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”.