On Friday a group of (self described) Nazis performed a protest on the steps of the Victorian State Parliament while holding a banner saying “Jews hate freedom”. During their rally they shouted slogans such as:
- “Hail Victory!” – English for “Sieg Heil” a chant used at Hitler’s Nazi rallies to accompany the Nazi salute.
- “Freedom for the White Man!” – a White Supremacist slogan
- “White Power!” – another white supremacist slogan
- “The Jews must go!” – an English variant of “Juden Raus!” (lit. “Out with the Jews!”) a slogan used in Austria after it was taken over by Nazi Germany.
We wrote about those Nazis in the hours after the rally, you can read the article here. This article is about some of the stupid and antisemitic comments made on our Facebook post sharing the article. These comments have been removed and in many cases the users have been banned in keeping with our no platform policy.
Before sharing the comments, please note that the work we do takes a significant amount of time and effort. Not only the initial research and preparation of articles, but then the moderation of responses.We urge you to join our effort in finding 500 people to support this work in tackling online antisemitism, and to share this article and the call for support with others.
Comments 1 and 2
This comment asserts the Nazi rally, with its sign about Jews, is “so NOT an anti-Semitic rally, but an anti-Israeli one.” This is all kinds of stupid given, these are Nazi, there is a giant banner about Jews, and there is no mention of Israel at all. Now it is possible the person didn’t click through and see the photograph with the banner, so we gave them the benefit of the doubt and replied. They replied with a long antisemitic diatribe which is based on misinformation. Their focus was not on anti-racism, it was on attacking Jews. We deconstruct this long post below.
Claim: “Arabs, including… are all Semites”
The term “semitic” originates in linguistics. It is the name of a group of languages, not peoples. The term “antisemitism” was first coined in 1879 by Wilhelm Marr, a German Jew hater who wanted to make his Jew hate sound more scientific, inline with the “racial science” theories of that time. We have a whole article on this. Antisemitism means hatred of Jews. It has since the term was first coined. Disinformation is spread to distort this reality by those wanting to ignore racism against Jews, dismiss data on antisemitism both historically and today, and present Jews as oppressors who should be targeted rather than as a group in society that is negatively impacted by racism.
Claim: “The original Jews were Semites”
Beyond misuse of the term “semites” (see above) this statement shows the person has bought into conspiracy theories that seek to dismiss Jewish identity. The one we have seen most often is the Khazar myth, a debunked academic racial theory that has since been disproved by DNA evidence.
Claim: Being disgusted with the actions of Israel is not antisemitic
This statement is correct but often misused. One can be disgusted with the actions of Israel, France, Australia, or any country without being racist against people from that country. One can also express that disgust in ways that are racist because they target people from (or associated with) that country. Being disgusted with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (for example) does not mean it is ok to vandalise the home or businesses of people originally from Russian who now live in Australia. Being disgusted with Japan’s policy on whaling does not mean it is ok to attack the local sushi restaurant. Saying “Being disgusted with the actions of Israel is not antisemitic” is often misused to claim racist and often criminal actions should be given a free pass.
Claim: Zionism is not part of Judaism. Nor is it a Semitic belief.
The Jewish people are not just people who follow the religion of Judaism, they are (like the Sikhs) an “ethno-religious group”, that is a group of people from a particular place, with particular culture, language and spiritual beliefs. Our First Nations peoples in Australians are another example of “peoples” in this sense, each from their own lands, and with their own culture, language, and spiritual beliefs. For Jewish people Israel is and always has been the people’s land.
In one sense Zionism goes back to ancient times. The Biblical Psalm 137, “By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion” is an early expression of Zionism from the time Jews were exiled to Babylon (today’s Iran) between 597 BCE and 538 BCE. In this sense Zionism is old and significantly pre-dates Christianity. Noting this is a biblical version, it is also clearly part of the Jewish religion from ancient times.
