Published: 29 April 2024
Last updated: 29 April 2024
Six months on from October 7, there is surely not a single Australian Jewish person – Zionist or otherwise – who has not felt the impacts of this war.
It is an elephant in every room we enter. It is in every news bulletin. Its weekly protests obstruct every major city. And it has also affected the landscape of our communal institutions and organisations, and our relationship with our political leaders.
The war has changed the temperature of our national conversation. Across the country it has amplified the loudest voices pushing the most extreme viewpoints. So, too, have we seen the amplifying of extreme voices within our own community.
Communal organisations have, to outside observers, seemed more like personality contests. What these organisations actually do or what differentiates them from each other seems trivial. What is seen in the public eye is who gets the most comments in articles or grabs on TV and radio.
A crowded and confused media landscape has given rise to these more extreme voices. The right-wing Australian Jewish Association is often cited by News Corp. The new left-wing and anti-Zionist Jewish Council of Australia is gaining exposure through progressive outlets. Both are gaining traction through social media.
Coverage of the conflict and its impacts at home seem to spend more time quoting organisations than on actual news content. In one recent example, the Sydney Morning Herald coverage of the Israeli airstrike that killed seven aid workers, including one Australian, quoted the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ), Zionist Federation of Australia (ZFA), Australian Jewish Democratic Society and Jewish Council of Australia – all in one day.
Comments6
Ilana4 May at 01:52 pm
I get the view here by the author and I agree to some extent but it’s missing the point.
Jewish Council have gained traction because the position of ECAJ and ZFA is so out of touch with the Australian mainstream. They have not said one thing that criticises Israel’s actions since Oct 7, not about civilian deaths in Gaza, aid restrictions on the border, settler misconduct in the West Bank. Not one word.
What does the Jewish community expect when our own position is so insular, uncritical and out of touch with the facts of occupation on the ground?
Journalists know JCA don’t represent the majority of the Jewish community. It’s just that the majority’s position, which is to endorse every action Israel takes, is so embarrassing, the media want to protect us from humiliating ourselves. So they interview some of these fringe groups. Perhaps if ECAJ and ZFA actually just did the responsible and honest thing and admitted Israel is now adopting an expansionist strategy under a far right government which endangers both Jews and Palestinians, the media might take them seriously.
Is the other side better? No it’s not. Many pro Palestinian agitators behave disgracefully. But that doesn’t excuse is from not getting our own house in order.
Miriam Feldheim1 May at 09:56 pm
The Australian Jewish Community may be strongly Zionist in its support of Israel, but that does not hide the fact that we are deeply divided in our hopes and dreams for Israel. A division which has been sorely tested not only by the war in Gaza, but reflects also the rifts within Israeli society itself, whether it be for a democracy based on equal rights for all or a continued expansionist direction towards a Greater Israel. We can no longer pretend to be ‘united’ in our response to the crisis Israel and its supporters are facing.
Miriam Frommer1 May at 07:49 am
Another inconvenient truth wrt the territories which Israel conquered in the Six-Day War, and which has been totally forgotten:
Theodor Meron was legal counsel of the Israeli Foreign Ministry in September 1967. He was asked by the Prime Minister’s Office for his opinion on the legality of civilian settlement in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In a cover note to his opinion, he summarized his conclusion: “…civilian settlement in the administered territories contravenes the explicit provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention.”
Jack Morris1 May at 05:08 am
A Gallup conducted earlier this year showed that 65 percent of Israelis oppose the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. That is what counts, not the mouthings of those in the antipodes, who have hung their hat on the worn-out mantra, “We are committed to a two-state solution in which Israel and a future Palestinian state coexist, in peace and security, within internationally recognised borders.”
Pearl Jago30 April at 07:08 pm
This article is so comprehensive well enunciated & should be circulated for many to read Well done Dean
Beverley Dight30 April at 08:47 am
I would like our Government to realize that like all people, Jewish people have diverse views, and that includes
views on Israel. In the past it has acknowledged only
one view, which it has based its complete support for
Israeli policy. The word occupation was not even
used.
I think it would be dishonest to present one view as that of the Jewish community.
Also, I don’t think it is a fringe view to want Israel to be a
home for all its inhabitants, and not just its Jewish
inhabitants. Presently the Nation State Law in 2018
declared that only the Jews had national rights.
To me, paradoxically, to represent the spirit of
Judaism, where social justice is a fundamental
value, Israel is required to give up being a Jewish
State by ethnicity and religion. Such inequity
of status, which has resulted in discrimination
against non-Jewish inhabitants of Israel , is also not
democratic. It is understandable to want to have
a State for the Jewish people, after enormous racism
against Jews, culminating in the Holocaust.
Unfortunately, the reality is that the land chosen was
already occupied. This was acknowledged by the
first Prime Minister of Israel. The Israeli historian,
Ilan Pappe, reported that David Ben Gurion, in 1948,
said “Let us not ignore the truth among ourselves.
Politically we are the aggressors and they defend
themselves. The country is theirs because they
inhabit it, whereas we want to come here and settle
down.”