On October 9, two days after Hamas launched its assault on Israel, pro-Palestine protesters converged on the Sydney Opera Home. They have been there to display towards the NSW authorities’s determination to gentle up the constructing’s iconic “sails” in blue and white in help of Israel.
I’m a Jewish Israeli-Australian who stands in solidarity with Palestinians calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and an finish to Israel’s occupation. I didn’t attend this protest, though there was a proud Jewish contingent — as there may be at each pro-Palestine rally. From this protest, a number of confirmed studies surfaced of some members of the gang shouting anti-Semitic chants (one of many rally’s organisers would later handle the media to sentence the chants and say that these accountable weren’t welcome within the motion).
The morning after the protest, a video emerged of a gaggle of attendees shouting a sentence over and over for a couple of seconds. The video was circulated on Twitter/X by the Australian Jewish Affiliation (AJA) with the caption “Muslim mob of 100s chant ‘gasoline the Jews’”.
The AJA is an Australian Zionist organisation that even different Zionist neighborhood leaders search to disassociate from.
The video went viral virtually instantly and had a critical impression. Months later, it’s typically cited in media reporting and underpins claims that the streets of Australia are unsafe for Jews. NSW Premier Chris Minns used the video to attempt to ban future pro-Palestine rallies, a cynical transfer that pits Jewish security in direct opposition with Palestine solidarity.
The truth that this video circulated within the days after October 7 is important. Not solely did it end result within the NSW premier and police attempting to forestall different protests from taking place, and resulted in some Palestinian organisers being questioned by police, nevertheless it additionally sowed worry within the Jewish neighborhood, a neighborhood that was understandably shaken by listening to that “gasoline the Jews” was chanted. The video circulated the world, with retailers within the USA, Israel and the UK reporting on it with out scrutiny.
However now, as reported by journalists Cam Wilson and Antoinette Lattouf in Crikey, there are authentic questions raised by forensic audio and verification specialists in regards to the video in query.
Studying that specialists — supported by testimonies from individuals who attended the rally — have solid doubt on the authenticity of the unique recording left me feeling indignant. Offended that the AJA, which claims to be an organisation “for the Australian Jewish neighborhood”, had no qualms about circulating confronting footage allegedly of a “Muslim mob of 100s chant[ing] ‘gasoline the Jews’” with out first verifying its authenticity.
I’m indignant as a result of telling the Jewish neighborhood {that a} “mob of 100s” chanting “gasoline the Jews” can actually strike worry in a neighborhood when tensions are already excessive, when individuals are already afraid and unsure. I’m indignant as a result of anti-Semitism has probably been weaponised by Jews towards different Jews. It additionally left me questioning what sense of duty the AJA has for the neighborhood it claims to signify, such that it had no difficulty about circulating footage that — knowingly — would make Jews really feel unsafe. It’s attainable that the AJA shared this video to foment division between “Muslims” and “Jews”, and between Jews and the Palestine solidarity motion, however in doing so it acted with recklessness that has real-life penalties.
Maybe, as some argue, it doesn’t matter what the phrase is. They might say that whether or not the mantra was “the place’s the Jews”, “fuck the Jews”, or “gasoline the Jews”, it’s nonetheless anti-Semitic (though I disagree — invoking a type of homicide infamous for its use within the Holocaust is an incitement to violence totally different from asking “the place’s the Jews”, particularly given there’s a felony distinction).
However my level, in the end, is that the injury is completed. That the video was circulated with out scrutiny and verification, firstly by the AJA and subsequently by numerous media organisations, has had grave impacts on the Palestinian solidarity motion that was tarnished as anti-Semitic and noticed protesters and organisers vilified. It feeds into dangerous stereotypes about Arab-Australians and reinforces the ahistorical concept that the battle between Palestine and Israel is in regards to the annihilation of Jews, relatively than colonisation and dispossession.
I’ve little doubt that within the subsequent weeks and months we’ll study extra in regards to the phrases chanted within the protest. However my concern is that this video was circulated by a Zionist group with out verification, understanding that it’ll generate worry within the Jewish neighborhood. Doing so has had dire, real-life implications on individuals. I do know, as a result of I’ve felt them.
Over the latest months I’ve had conversations (or arguments) with individuals from the Australian Jewish neighborhood who maintain totally different political opinions to mine. In these conversations, some have accused me of holding harmful views that put Jews in peril. To help their accusations, individuals cited the AJA video as proof and used it to say that the Palestine solidarity motion is anti-Semitic. Of their eyes, I’m supporting an anti-Semitic motion, and getting used as a Jew by those that need to trigger hurt to myself and different Jews.
These allegations have been made by individuals near me, individuals I care deeply about. I take these allegations to coronary heart. Consequently, a rift has shaped between us. This division, a private one, is replicated all through the Jewish neighborhood at massive. Many Jewish individuals witnessed Israel’s response to the Hamas assault on October 7 with profound horror. We’re struck by the extent of devastation in Gaza, and likewise by the deafening silence from peak Jewish our bodies, synagogues, and neighborhood and non secular leaders who stay mute in relation to the struggling of Palestinians. It isn’t an exaggeration to say that the Jewish neighborhood is split, and this division has seen households sever bonds with one another and longtime friendships crumble.
I do know this as a result of individuals — at instances whole strangers — have reached out to me to specific how remoted they really feel. To share that they really feel betrayed by the individuals of their congregation, their rabbis, households and communities. Betrayed as a result of their views are silenced and marginalised, whereas Zionist views are elevated and given room.
Many people within the left-wing Jewish neighborhood really feel unrepresented by so-called neighborhood leaders and peak our bodies that flip a blind eye to the horrors that Israel is inflicting upon Palestinians and justify Israel’s struggle crimes as “self-defence”. We’ve began constructing communities with one another in response.
A surge of organising on the left — spearheaded by teams like IfNotNow and Jewish Voice for Peace in North America, and Loud Jew Collective, Jews In opposition to the Occupation ’48 and Tzedek Collective in Australia — has responded to the struggle by calling for a ceasefire and organising alongside the Palestine solidarity motion. Correspondingly, on the suitable, Zionist foyer teams and people made claims that calling for a ceasefire is anti-Semitic, which makes use of the damaging logic that Jewish security is contingent on the oppression of Palestinians.
These teams declare that any critique of Israel is anti-Semitic, which has grave implications for Palestinians, Jews and different allies. The absurdity and even hazard of this place ought to be plain to see. It treats Jews as a monolith and, worse, implicates Jews all over the place with the state of Israel — a state many people stand towards. In latest months, Jewish blocs in pro-Palestine protests have grown week by week with new members and supporters. We resist the flattening of Jewish identification and values that right-wing Zionist teams impose on us. And we proceed to talk out for Palestine regardless of households turning towards us, regardless of associates disappearing. On this present local weather, the results for talking up about Palestine have by no means been larger.
On a private stage, the video circulated by AJA with out verification contributed to a deepening chasm within the Jewish neighborhood, which sees a few of us on one facet, and our households and associates on the opposite. At the moment of heightened feelings and impulsive reactions, media and civil society teams must do higher by the communities they declare to serve — communities which might be already risky, fearful and precarious. The very least teams resembling AJA can do is confirm inflammatory claims. Because it stands, they now appear to be backing away from them.
Regardless, the injury is completed. The Australian Jewish neighborhood is ruptured. And regardless of allegations levelled towards us, a rising variety of Jews reject the mainstream Zionist narrative and name for Palestinian liberation.