The centrality of the place, known as “Eretz Yisrael” (literally: land of Israel) is a central part of Judaism. Prayers are carried out while facing towards Jerusalem, known as Zion in light of the mountain it is built upon which is known as Mount Zion. It is from this Zion that Zionism takes its name. Key Jewish festivals, many of which are tied to agriculture, are celebrated based on the seasons in Israel.
Political Zionism (there is also Cultural Zionism, Religious Zionism, Practical Zionism, Revisionist Zionism, and others) is a Jewish take on the then modern political movements which gave rise nation states as the primary way different peoples to interacted on he global stage. The term Zionism was coined by Nathan Birnbaum in 1890 to mean the national movement of the Jewish people with the aim of returning Jewish people to their ancestral homeland and resuming Jewish sovereignty there. The modern political Zionist Movement emerged from the First Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland, in 1897, but it grew out of earlier movements. Rabbi Yehudah Shlomo Alkalay (1798-1878) and Rabbi Zevi Hirsch Kalischer (1795-1874) for example argued there was a religious need for Jews to return to the ancient Jewish homeland. In the 1870s there were Jewish national movements in Russia and Poland known as Hovevei Zion (Lovers of Zion). There is much more to the history of Zionism.
Regarding the final sentence, as semitic is a label for a group of languages (not peoples) and languages do not have beliefs, there is no such thing as a semitic belief. Where the first part is wrong, the second part is pure nonsense.
Claim: Both groups have many similarities
This is a classic Holocaust inversion argument, and they are using it here to defend neo-Nazis.
Comment 3
Another person responding to defend the person writing in red above.
Usually what we see is people claiming “anti-Zionism isn’t antisemitism”. That claim is unhelpful as anti-Zionism does not have to be antisemitic, but in practice it usually is. In this case the person is not just claiming anti-Zionism is not antisemitic, they are in fact claiming Zionism, the liberation movement of the Jewish people, is antisemitism. That’s (exactly) like claiming supporting a Palestinian state is a form of anti-Palestinian racism. It is frankly absurd. The post however is more than just absurd, it is itself antisemitic as we explain below.
Claim: “Zionism is antisemitic… Jews are under threat because…”
This post is victim blaming. It should call out antisemitic attacks against Jews and Jewish institutions in Australia, for example by saying nothing that a country or group does overseas justifies an attack on a part of the Australian community. Instead, this post excuses such attacks (when targeted against Jews) and suggests they are justified. This is no different to justifying attacks on mosques in response 9/11 or ISIS, or indeed attacks on Chinese takeouts during Covid. It is racism pure and simply.
Claim: “European occupation… 80 years”
As discussed above, the Jewish people have links to Israel going back literally thousands of years. They are an Indigenous people of that area, not foreign Europeans.
Further, the majority of Jews in Israel (about 40%-45% of Israel’s population) are Mizrahi Jews, that is Jews whose families came to Israel from elsewhere in the Middle East. Most of these families came to Israel as part of the expulsion of 850,000 Jews from Arab countries that occurred before, during, and after the Holocaust. This was matched by more 700,000 Palestinian Arabs who fled Israel, mostly into neighbouring Arab countries, during Israel’s war of Independence in 1948. While Israel absorbed the displaced Jews, the Arab countries (who had invaded the new country of Israel in 1948 and lost) denied citizenship to the Palestinian Arabs and kept them in refugee camps with limited rights. There were many other countries formed around this time and in many cases population transfers occurred, often accompanied by violence. One of the largest and bloodiest was the creation of India and Pakistan. In this sense the creation of Israel is in no way exceptional for that time of history.
In terms of Jews who did come from Europe, about 32% of Israel’s population are Ashkenazi Jews, that is Jews whose families had lived for generations in Europe, after Jews were expelled from Israel by the Roman. Most of the remainder of the Israeli population are Arab Israelis, some also identifying as Palestinian, who make up 20% to 25% of Israel’s population.
