Most people have been appalled or sickened by the images coming from Gaza, of flattened cities, rows of shrouded corpses, dead or dismembered children, mangled babies, emaciated children, lists of journalists and health-workers targeted. In the western world, people have been demonstrating in their many thousands against this genocide in Gaza. So what do governments do? They are more concerned with placating Israel and stopping the protests than stopping the genocide, even to the point of criminalised protesting1.
Why would they do this? Because Zionists use the ‘antisemitism’ slur to attempt to conflate taking a stand against the murder of thousands of Palestinians, with hatred of Jews, and antisemitism still has the stench of death camps about it. While most people realise this conflation is abject bullshit, it was explained more eruditely in Australia by a federal court judge, Justice Angus Stewart in the recent Federal Court case against Islamic preacher Wissam Haddad, whose posts it was ruled were antisemitic because he had conflated Zionism and Judaism1.
Stewart stated that: “Criticising Zionism or the actions of Israel is not antisemitic.” This landmark ruling confirms what so many have said for years, Zionism is a political ideology, not a race or religion. To conflate the two is both dangerous and dishonest. The judgment draws a definitive line between Judaism and Zionism, and that line cannot be ignored.
His findings were as follows:
1. “Political criticism of Israel, however inflammatory or adversarial, is not by its nature criticism of Jews in general or based on Jewish racial or ethnic identity.”
2. “Disparagement of Zionism constitutes disparagement of a philosophy or ideology and not a race or ethnic group.”2
The Albanese government appointed Jillian Segal as Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism in 2024, and her report is supposedly a plan to assist the government in addressing rising antisemitism. As former president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry and chair of the Australia Israel Chamber of Commerce (NSW), Segal has long been at the heart of local Zionist lobbying, and this is clearly why she was chosen for the role3.
Segal’s report is a compilation of bogus assertions and policy “solutions” to problems for which laws already exist. She claims, without evidence, that antisemitism “has become ingrained and normalised within academia”, or that it’s driven by “manipulated narratives in the legacy media”. She must be reading different legacy media to what I read, as there is limited coverage of the genocide in Gaza and the language used to describe Israeli actions is relatively innocuous. Her proposal that the definition of antisemitism be based on the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition is also problematic, as it includes certain criticisms of Israel as being antisemitic3.
Segal also wants to be able to be able to monitor universities, cultural organisations and the media such that all public funding agreements with cultural institutions or festivals should allow “for the efficient termination of funding where the institution or festival promotes, facilitates or does not deal effectively with hate or antisemitism”. This, of course, would be in accordance with her definition of antisemitism, which includes criticism of Israel. She also wants to oversee the provision of visas, and to have judicial inquiries into student activities3. These are all very Trumpian in their tenor.
The depth of Segal’s depravity in supporting Israel can be gauged by her labelling of Adam Bandt’s criticism of Israeli violence in Gaza as antisemitic, and her call for the complete banning of pro-Palestinian protests3.
On top of this is a layer of irony in that Segal’s husband, John Roth, who with his brother Stanley Roth run Henroth Investments Pty Ltd and have donated $50,000 to the anti-immigrant group Advance Australia. They have posted disgusting stuff online which is anti-immigration and islamophobic, and they were a major player in the ‘No’ campaign for the voice to parliament, and used antisemitism slurs against supporters of Zoe Daniel in her electorate of Goldstein. Goldstein residents who displayed Daniel’s corflutes in their yards were accused of “hating Jews” and such displays of the corflutes were said to be reminiscent of “early Germany”5. Daniel lost to the Liberal spiv Tim Wilson. Jillian Segal states that she had no involvement in her husband’s donations4. So, no pillow talk then?
Another layer of irony is that while the genocide continues in Gaza, Israelis are leaving Israel and many are ending up in Melbourne. I presume that Advance Australia is only concerned about Palestinian immigrants and not with Israeli immigrants6. Sounds a bit islamophobic again.
Justice Angus Stewart’s findings should put paid to the conflation of antisemitism with Zionism in Segal’s report. If the government gives Segal any power over the functions she requests, then they will be guilty of running cover for the murderous activities in Gaza, and preventing free speech in support of Palestinians, and that will be unforgiveable.
Sources
- https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-01/federal-court-sydney-wissam-haddad-lectures-social-media/105480506
- https://www.sydneycriminallawyers.com.au/blog/kostakidis-to-go-before-court-after-judiciary-recognises-anti-zionism-is-not-antisemitism/
- https://nickfeik.substack.com/p/envoys-in-glass-houses
- https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/antisemitism-envoy-denies-involvment-in-husbands-trust-donation-anti-immigrant-group/8wd84orr9
- https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/melbourne-mornings/disturbing-election-letter-in-goldstein/105228218
- https://www.facebook.com/YeniSafakEnglish/posts/growing-numbers-of-people-are-leaving-israel-with-many-choosing-melbourne-as-the/731543665929123/
Well said. Also, surely, as Semites are people who come from the middle east a person who is trying to address antisemitism should surely be someone who cares about all Semites.
Mark,
If only that was so. The proportion of the population of Israel that supports what Netanyahu is doing in Gaza, is disturbing to say the least. There apparently has been a wave of people leaving Israel.
Mark – had this “discussion” on another site with a smart arse (not just my view, based on others who replied to him) .. Antisemitism has a precise definition (anti-Jew) and according to a couple of what appeared to be well-researched articles that was the case from its first use in 1879. eg:
https://holocausteducation.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/Etymology-of-antisemitism.docx#:~:text=The%20term%20first%20appeared%20in,themselves%20invented%2C%20'Semitism‘.
