Our CEO published an article at the ABC about the extremely high levels of antisemitism in Australia at the moment. After sharing the article on our Facebook page, one of the comment dismissed the problem of antisemitism as a “very minor” issue compared to other forms of racism in Australia. That comment received 78 positive reactions (likes or loves).

The comment runs counter to the available data, what can be observed through mainstream media, and what is being said not only by officials in Australia, experts in Australia, but also by experts and public figures around the world. Our antisemitism problem is international news.

Examples:

• Google News lists 300 articles since October 8, 2023 that mention antisemitism and either Melbourne or Sydney.
• SBS reported that “Australia is facing unprecedented anti-Jewish violence”
• The Prime Minister issued a statement on January 15, 2025, about “Tackling rising incidents of antisemitism“
• The Australian Federal Police have set up special task force on antisemitic crime
• Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, issued a statement of concern about the “the astonishing rise in antisemitism” in Australia and notes they had raised this concerns with the Australian Government.
• The Simon Wiesenthal Centre issued a travel advisory warning for Jews traveling to Australia due to “persistent demonization, harassment and violence against Jews and Jewish institutions in Australia”
• An editorial in the Jerusalem Post focused on antisemitism in Australia concluding “Australia has a serious antisemitism problem, and it is time for the country to stand up, before it loses a community for good.”
• Jewish Insider, a US based Jewish newswire carried a detail story about rising antisemitism in Australia
• Israel HaYom (an Israeli paper) reported “Australian Jews confront rising antisemitism” back in November, before things escalated even further in December and January.
• Concern about Antisemitism in Australia has even been raised in the UK Parliament

So why is someone denying that antisemitism is a major problem? And why are they getting so much support? Here is the comment:

RED: I have witnessed a lot of racism in Australia and I would say that far less than 0.1% of that was aimed at Jews. Recently, I have seen a few comments from a very small number of people, who, angry at the crimes against humanity being carried out by Israel have voiced concerns against Jews, instead of aiming those concerns at Israel or Zionism. From my perspective antisemitism is a very minor part of the problems we have with prejudice in Australia

This person acknowledges there is some antisemitism, but regards it as “a few comments” from “a very small number of people”. They explain that these few comments occur when people responding to the situation in Gaza “voiced concerns against Jews” rather than against “Israel or Zionism”. In this person’s mind, if hate and vitriol are framed as being about “Zionism”, that makes it all ok.

This shows a lack of understanding on what is actually being faced by the Australian Jewish community over the past year, and with increasing intensity in recent months. Let’s take some recent examples of antisemitism in Australia:

• The Ultra Orthodox Addas Synagogue was firebombed while people were praying in side. The building was destroyed and the attack has been declared a terrorist incident.
• The office of a Jewish member of the Australian Parliament, Josh Burns, was attacked. A window was smashed, another was graffitied with “Zionism is fascism” in red paint, the office’s telecommunications cables were set on fire.
• A house has red paint thrown on it and two cars outside the house were set on fire, one of these was spray painted with “Fuck Jews”. It was a targeted attack. Until a few years ago Alex Ryvchin, co-chief executive of Executive Council of the Australian Jewry (the national peak Jewish community organisation) lived in that house.
• A Jewish school had “Jew die” spray painted on its enterance
• Neo-Nazis parading with banner saying “Jews hate freedom” on the steps of the Victorian Parliament

There are MANY other serious incidents with graffiti on houses calling for Jews who live there to die or be killed, graffiti on cars, Nazi Swastikas painted on synagogues, etc. This is far more serious than some misdirected online comments.

Secondly, the person (and those supporting them) have falled victim to a deliberate disinformation campaign that seeks to undermine public understanding of antisemitism. A false allegation is made that Jews are misusing the term antisemitism to silence criticism of Israel. This is despite the definition of antisemitism adopted by the community explicitly stating that “criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic”.

The vast majority of the Jewish community are Zionists. This means they support the Jewish people having a nation state in (part of) the historic homeland of the Jewish people. It does not mean support for any particular political party, government, policy, or action. Zionists and Israelis are also not the same thing. Israeli citizens can vote in Israeli elections, Zionist (unless they are also Israelis) cannot.