Claim: “80 years of ethnic cleansing”
No Palestinian claims 80 years of ethnic cleansing. The Nakba is dated from 1948. This is likely a mistake that shows very little understanding of the cause they are claiming to support. This suggests the real goal may well be spreading antisemitism, with Palestinian support simply used as an excuse.
Comment 4
This next comment says “That is fine. As long as they don’t protest against a genocide. That upsets our government”.
This comments seeks to make out that the government is more concerned with silencing pro-Palestinian activism than it is about antisemitism. The problem is that in doing this the comment is misusing a literal antisemitic incident. Even in the face of Nazism, this commenter is more concerned with Palestinian advocacy than standing up against antisemitism. The antisemitism here is not theoretical or debateable, it is literally there in black uniforms and masks shouting “The Jews must go!”.
Comment 5
The fourth comment starts with an attack on the Online Hate Prevention Institute itself. The attack is made gratuitously and clearly without looking into our organisation at all. This is in the class of just stupid. Our board has from the start had a diversity of people on it, including members of the Muslim community and LGBT community along others.
This attack on us is used as an excuse to reject the our message about antisemitism from the neo-Nazis, and to push a message that “Frustration with Israeli policy is NOT antisemitism”. A message that is irrelevant in this situation given the antisemitism on display had nothing to do with Israel and everything to do with literal Nazis.
When those claiming to be anti-racist are so obsessed with defending their right to be critical of something, that they give a free pass the most obvious and blatant forms of racism… one had to question whether they are really anti-racist at all.
Comment 6
Comment five is an attempt to use a large number of antisemitic conspiracy theories in a comment that is ultimately intended to satirise the antisemites. It’s not an antisemitic comment, but we thought it best to remove it as some might miss the satire. We share it here for others amusement.
Comment 7
The sixth comment is from a user whose profile picture is the red triangle symbol used by Hamas. “Just another case of the boy who cried wolf” the comment reads, dismissing the blatant expression of antisemitism by neo-Nazis.
The symbol started appearing at pro-Palestine protests in Australia in later 2024 and as The Jewish Independent explained, “The red triangle is a military symbol of Hamas, itself a banned terrorist organisation in Australia. It is not a ‘Free Palestine’ sign nor an expression of support for Palestinian civilians who are victims of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.”
Comment 8
The next comment reads “Given the Zionists’ disgusting, genocidal behaviour, I can 100% see why people hate them”. As there was no mention of Zionists or Israel by the Nazis, who were quite openly speaking about Jews, this is an example of using “Zionists” to mean “Jews”. It is also an example of the kind of antisemitism that holds Jews around the world responsible for the action of the State of Israel. It’s not very different from the racist attacks on Chinese-Australians during Covid, such as the Melbourne family whose garage door was graffitied “Covid 19 – China die”.
Comment 9
After being told that defending Nazis is wrong, and that Australians fought and died to protect us from their ideology, a person replied “My grandfather fought for the White Australia policy”. The White Australia Policy was a racist immigration policy that from Federation until it was dismantled during the 1960s and 1970s limited non-White immigrants from coming to Australia.
The person goes on to blame “the Jews” for dismantling the policy. In reality the policy was dismantled by governments from both major political parties. This claim of “the Jews” being responsible is an echo of claims claim Jews for immigration as part of the “White Genocide” conspiracy theory.
Comment 10
This comment urges another user to look up how many times Jews have been expelled and claims “that’s not being racist, that’s fact”. It is in fact victim blaming. The expulsion of Jews from various countries is an example of antisemitism.
The modern concept of citizenship only goes back to the French revolution. Since Ancient Rome conquered the Jewish state and expelled the Jews from there (as they did to many populations they conquered), the Jews were a people without a land. They were regarded as visitors in the countries they lived and often worked as traders and bankers, being prohibited from various other professionals in different places and times. They were both welcomed into countries and expelled from countries depending on the rulers and their policies.
