Asserting that “Jews” broadly are complicit in “mass murder” is a blood libel

Growing up in a house with lawyer parents and then going into the professional world I chose working in newsrooms, debate is inherent part of who I am, made stronger by my desire not to surround myself with people who agree with me, but more, people who test me, challenge me and open my mind to other ways of viewing a situation or an issue. Always, of course, within reason.

We won’t always agree, but I will be made a better, smarter, stronger person, as a result of this challenge.

When I read this article Jenna Price’s article Jews are being torn apart. If my sister were alive, even we wouldn’t be talking in The Age/SMH, I actually did agree, for the most part, with the assertions of the author.

That is, until I got to this line: “This is Israel’s revenge on Hamas and Hezbollah, but as a country that claims to represent Jews the world over, it implicates Jews in mass murder.” At that point, my blood ran cold.

Words matter. They are important and they are powerful. Anyone who has a column in a national media outlet should by virtue of their job, understand this.

The word “implicate”, in its very definition, as per the Oxford English dictionary means: “to show (someone) to be involved in a crime”.

By asserting that “Jews” (broadly, without any distinction) are responsible for or complicit in "mass murder" is a blood libel.

It may be clumsy, but it is both damaging and dangerous. Distinguishing between a government or leader and its people is basic common sense.

I've written previously of the way in which all Jews find their lives entwined with Israel, whether we choose it or whether we don't. But the author's statement on implication goes a step further. A giant leap, in fact, rather than a step.

In asserting that all Jews are involved in any crimes committed by Benjamin Netanyahu simply by virtue of our genetics, our culture, our religion or our history, is something I expected from people who’ve pushed racist and antisemitic agendas.  I don’t even know how to find the words to adequately convey the devastation I feel, reading these words from a fellow Jew.

I am a proud Australian/British Jew. I grew up in an expatriate community in Asia. I don’t vote on the Israeli government. I don’t have any control over what that government does, the war crimes it commits or its breaches of humanitarian law.  Even in a country where I do have a vote, yes this one, the government takes actions that are not representative of me, my opinions, my morals or my values in any way shape or form.

What this statement does, is give license for people to hate me, based solely on my Jewishness. It’s the very definition of racism. It fails to recognize the thousands of Jews across the world and within Israel itself calling for a ceasefire, alongside thousands of people, both within and outside Israel, who are not Jewish. It also buys into the idea of the global Jewish conspiracy; that we act as one unit, pulling the strings, working for global domination through the “Zionist entity”.

Conflating the words Jews, Israelis and Zionists – either together or individually – with any one political, ethical or moral position is both lazy and dangerous.

People are not their governments. I wholly resent being told that as a Jew I am responsible in any way, shape or form for the actions of the state of Israel or the Israeli government. The fact that these words were written by a Jew, gives those who seek to attack my community or my children on the basis of their Jewishness, a feeble tick of approval.

After 9/11, progressives (including myself) went out of their way to fight any notion that Muslim people should be blamed in any way for the atrocities carried out in New York. This was in the face of right-wing, racist rhetoric that sought to leverage these attacks to place blame on all Muslims, wherever they may be in the world, whatever their views. Their sole aim was to fuel division and hatred. We stood proudly alongside our Muslim brothers and sisters and said “no”.

This line in the column is not the only line with which I take issue. The assumption that all Jews look and sound and have a history the same as the author is offensive to Jews of colour, to Sephardim and Mizrachim, to those who sit elsewhere on the political spectrum and to those who are not descendants of Holocaust survivors.

If you want to take the position of a one-state solution, that is your right. But to throw in a handful of paragraphs in a column addressing a multitude of other issues, without clarifying and treating this argument with the sensitivity, nuance and background it deserves, is, quite frankly, shoddy work.

The legitimacy or existence of the only Jewish state on the face of the earth deserves more than a handful of paragraphs as a sidebar, while you impugn an entire group of people who are no more homogeneous than any other minority group, anywhere in the world.

That this column was published in the week Jews (and indeed anyone who appreciates or recognises basic humanity) grieve the atrocities of October 7, as Gazans continue to face a humanitarian crisis that grows worse by the day and puts even more lives at risk, as we mourn the thousands and thousands of civilian deaths in the occupied territories, as we fear for the hostages still in Gaza, as settlers continue to enact land grabs and terrorise their Palestinian neighbours, as Lebanon faces more bombings and civilian deaths, is, to put in bluntly, a resounding failure in judgement from all involved.

It is also the week we prepare for Yom Kippur. As I prepare for my fast and the 24-hour period when I reflect on the year that has been, what I could do differently and how I can grow as a person moving forward, I will be sure to focus on the wrongs in which I played in part. 

Netanyahu’s failure in leadership and the failures of his government, and any government before that, is not among them.