After the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, the Arab world refused to acknowledge its existance. They literally refused to say “Israel”. Instead they refered to it as “the Zionist entity”. As antisemitic propoganda (mainly from the Nazis) spread into the Arab world after WWII, some of the traditional antisemitism was rephrased to be about “Zionism” and “Zionists”. The antisemitic forgery, the Protocols of the Learnered Elders of Zion, no doubt played a role in this. It was a best seller in the Middle East with new editions created every year. As part of the cold war the USSR and the communist block, along with Arab and Muslim countries, pushed this antisemitism through a racist resolution passed in the UN General Assembly that equated Zionism with Racism. This is the only UN General Assembly Resolution to have ever been repealled, which happed with appologies and embarasement in 1991. (Learn more about the harmful Zionism = Racism resolution).

Zionism, the national liberation movement of the Jewish people and probably the world’s oldest liberation movement, is intrinsically an anti-racist movement of a people that, historically and continuously, has been the victim of many brutal forms of racism and racial discrimination. We note with great sorrow that the branding of Zionism as racist . . . contravened the most basic principles of the United Nations charter and fueled the dangerous flames of anti-Semitism in many parts of the world. – Evelyn Sommer, 1985

The poison of the “Zionism = Racism” years, and the campaigns that sought to use this to target Jews, can be seen in much of the denial of antisemitism today. Blatant attacks on Jews are dismissed with the logic that they are ok because they are targeting Zionists and Zionists are (as presented by the USSR and their allies) the root of all evil in the world. We can see this logic in the argument in the comment the people’s objects to Israeli government policy or actions can be directed at Israel (which again is not antisemitic) or against the nefarious amorphous thing called “Zionism”, which in practise just allows targeting of Jews by another label.

Here is an Instagram post by an anti-Zionist Jew after the fire bombing of the Addas Syangogue (which is one of the few non-Zionist synagogues in Australia). The post was condemned in comments by other anti-Zionists, but shows how extreme anti-Zionism can get, even to the point of inciting antisemitic attacks on places of worship.

A challenging conversation

Returning to the original Facebook comment, another person challenged the comment and it led to this conversation:

RED: I have witnessed a lot of racism in Australia and I would say that far less than 0.1% of that was aimed at Jews. Recently, I have seen a few comments from a very small number of people, who, angry at the crimes against humanity being carried out by Israel have voiced concerns against Jews, instead of aiming those concerns at Israel or Zionism. From my perspective antisemitism is a very minor part of the problems we have with prejudice in Australia

GREEN: Red, if you aren’t in or around the Jewish community, then I can guarantee that you have no fucking idea just how much of that there is in everyday Australia. I am not Jewish myself, but I am of Jewish descent on my father’s side, and lived in the Jewish community for many years. It is Every. Fucking. Day. No. Exception.

RED: Is it antisemitism or anti-Zionism that you have witnessed? I ask this respectfully. I know many people that express anti-Zionist attitudes, but display no hatred of Jewish people per’ se’. I am the same, I have no hatred of Jewish people, but I do have major issues with the Zionist Israeli government and their genocidal atrocities against Palestinians whose land the Zionist’s continue to steal.

GREEN: both. All the time. Also indirect conflation of the two. Also, a near complete lack of understating of what Zionism actually is, and the nuances within it. Calling someone a Zionist is no more specific or accurate than calling someone a Christian…and pushing the narrative that Christian means sectarian terrorist.

RED: Green yeah, nah. As someone that has read a lot about the formation of Israel and the Zionist movement and agendas, I have a good understanding of Zionism. Not all Jews are Zionist’s and calling someone a Zionist, for me is quite specific to what that entails. It is quite simply extremist fascist militarism, having little to do with the Jewish religion.

GREEN: Red, so you are redefining the word to a narrow definition then using it as a slur. Zionism as a concept dates back a century and a half as a named thing, and it encompass a very broad spectrum of belief and attitudes. You don’t get to narrow that definition and turn it into a false dichotomy.

RED: Whatever you say Green ,I can see that you are trying to defend the indefensible and that an informed debate is not possible. Enjoy your day.

This person has decided Zionism is an “extremist fascist militarism”, the sort of idea promoted in antisemitic literature seeking to support and use the Zionism = Racism narrative, and one not reflected of the vast majority of Zionists. Green’s analogy to someone insisting the word “Christian” means “secretarian terrorist”, or that “Muslim” means “ISIS terrorist” is a good comparison. I don’t know how we convince Red to look at some other sources and reconsider, but this is the problem we face today.

The problem is not that most antisemitism takes the form of racism targeting Jews but saying “Zionists” (though this does exist) it is that a part of the public refuses to accept that antisemitism is currently at crisis levels and instead they argue it is simply a “mirerpesentation” and must be due to a “wrong labelling” of criticism of Israel or Zionism. We need them to see through this and those advocating this confusion to stop trying to undermine public understanding of the crisis.