The neo-Nazi’s chant outside the Victorian Parliament of “The Jews must go” promotes this idea of expelling Jews. It is an increasingly common call from white supremacist groups and is often represented by the symbol “109” or “109/110”. The actual number of times Jews were expelled is uncertain and figures range from about 100 to about 1000. The specific 109 number originates from a long standing Australian antisemitic website. The site claimed Jews has been expelled from 109 countries and provided a list. 110 is used to suggest that a country should become the 110th to expel the Jews.
Comment 11
The next comment seeks to engage in replacement of Jews with Palestinians, essentially suggesting the Palestinians are the real Jews and seeking to deny Jewish people their identity. Untangling it require a great deal of history.
A very brief history: In biblical times the area was part of a Jewish state (actually multiple Jewish states depending on the year). The land was conquered by the Romans who expelled most of the Jews in the year 70, when they renamed it Palestina. it became highly contested during the crusades between the forces of Christendom and Islam. It was part of the Otterman Empire until 1920, when it became the British Mandate of Palestine. At the start of the British mandate the land was very sparsely populated, and during it there was a significant influx of both Jewish and Arab people. When the mandate ended in 1948, the surrounding Arab countries attacked Israel from all sides in an effort to eliminate it – and lost. Many Arabs who has been living there under the mandate fled. Those Arabs were later designated as Palestinian refugees. It did not matter if they had lived their for many generations, or arrived from elsewhere in 1947 (e.g. Arafat himself came from Egypt). Arabs who did not leave received Israeli citizenship and are now Arab Israelis making up 20% of the population and have full citizenship rights. Some Arab Israelis sometimes also self-identify as Palestinian.
As to Jews who arrived after World War II being “only Jews through religion not race”, this argument is completely false. It is variant of the Kazar Conspiracy Theory, a debunked academic theory claiming Ashkenazi Jews are not connected to historical Jews but their ancestors were converts to Judaism from Khazaria. This has since been disproved by DNA evidence. The conspiracy theory is still used online to try deny Jews who moved from Europe to Israel their identity and status as an Indigenous people of Israel.
As present here, this argument also has a flavour of Christian antisemitism that involves replacement theology, a claim that the Christians are the real Jews. A version of this is reasserting itself at the moment with memes claiming “Jesus was a Palestinian”, when Christian sources very clearly state Jesus was Jewish, and historically at that time the land was known as Judea and was a Jewish state. The Romans renamed it Palestina only after conquering it and expelling most of the Jews in the year 70.
Comments 12 and 13
This next conversation seems someone claiming the Nazi protest is a false flag and the Nazis are actually “Zionist jew supporters” making “false issues”. When challenged and told they must be one of the Nazis then, they replied no I support the innocent victims in Palestine” and that “Nazis and Zionist Israelis are exactly the same”. This is another form of antisemitism, claiming an antisemitic incident was staged by Jews. We know exactly who the Nazis were as their leader was not masked and is well known. The person’s follow on comment, supporting victims in Palestine and comparing “Zionist Israelis” to Nazis is either an attempt at misdirection after being outed as a Nazi, or shows someone on the extreme left engaging in what we called “racist anti-Zionism” when we discussed it in detail in our Post October 7 report.
Comment 14
The next comment asks why we don’t just ignore the Nazis and argues we are giving them a platform. Had their protest occurred in their own backyard, ignoring it might have been a reasonable response. When a Nazi action is carried out on the steps of parliament, it can’t just be ignored. It needs to be called out and where the law has bene broken, people need to be charged. Otherwise we give Nazis the freedom of the city, which makes it unsafe for others.
Comment 15
The next comment says “You can’t trust Israel” then says “They go on and on about all the bad things that happened to them during WW2… they deserve whatever they get”. It is very clearly using Israel and Jews interchangeably (Israel was only created in 1948, after WWII) that is concerning not only because it holds Jews responsible for Israel’s actions (as discussed above) but also then means they are saying Jews deserve whatever happens to them.
