On Saturday April 16, 2024, an attacker with a knife killed 6 people in the Westfield Shopping Centre in Bondi Junction in Sydney. The attacker was shot dead by a police officer. Police said on Saturday that the attacker was known to them and this was not a terrorist attack nor ideologically linked. The name of the attacker was withheld by police to allow the identity of the deceased attacker to be formally confirmed.
Overnight social media began promoting the idea the attacker was a Jewish man by the name of Benjamin Cohen. This disinformation was repeated by 7News Australia who included it in the description on YouTube of a video of TV footage from the show Sunrise that interviewed an expert about the attack.
The footage description also called the attacker a “lone wolf” which is description of a mode of terrorism, despite the official statements that this was unrelated to terrorism. On Sunday 14 April, police released the name of the attacker, one Joel Cauchi, who had a history of mental health issues and was known to police in Queensland.
Assistant Commissioner Anthony Cooke said, “There is still to this point, nothing that we have, no information we received, no evidence we have recovered or intelligence that we have gathered that would suggest that this was driven by any particular motivation, ideology or otherwise.”
Channel 7 have updated the description on the YouTube video following the release of the name, editing it to remove the disinformation. They have not stated it is a correction. The incorrect information is still visible in a Google search as at 9:30am Sunday, Sydney time.
Spread & impact of disinformation
Social media was used to spread hate against the Jewish community, claiming it was a Jewish terrorist responsible for the attack. It also explicitly said :”Why are Jewish terrorists obsessed with murdering babies” which is a tie back to antisemitic claims of blood libel in the Middle Ages, which have been reappearing in pro-Palestinian advocacy over the current Israel-Hamas war. The claim not only demonised the Jewish community and sought to paint Jews as violent terrorist, it also contradicted the police information that it was not a terrorist attack.
Other content promoting the idea it “BEnjamin Cohen” and a Jew behind the attack suggested it was only not being called a terrorist attack because it wasn’t a Muslim but (they claimed) a Jew behind it. This also seeks to demonise the Jewish community, putting #Jewish in the post.
These are just two among many, the hashtag #BenjaminCohen was trending in Australia after the attack. Patrick Hilsman has claimed that the origin of the Benjamin Cohen claim was a tweet by Simeon Boikov (@aussiecossack) who he describes as “a pro-Kremlin propagandist currently holed up in the Russian consulate in Sydney to avoid assault charges”. Pro-Palestinian activists, however, jumped on this antisemitic bandwaggon hard and fast.
Similar false claims were made by a Muslim peak body and pro-Palestinian activists in November 2023 after the fire bombing of the Burgatory burger store. They claimed Jews were responsible for the crime in response to the owners pro-Palestinian activism. These claims were made despire police saying it had nothing to do with the Middle East conflict and was not politically motivated. The actual perpetrators have been arrested and were facing court. The Channel 7 report caused serious harm providing a credible source that appeared to collaborate the disinformation.
We note that a similar situation occured in January 2017 spreading Islamophobia. In that case the Herald Sun interviewed a witness to the Bourke Street tragedy. The witness stated in a video interview that they heard the attacker shouting “Allah Akbah”. It was published despite no corroboration by the paper, and police explicitly repling on social media to say that the claim was inconsistent with other witnesses.
We need far better from the media – Channel 7 must issue an apology to the Jewish community for falling for this and putting unverified information promoting racism into their YouTube video’s description. Action should be taken against whoever managed the social media account if they added it outside of proper procedures. The Palestinian activists willingness to falsely blame Jews in Australia for violence, and to jump to blood libels, needs to be addressed. There is far too much antisemitism, of a traditional clear cut variety like blood libels, deicide, conspiracy theories based on the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, etc. being promoted in that activist community. It needs to be recognised and stopped. Political advocacy that makes use of racism to promote its cause and demonise those it opposes is nothing but racist and deserves nothing but contempt. Those that engage in such behaviour damage their own cause and harm those they associate this.