Published: 21 April 2018
Last updated: 4 March 2024
Nowadays, you don’t need to go outside to criticise people – you don’t even have to write a letter. All you need is a Facebook account.
In recent months, an ongoing tiff between a handful of Jewish right-wing activists (or perhaps slacktivists – a term for those whose activism largely consists of online measures – is more appropriate) and AUJS members and leaders, has continued apace on Facebook and the letters page of the Jewish News. AUJS’ apparent crime was to invite senator Richard Di Natale, leader of the Australian Greens, to speak at its political training seminar.
Di Natale, these right-wingers alleged, is the leader of an anti-Israel party, a political extremist, and inappropriate to be given a platform by the Jewish community, even at a private, off-the-record educational conference of 40 Jewish students hearing from dozens of politicians, including Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten.
One respondent was “literally disgusted”, another called AUJS “extremely politically naïve” and alleged it was “embracing” anti-Zionist groups. Someone else suggested its next step would be to endorse communism, and yet another said “next AUJS will invite the ayatollahs of Iran to speak (and give them glowing references)”. Not exactly constructive or substantive criticism.
The Greens have a chequered history when it comes to engaging with the Jewish community and Israel. Like many left-wing parties around the world, their policies on Israel and inability to understand the nuances of Zionism and the complex relationship between the Jewish community and Israel have put them at constant odds with much of our community.
But they are the most significant minor party in Australian politics. Even as someone who has campaigned for years for Labor and against the Greens, in my separate capacity as a former AUJS student leader and current board member, I can see the benefit to AUJS of engaging with the Greens.
The point is not really whether AUJS should engage with this figure or that one. It’s not whether or not they posted about this issue but not that one. It’s also not whether their members and leaders lean a bit to the right or a bit to the left.
The point is this: for a person who cares about Jewish issues it is a much better use of their time to meet with politicians at Parliament House than to write snarky comments on Facebook, letters to the Jewish News, or even hosting a local radio program on J-Air.
Just in the past 12 months, AUJS has been successful in getting a number of Jewish students elected to student unions and its advocacy has led to the National Union of Students and a number of university student unions adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism – which notably includes that denying the Jewish people’s right to self-determination is a form of anti-Semitism.
Of course, AUJS is not the only community organisation attacked by the fringes. The Jewish Community Council of Victoria cops flak from all sides from people rarely seen at JCCV Plenums, open to all community members, or events. They do too much interfaith work, they jeopardise interfaith work, they’re too left-wing, too right-wing; too progressive, too conservative. Indeed, you’d be hard-pressed to find a Jewish community organisation or a Jewish activist in the political or communal sphere that hasn’t been subject to criticism.
The level of debate and discussion in our community shows how passionate many of us are. But let’s be clear – hand-wringing, criticism and abuse is not going to solve the issues our community faces. Constructive feedback can be useful, but online criticism delivered by keyboard so often strays well into the vitriolic, anger-fuelled rants that are best facilitated by the impersonal nature of brief, rapid online correspondence.
We take the words without hearing tone or viewing facial expressions as they are delivered, so we often take them at their harshest tone. And we don’t have to face the people we are attacking, so we find it easier to sink the figurative boot in. And indeed, often those attacking don’t take the time to pick up the phone or send a private email asking the person or organisation they’re going after to clarify things before publicly denigrating them.
People who get involved on campus, in communal affairs, in interfaith work, in party politics, are all doing the hard yards. We may not agree with all of them, but anyone who cannot recognise the merit and the difficulty of their work only demonstrates they are out of touch with the realities on the ground.
Representation in parties, active involvement in student politics and campus activism, intercultural work and activism out in the public eye are just some of the things that really matter. We should be celebrating every Jewish student who wants to fly to Canberra at their own expense to meet with and quiz our nation’s political leadership. We should be celebrating every left-of-centre Jewish activist who wants to stand up for our community in the Labor Party, the Greens, academia or other left-wing circles.
As Homer Simpson found out, it’s easy to sit in the back row and criticise. It can even be fun. But criticism won’t win us any difficult arguments, any tough battles. They, they? Doesn’t run on from previous sentence. Perhaps something like “The keyboard critics: or “The keyboard cowboys” if he wants to go in harder would be best advised ...” like all of us, would be best advised to log off and do something more productive and worthwhile.
Dean Sherr is a former AUJS chairperson, a member of the committees of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry and Zionism Victoria; and has worked for state and federal Labor MPs.