Comments 16, 17 and 18
The next three comments call Zionists “child murdering” and “genocidal” saying they should “rot in hell”. This is more of that racist anti-Zionism discussed previously. When this person says “Zionist” they both mean “Jew” and have their own made definition of Zionist that is synonymous with evil. It is similar to the kind of Islamophobia that claims all Muslims are terrorists. The second is another version of what we saw in comments 1 and 11 above and trying create confusion. The final comment is straight up antisemitism, dehumanising Jews as “things”, claiming they weren’t wanted (going back to what we discussed in comment 10) and claiming Jews are just playing the victim (like discussed in comment 12).
Comments 19 and 20
These next two comments are not antisemitic, they are Islamophobic. The first one is just generic xenophobic anti-Muslim hate. The second seems to think the neo-Nazis are Muslims, possibly as a result of readying the other comments claiming they were protesting for Palestine, and not reading the article itself.
Comments 21 and 22
Another claim of it being a false flag, this time claiming the government is behind it and doing it in order to build up support for Israel (again conflating the Jewish community here with Israel). Another comment below, from a different user, is similar calling it a psyop by the Australian Government.
Comment 23
Another one claiming Palestinians are the real Jews and there can’t be antisemitic (see comments 1, 11, and 17). They go on to ask if we post about “Arab businesses being bombed by ZioNAZIS for being ANTI GENOCIDE”. There are no Arab businesses in Australia that have been bombed over the Middle East conflict, there is one synagogue that has firebombed in what is believed by the authorities to be an antisemitic terrorist attack.
One Arab business was firebombed, the Burgatory burger bar (and yes we did write about it, see here), but the attack was not politically motivated, was not related to the owners pro-Palestinian activities, and had nothing to do with Zionists or Jews.
As to “ZioNAZIS” this is racist slur, it is no different to the slurs we see calling all Muslims IslamoFACISTS.
Comment 24
This next comment argues it is “free country” so the Nazis should be allowed to engage in antisemitism. It is a free speech absolutist argument. The problem with this argument is there is only freedom within what the law permits, and racism and incitement are unlawful. Police are currently investigating the incident, the leader had already been charged and released on bail until he appears in court. There is also an Israel = Nazis comparison implied in this, which is also antisemitic.
More broadly, the reason we don’t have absolute free speech is the tolerance paradox, which was outlined in 1945 by Karl Popper in his book The Open Society and Its Enemies. He explained that if you have a society that allows (is tolerant of) views that promote intolerance (e.g. racism) then is short order the tolerant society will be replaced with an intolerant one. He concluded:
“We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant. We should claim that any movement preaching intolerance places itself outside the law, and we should consider incitement to intolerance and persecution as criminal, in the same way as we should consider incitement to murder, or to kidnapping, or to the revival of the slave trade, as criminal.” — Karl Popper
Comments 25 and 26
In the first comment we have another example of a person dismissing the concerns over antisemitism, even though they are about neo-Nazis making blatantly antisemitic statements, holding a blatantly antisemitic sign, etc. There is a dismissal and attack against any expression of concern over antisemitism and an unwillingness to even entertain the thought that the antisemitism being complained about might be real. It is dismissed with a “they are just trying to silence criticism of Israel” response.
The person is told this protest didn’t even mention Israel. In response they proudly claim they are called an antisemite, Jew hater, Holocaust denier, and were yesterday called a “filthy terrorist”, they wear these as badges of honour claiming it is because of their criticism of Israel. They claim the label must be wrong because they aren’t censored by Facebook. Firstly, this just shows Facebook has some improvement to do. Secondly, they have been banned from our page. Yes, that’s us applying censorship, perhaps they will get the hint.
Update: Comments on the comments
We published this article and shared it on Facebook. In response further comments have been made, some of which are themselves antisemitic or stupid. We share some of them here and will selectively add other examples. We have also renumbered the existing examples above so each comment (rather than group of comments) has a number.
