Australia’s antisemitism envoy is calling for a ban on pro-Palestinian protests in cities based on the debunked claim that opposing genocide is antisemitic.
I think her continuing as the antisemitism envoy is untenable now. Conflating protest against a genocide targeting a semitic people with antisemitism just provides cover for actual antisemitism.
The rallies show that Australians are generally anti-genocide. The group “Jewish Australians for a Ceasefire in Gaza” has gathered over 900 signatures from Jewish Australians opposed to the genocide - and those are just the ones who signed the petition (it’s generally hard to get people to sign a petition, and only a relatively small percentage of Australians are Jewish, so that is a massive number).
Jillian Segal’s absurd position is effectively that most Australians, including Jewish Australians, are antisemitic because they are anti-genocide. Human behaviour is to copy behaviours when they see prevalence signals indicating it is common; if far-right extremists believe that the majority is antisemitic, they’ll feel empowered to be antisemitic, and it will lead to an uptick in actual antisemitism. And when they are called out for it, people are likely to tune out because they have heard the term being used for benign behaviour like being anti-genocide. In fact, part of the job of Antisemitism Envoy should be to use their voice to actively counteract the misuse of the term antisemitism, so it retains its power.
And freedom of expression, including through protest is a long-standing Australian value that is shared by most Australian.
All this places her far below the standard for a government role, and I think it’s time to appoint someone who will stand up against real antisemitism and act against the dilution of the term.
The very position of antisemitism envoy is working as designed. To give Zionists another platform to organise against Palestinian solidarity. The position is untenable and it needs to be abolished.
I think her continuing as the antisemitism envoy is untenable now. Conflating protest against a genocide targeting a semitic people with antisemitism just provides cover for actual antisemitism.
The rallies show that Australians are generally anti-genocide. The group “Jewish Australians for a Ceasefire in Gaza” has gathered over 900 signatures from Jewish Australians opposed to the genocide - and those are just the ones who signed the petition (it’s generally hard to get people to sign a petition, and only a relatively small percentage of Australians are Jewish, so that is a massive number).
Jillian Segal’s absurd position is effectively that most Australians, including Jewish Australians, are antisemitic because they are anti-genocide. Human behaviour is to copy behaviours when they see prevalence signals indicating it is common; if far-right extremists believe that the majority is antisemitic, they’ll feel empowered to be antisemitic, and it will lead to an uptick in actual antisemitism. And when they are called out for it, people are likely to tune out because they have heard the term being used for benign behaviour like being anti-genocide. In fact, part of the job of Antisemitism Envoy should be to use their voice to actively counteract the misuse of the term antisemitism, so it retains its power.
And freedom of expression, including through protest is a long-standing Australian value that is shared by most Australian.
All this places her far below the standard for a government role, and I think it’s time to appoint someone who will stand up against real antisemitism and act against the dilution of the term.
The very position of antisemitism envoy is working as designed. To give Zionists another platform to organise against Palestinian solidarity. The position is untenable and it needs to be abolished.