist parties, and calls anti-Israel sentiment the biggest threat to Jewish people. Zionist groups in Australia are forced into these uncomfortable alliances as well, because they have to defend them. This relationship between Zionists and the far right has started to fracture in the United States. It could in Australia, too.
On the right side of politics there’s an instrumental fetishization of Jewish people. At the moment we’re the “Judeo-” part of the “Judeo-Christian civilization” and can be used as a propaganda tool for Western imperialism. But this can be really quickly flipped into a huge moment of danger where Jewish people are demonized. It’s clear the legacy Jewish organizations don’t understand this. They have absolutely no idea what they’re doing.
Sarah, you were personally the target of a vicious Murdoch media smear campaign last year. This was clearly an attempt to intimidate you and decapitate the Jewish Council. But it failed. Why do you think so many Jewish people in Australia are now openly standing up together against genocide and racism?
People have been mobilized by the sheer fact of Israel’s violence. It’s very hard for people to look away from the images coming out of Gaza. This has led to a lot of Jewish people questioning what they had previously been taught about Israel. Young Jewish people growing up today have their identities more politicized than ever, but they also have ready access to information. One of the things that they will find almost immediately now is images of mass demonstrations by Jewish people against Israel. Those rallies in New York’s Grand Central Station were incredible: they showed that criticism of Israel was a possibility, and that you can find community elsewhere.
There have always been people within the Jewish community who have opposed Israel’s policies and stood with Palestinian people. There’s also always been a huge level of repression against those individuals, and a tried and tested mode of shaming and excommunicating Jewish people who dare to criticize Israel.
We’ve certainly noticed at the Jewish Council that there seem to be a lot of people who were waiting for an organization to form. If you’re going to sort of go against the grain, there need to be different institutions, organizations, and communities for you to join. A very significant portion of the Jewish community sees communal Jewish institutions giving standing ovations to far-right political figures and are horrified. That’s not a form of politics that resonates with their understanding of Jewishness, or that represents their interests.
The president of Israel, Isaac Herzog, will be visiting Australia this month. Could you explain the Jewish Council’s argument that the visit will inflame tensions and exacerbate division?
This is a grave and serious error on the part of the Australian government. We recently collaborated with other Jewish groups to send a letter to the prime minister and the governor-general, asking them formally to rescind the invitation.
Firstly, the president of Israel does not represent Jewish people worldwide. This erroneous association can feed into anti-semitism. Secondly, even if Herzog was a purely ceremonial figure, he’d be the symbolic head of a pariah state found by the UN, Amnesty International, and other legal experts to be committing a genocide. But Herzog isn’t neutral: he is directly implicated in the genocide
If there’s going to be a galvanizing moment for the Palestine solidarity movement over the next few months, this is it.
Why are right-wing forces disingenuously linking the Palestine solidarity movement to the Bondi massacre?