Comment 27
This isn’t an antisemitic comment or a stupid one, but it highlights a misconception.
In comment 1 we explained the link between the land of Israel and the Jewish people. In it we explained that this connection goes back to ancient times and is a key part of the Jewish religion. We made an analogy to Indigenous Australian peoples. To further explain, each Indigenous nation (and there are many in Australia) has a connection as custodians or traditional owners of a particular area of land (and waters). This connection is reflected in their ceremonies and spiritual beliefs. It is the same with the land of Israel and Judaism as a religion. Some Indigenous Australians have taken on other religions, usually Christianity as Christian missionaries made a concerted effort to convert Indigenous peoples to Christianity. This doesn’t make them any less Indigenous, nor does it remove the connection between them and the particular land of their people. Spiritual beliefs are a part of that connection, but the connection is more than this and embedded in culture and identity as well. Similarly, the Jewish connection to Israel has a large influence in Jewish religious practice, but the connection is more than this. A non-religious Jew, even an atheist Jew, still has a connection to the land of their ancestors.
In comment 1 we also discussed the movement to return to the ancient homeland. We discussed the Hovevei Zion (Lovers of Zion), how they were practically assisting people to do this in the 1870s. We discussed the coining of the term Zionism in 1890 to describe the national movement of the Jewish people not only to return to their ancestral homeland, but to resume Jewish sovereignty over it. It was felt this was needed as Jews were being persecuted by pogroms, usually with the explicit or at least tacit approval of authorities. It was felt Jews would only be able to guarantee their safety in their own country. This became a formal movement with the First Zionist Congress in 1897. This movement eventually led to the World Zionist Organisation which is still in operation today (and helps govern major non-governmental organisations in Israel that provide environmental and refugee services). The Australian constituent of the World Zionist Organisation is the Zionist Federation of Australia, founded by (among others) Sir John Monash in 1927.
Comments 8 (previously numbered 7):
- Used “Zionists” to mean “Jews”
- Sought to hold Jews around the world responsible for the action of the State of Israel
- Argued antisemitism against Jews in Australia was a reasonable response to Israel’s actions
We explained that this is not very different from the racist attacks on Chinese-Australians during Covid. Citizens of a country (e.g. Israelis in Australia) cannot be personally attacked because you disagree with the actions of their country. That is simply racist. Disagreeing with a countries actions or policies does not make it ok to target people who share a religion, heritage, or culture with that country (i.e. Jews in this case). That is not criticizing the government of that country, but rather engaging in racism against fellow Australians.
Comment 16 (previously numbered 14):
- Called Zionists “child murdering” and “genocidal” saying they should “rot in hell”
While the vast majority of Jews are Zionists, and Zionism is connected to Jewish peoplehood and Judaism, and Zionism is about supporting the establishment (historically) and now continued existence and welfare of Israel as the Jewish state, that does not make Jews (or Zionists) responsible for the actions of the Israeli government. There are Zionists who support a whole range of different Israeli political parties and positions. There are left-wing Zionists and right-wing Zionists. There are religion Zionists and secular Zionists. Being a Zionist does not mean one agrees with or supports a particular Israeli government, leader, or policy. If one wants to criticize Israeli policy, that’s fine, but express it as criticism of Israeli policy. Making it an attack on Zionists misses the mark. As mentioned just above, this really just becomes a targeting of Jews. It’s racist, antisemitic and entirely unneeded.
There is no contradiction between:
- Judaism and Jewish people being connected to Israel
- Most Jews being Zionists
And
- Recognising attacks targeting Jews as racist and antisemitic
- Recognising that trying to justify this racism as “a response Israeli actions” is a special kind of stupid – no different from attacks on Chinese-Australians during Covid.
Comment 28
This is a special sort of stupid. They write “This isn’t about antisemitism”… in response to comments on an article about a group of neo-Nazis shouting “The Jews must go!”, “White Power!” and “Hail Victory” (which is “Sieg Heil” in German) while holding up a banner saying “Jews hate freedom”. Sure, this isn’t about antisemitism at all (eye roll).