The logic of hate

The initial comment runs counter to the statistical evidence, and it flies in the face of the numerous recent media reports of serious antisemitic crimes. For example, the childcare centre 200 meters from a synagogue that was graffitied with antisemitic statements and set on fire overnight.

How can people be blind to the antisemitism? It is the result of confusions created the tiny minority of Jews who are anti-Zionists and amplified by other pro-Palestinian activists. It builds on a very successful disinformation campaign, originally started by Soviet intelligence agencies, with the support of the Arab league, during the cold war.

The disinformation campaign was based around the slogan “Zionism = racism” which was the basis of an infamous 1975 UN General Assembly resolution, later repealed in 1991 (the only UN General Assembly resolution to ever be repealed). Prime Minister Bob Hawke explained the racist nature of the “Zionism = Racism” UN Resolution in a resolution (passed unanimously) in the Australian House of Representatives in 1986. The Australian resolution noted how the UN resolution, “remains unacceptable as a misrepresentation of Zionism” and “has served to escalate religious animosity and incite anti-semitism”. In the UK the UN Resolution led to persecution of Jewish university students and some Jewish student clubs were banned.

Today this disinformation campaign has gone even further, asserting that it is impossible for content to be antisemitic if it contains a pro-Palestinian statement, a criticism of Israel, or an attack against Zionism. Read that again carefully. The argument is NOT that those three things are not antisemitic, but rather that their mere presence grants an immunity and means that no matter how antisemitic the rest of the content is, it must be given a free pass. With that approach, most antisemitism (unless it comes from Nazis) would be “protected” and can be ignored. This warped logic build on the demonisation of Israel and Zionism which are painted as so evil, anything attacking them (or supporting Palestine) is ok.

Prof. David Hirsh foreshadowed this logic in a detailed paper on anti-Zionism and antisemitism he published back in 2007. In it he argues we should ask: “How does the anti‐Zionist movement actually relate to ‘Zionists’, who are defined as racists? How does it license or encourage others to relate to ‘Zionists’? How does it, in practice, define the group ‘Zionists’, who are to be treated as racists, and how do others define the term?” He explains that, “The demonization of ‘Zionism’ appears to be part of an anti‐oppression politics, but it points in another direction: towards a totalitarian way of thinking whose language is that of conspiracy conducted by dark forces. A solution is often conceived not in terms of peace and reconciliation but rather in terms of destroying or uprooting the evil, wherever it is to be found.”

In 2025, the anti-Zionist argument is that Jews (unless they are anti-Zionist) are a legitimate target, and attacks on them are (they argue) acceptable. This only works if they argue attacks on Jews, because they are Zionists, should not be considered antisemitic. It makes as much sense as arguing attacks on those who eat Halal food are not Islamophobic, or attacks on those who can speak Chinese are not racist.

Dismissing antisemitism as mere anti-Zionism

This demonisation of Zionist (a term which covers the vast majority of Australian Jews) is so total it allows for any form of hate or attack.

Here is an example, from a Facebook user, who dismissed a vandalism spree targeting Jewish property on the basis that the slogans used were anti-Israel, rather than explicitly talking about Jews. Regardless of the slogan used, the vandalism is a criminal act and one targeted against Jewish Australians. It was a hate crime. Being anti-Israel doesn’t make it magically ok.

Another example is a recent report by the Jewish Council of Australia (a small group that does not represent the mainstream view of the Jewish community) in which they explicitly categorise incidents extracted from submissions to a parliamentary inquiry as being (a) antisemitic, (b) support for Palestine, or criticism of Israel or Zionism, (c) Other: Not antisemitism, or (d) Unclear. Their approach creates a false narrative by deny even the possibility that incidents supporting Palestine, or criticizing Israel or Zionism, might also be antisemitic.

An Indigenous advocacy page (Blackfulla Revolution) left a comment attacking our CEO, then claiming that they known what Zionism is better than most of the Jewish community. They too assert that “anti-Zionism is not antisemitism”, then proceed to make comments that are anti-Zionist but also antisemitic. They argue Zionism is Nazism and that Zionists (which includes the vast majority of Australian Jews) deserve public hatred. We’re only showing part of their comment here. We previously spoke about Blackfulla Revolution in 2015 when we ran a campaign to support them and secure the closure of a racist page that was impersonating them.

These are examples of the way the hateful disinformation has been circulating and distorting people’s understanding. Those who have been taken in by the disinformation and are now attacking fellow Australians need to get out of their bubble and engage with the mainstream Jewish community. They need to reconsider what they think they know. Most importantly, they need to stop creating space for racism to flourish.