(Another) EXCELLENT article from Richard Flanagan in the SMH the other day shreds Segal’s odious report.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/to-defend-our-democracy-pm-must-disavow-and-abandon-segal-report-20250717-p5mfpd.html
If you can’t read it, clear any SMH cookies or paste the url into a java cleaner like https://www.removepaywall.com/
Extract:
The eminent Jewish historian, the late Tony Judt, put it this way in the leading Israeli newspaper Haaretz in 2006: “When Israel breaks international law in the occupied territories, when Israel publicly humiliates the subject populations whose land it has seized – but then responds to its critics with loud cries of ‘antisemitism’ – it is in effect saying that these acts are not Israeli acts, they are Jewish acts: The occupation is not an Israeli occupation, it is a Jewish occupation, and if you don’t like these things it is because you don’t like Jews.
“In many parts of the world this is in danger of becoming a self-fulfilling assertion: Israel’s reckless behaviour and insistent identification of all criticism with antisemitism is now the leading source of anti-Jewish sentiment in Western Europe and much of Asia.”
Hi, after reading about the odious Jillian Segal & her demands in her ’13-page report’, I was disgusted. Firstly, with her being selected in the first place. What investigations did Labor do before she was
selected for this role. Or were they ‘told this is what you will do’? Interesting, don’t you think that a middle power country, & a party that was elected ‘by the ppl’ are dictated to. It leaves me wondering about the outcome for our country & it’s ppl. Will we always kow-tow to higher powers, to those that provide money in the hope of buying governments?
Marilyn,
I can only guess, but I suspect it is from fear of the Israel lobby and the power they have in certain section of the media.
Segal seems well qualified https://aiccnsw.org.au/speakers/jillian-segal-ao/ but has shown clear bias in the report, undoubtedly as as result of her background, personal links and lobbying she would have been subject to. Will Albanese and Tony Burke quietly bury the report as they should? Dunno but Burke won’t even release the taxpayer cost of continuing AFP efforts to keep information about their leaks to war crimes investigation targets so whether he’s capable of managing something more controversial like Segal’s report is highly questionable:
https://archive.is/20250719195510/https://www.smh.com.au/national/afp-argues-corrupt-agents-will-escape-scrutiny-if-war-crimes-leak-disclosed-20250718-p5mfws.html
I’ve seen another attempt to ramp up the antisemitism trope recently in the SMH where a “researcher” used social media rants as the basis for claiming the existence of a massive uptick in antisemitism. Anyone who uses the cesspool of extreme social media comments as a baseline for general community standards has next to ZERO credibility. As Waleed Aly wrote years ago, social media amplifies everything – often way beyond reason, even comments on mundane issues of no import can become viral points of bickering and antagonism.
Albanese and co no doubt thought her appointment was a clever move to placate a very active Jewish lobby. Nothing wrong with that (lobbying) per se, but where it leads to bullying of individuals, businesses, education institutions (especially egregious) etc in order to shut down dissenting views it presents a REAL danger. We’ve already seen where it can lead. Minns allegedly used the the caravan criminal hoax (and clearly antisemitic acts) as an excuse to ram through hate speech legislation in NSW despite knowing that antisemitism/terrorism wasn’t involved.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-12/nsw-dural-caravan-hoax-hate-speech-laws-antisemitism/105042380
https://www.sydneycriminallawyers.com.au/blog/nsw-premier-has-refused-to-appear-before-the-dural-caravan-inquiry/
Woops, missed the key word “secret”.
…the taxpayer cost of continuing AFP efforts to keep information about their leaks to war crimes investigation targets SECRET (despite court rulings rejecting their arguments)
Interesting video on Segal and the significant Jewish influence in Aust govt circles. No-one would be surprised that the odious Morrison would make an appearance but some *might* be surprised at Albanese’s.
“Jillian Segal and the Israel Lobby’s TERRIFYING Plan for Australia” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1b7J7pzgNo
Long at ~40 m, but this is a MUST WATCH.
Jon,
Just watched it all and he nails it. What I found disturbing was the amount of influence that the number of Pro-Israel lobby groups have. I hope that Albanese picked someone as biased as Segal so the ‘solutions’ would be so extreme (as they are), that they can be dispensed with.
Not likely BA. That said, even the unambitious poll-watching Albanese will be highly unlikely to accept Segal’s recommendations to install herself as the head arbiter of national standards for educational institutions, businesses etc. She and her lobby have shot themselves in the foot with the astonishingly STUPID idea that she should also be responsible for “educating” judges and law enforcement officers on how they should interpret and enforce Australian racial villification laws. Sadly they won’t ‘thank her for her services’ and send her on her way as they should because that would create waves. The best we can hope for is that the report is totally ignored because it is (1) a danger to democratic standards (freedom of speech etc) in this country; (2) it is completely ignorant of the separation of powers rules; and (3) it would set an extremely dangerous precedent.
I see the murderous extremists (tautology?) in Hamas have essentially condemned generations of Palestinians to lives of ongoing violence, suffering and misery by rejecting any two state solution which excludes them and doesn’t give Palestinians sole claim to Jerusalem. They are also starving hostages in the same way as Netanyahu is starving Palestinians.
https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/can-hamas-be-defeated