Comment 29
Here someone has highlighted the irony of the antisemitic comments that have been posted to this article. In response someone writes “The facts I care about are…” and proceeds to totally ignore the topic of the article and antisemitism. They then continue by engaging in an antisemitic Holocaust inversion.
Human rights are not a zero-sum game. Being concerned for the human rights of Palestinians in Gaza does not require one to ignore antisemitism here in Australia. Someone that does is not a true champion of human rights. Claiming defenders of Zionism will be as reviled as the Nazis shows either a complete lack of understanding of what they are saying, or buying into racist disinformation. This is demonization. To make this clearer, image in the context of the Iraq war someone wrote: “This war in Iraq is entirely unjustified and killing huge numbers of civilians. Australia should not be a part of it. Defenders of Australia’s continued existence and of Australia have so much to answer for. They will be reviled like the Nazis in years to come.” You can criticize the policy of a government, or its actions, but attacking people because they support the existence of the country itself is absurd and racist.
While the facts the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack, Israel’s response to it, and the resulting war will no doubt take time (after the fighting stops) to fully assess, the Holocaust is very clearly understood. It involved a deliberate policy to kill every Jewish man, woman, and child. It involved systems set up to carry this out on a vast scale. Transporting people across multiple countries in order to more efficiently kill them. This murder was not in the fog of battle, but of people rounded up, transported for days, in order to be efficiently gassed at the end of the journey. It involved finding every Jew in a village, walking them at gun point for miles to the forest, having them dig their own mass grave, then line up and shooting them on mass by firing squad – trying to kill as many people as possible with each bullet. Those making comparisons between the horrors of war and the Holocaust do not understand the Holocaust.
Comment 30
This comment seeks to argue that one can’t be racist against Jews because Jews are not a race but followers of a religion. This is simply wrong. Jews are a people (as explained above) with a particular culture, language, land, and yes religion. Law against racism apply when the racism is against Jews as they are recognised as an “ethno-religious group”, that is an ethnic group with a particular religion. Sikhs are the same.
There were some strong responses to this ignorance which we share here:
Comments 31 and 32
The first of these comments explicitly suggesting it is ok to attack Jews in Australia as an expression of outrage at events in Gaza. It seems ot hold Australian Jews responsible for that Israel does. We have discussed why this is antisemitic in our response to comment 27 above, but note that this time it doesn;t even pretend to say Zionists and openly just says Jews. Also of interest is that the claim Israeli is committing genocide against Palestinians (which is disputed) is here expanded to say “and others”. It’s unclear what this is supposed to mean.
The second comment seeks to hold the safety of Jews in Australia hostage saying the antisemitism will stop when “Zionists cease their genocide”. This suggests the person will not acknowledge or counter antisemitism until them. They are happy for racism against Jews to continue if they feel it will help their political cause.
It also comflated Jews (or Zionists) in Australia withthe Israeli state. Again, holding Jews in Australia responsible for the actions or policies of Israel is racist and antisemitic, just as holding Chinese-Australians responsible for the actions of the Chinese government is racist, or holding Muslim Australians responsible for the actions of any Muslim state or group.
Comment 33
This next comment is at least tangentially linked to the events the original article was about. The Nazis were protesting laws that would (among other things) ban protesting in masks and give police greater powers during protests. The person argues we live in a “free society, with freedom of speech” and a government seeking to legislate against new Nazi speech is “officially National Socialist” (i.e. Nazi).
Firstly, we don’t live in a “free society”, we live in a democracy which operates under the rule of law. That means you can do whatever you like so long as it is not against the law. Laws are made by parliament, they have the right and the obligation to make laws – it’s literally their job. If you dislike the laws being made, you can express that at the ballot box.
As for becoming Nazis if we censor Nazi speed, that is the tolerance paradox we discussed in response to comment 24 above.