Antisemitism politics is out of control 

Two incidents in recent days have exploited the legitimate concerns of Australia’s Jewish community to play dirty politics with the election campaign.  

These cases of hateful language and anonymous slurs must be firmly resisted by those who stand to lose most.  

Both cases are examples of inappropriate and divisive politicking that purport to be acting in the interests of the Jewish community but have the reverse effect.  

The first example concerns the ALP’s decision to preference the Greens in Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus’ electorate of Isaacs. The preference deal has legitimately upset many Jewish voters. The Greens’ divisive support for aggressive pro-Palestinian protests over the past year means the prospect of votes going their way from Australia’s most high-profile Jewish MP feels deeply uncomfortable.  

But the reaction from certain sectors of the media and the Jewish community is much more worrying. Caroline Marcus on Sky News Outsiders Program used the word “kapo” to describe Dreyfus, implying his preference deal was analogous to complicity with Nazis. 

“Kapo [is] a German word for the Jewish concentration camp inmates who collaborated with the Nazis to survive, and that's the word that struck me when I learned Mark Dreyfus, again, our most powerful Jewish Australian, had betrayed his own people by striking a deal with the Greens,” Marcus said.  

She clarified that “of course, I'm not saying that Dreyfus is, in fact, literally collaborating with Nazis” but then described preferencing the Greens as a “backflip” on the occasions  Dreyfus has called out the Greens, and “a betrayal to Jews”.  

The far-right Australian Jewish Association endorsed Marcus’ language by sharing her comment on its  social media. 

There’s nothing wrong with criticising Labor’s direction to preference Greens voters. Preference deals are an arcane art form, frequently resulting in strange bedfellows. They are the result of opaque party machinations and, while as a cabinet minister Dreyfus will not speak out against his party’s decision, any knowledge of his politics and Jewish commitment suggests he would have preferred not to preference the Greens. 

The Isaacs preferencing will have been traded for Greens preferencing Labor in a more marginal seat – with the full knowledge that it will never be implemented because Dreyfus will almost certainly be returned in the safe Labor seat.  

But whatever one thinks of the deal, the use of the term “kapo” is deeply offensive, as is Marcus’ subsequent attempt to weaponise Dreyfus’ family’s Holocaust history. We shouldn’t tolerate this any more than we would tolerate misuse of a candidate’s Aboriginal heritage or their sexual orientation.  

The second incident occurred in Wentworth, held by independent Allegra Spender, where anonymous leaflets were distributed attacking Spender as "weak" on antisemitism.

The more than 47,000 unauthorised pamphlets are being investigated by the Australian Electoral Commission, as they breach regulations which require attribution on all electoral material. 

Liberal Wentworth candidate Ro Knox is running a strong campaign on antisemitism, which is an important issue in the most Jewish electorate in the country.

Knox is is not responsible for this attack. Her office said it had no knowledge of the pamphlet and that “everything we produce has our authorisation on it". 

The ABC reported that IVE, a printing company with past links to the Liberal party, printed and distributed the material but does not suggest it wrote the leaflet.  

The pamphlets are not an isolated incident. Spender has been the subject of other attacks questioning her advocacy on antisemitism.  

Whoever is behind these bad faith campaigns, they are not doing the Jewish community any favours. Making antisemitism an issue in this election campaign  will not reduce its impact and will only increase fear. There is no significant difference between the parties on antisemitism and countering it should be beyond party politics.  

The increasing incidence of antisemitism and decline in social cohesion over Israel-Palestine has many Australian Jews on high alert. 

But we shouldn’t forget that we live in a society that is fundamentally tolerant and decent, with a civilised democracy. 

Our interest is in supporting the forces of civil discourse and honest debate and in speaking out against those who misuse our interests for their own agendas.