If you know what’s good for you, don’t speak out in Australia against Israel’s indiscriminate mass slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza.
Don’t call for fairness and balance in media coverage. Don’t apply rigour to claims made by Israel’s defenders and Israel itself. Don’t suggest Israel may be committing war crimes. Don’t suggest it’s another chapter in a much longer conflict that has seen atrocities, barbarism, sexual violence and slaughter on all sides. Don’t suggest that Palestinian children slaughtered by Israeli bombs should be mourned as much as Israeli kids butchered by the depraved monsters of Hamas.
At best you’ll be labelled anti-Semitic, or an advocate for rape and the beheading of babies. If you’re a journalist or MP, you’ll be publicly criticised by your own leaders. Your job may be threatened, you may be censored. You may lose your job.
Take NSW Premier Chris Minns, who has been running a protection racket for Israel. Two weeks after the Hamas atrocities that began the latest assault, he criticised his own MPs for signing a letter expressing support for Palestine and demanded they “speak with one voice”. Minns also attacked Palestine supporters, said they wouldn’t be allowed to protest, and complained about how much it cost to heavily police them. Minns has also rebuked Labor MPs who have criticised Israel since.
The leadership of Australia’s commercial media, similarly, has attacked journalists who have called for balance. Nine newspapers are censoring journalists who have signed an open letter calling for balance, rigour and context in coverage of the conflict. The normally woker-than-thou Guardian Australia, too, has criticised journalists who have signed the letter. News Corp has not merely reflexively backed Israel’s mass slaughter but worked assiduously to frame anything less than full-throated backing of Israel as anti-Semitism. Naturally, it has engaged in a witch hunt of any media figures who have failed to sufficiently support Israel. One News Corp journalist mocked “mummy bloggers” expressing support for Gazans, although the resulting, comprehensive demolition by one “mummy blogger” might serve to deter any further ridicule.
At the ABC, journalists who signed the open letter were also criticised, and the broadcaster has now sacked fill-in radio presenter Antoinette Lattouf for her social media support for Palestine. Coincidentally or not, Lattouf co-wrote a piece for Crikey pointing out the lack of evidence for claims peddled by Israel supporters and News Corp that pro-Palestinian protesters chanted “gas the Jews” at the Sydney Opera House.
Question the pro-Israeli narrative, lose your job — even if you’re not employed as a journalist.
The behaviour of News Corp is standard. Its business model is peddling hate, division and white grievance. That its phalanx of diehard advocates for free speech have been silent on attacks on journalists is no surprise — free speech is only ever for punching downward at News Corp. If its support of Israel and denigration of its critics leads to more slaughter of Palestinians and the inevitable creation of another generation of enraged, aggrieved people determined to obtain revenge on Israel, all to the better — terrorism can be exploited as part of the business model. We saw that in the failed “war on terror”, which News Corp cheered enthusiastically from the outset.
But the behaviour of other media outlets, if not as extreme, is also aimed at normalising an uncritical stance on Israel and portraying anything other than support as problematic. It’s not just about sacking or censoring people — it happens in minor ways as well. For example, a persistent narrative from the political media, especially at Nine newspapers, has focused on how Labor is split on Gaza, and how there’s something problematic about anything less than full alignment with Israel.
Consider the coverage of the government’s UN vote, along with 152 other countries including France, Canada, New Zealand, Norway, Spain and Japan, to call for a ceasefire last week: Nine headlined its coverage “Australia angers Israel with surprise UN ceasefire vote“, with the journalist regaling readers with how the vote “did not go to cabinet for approval”, “came as a shock to several senior ministers” and upset some “prominent Jewish groups”. It quoted Israel’s ambassador extensively and gave Liberal Senator and Netanyahu propagandist Dave Sharma space to accuse Penny Wong of “capitulating”. All for a call for ceasefire that included a demand that all hostages be released.
Nine then followed up with a detailed article on how the decision around the vote was “secret” and Labor was split, and then another that claimed Labor was “under pressure to follow its closest international security partners” and being accused of “missing in action” on sanctions on Hamas. You had to wade through to the end of the article to find out it was recycling the talking points of Coalition shadow foreign affairs minister Simon Birmingham, rather than reflecting any real-world statements, “pressure” or accusations.
But you get the message: anything less than strong support for Israel is problematic, reflective of internal dissent and the product of decisions made in secret. What is normal is unquestioningly supporting Israel. What is abnormal is being in any way sceptical of the Israeli narrative, or expressing concern for 20,000 dead Palestinians (with the caveat that the number is “according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health ministry”). Forget that at your cost.
As another example of how far Australia has lurched to the Right Wing, Australia will deploy six Defence Force personnel to a US-led operation guarding against Iran-backed rebel attacks on commercial trade routes but will not send a ship or plane, a call Opposition Leader Peter Dutton claimed would be “welcomed by Hamas”.
The six will join Operation Prosperity Guardian in the new year and Australia will also double from five to 10 its staff officers involved in a wider Middle East maritime operation.
The Coalition has castigated Labor in recent days for choosing not to send a warship to the region, where Houthi rebels have been wreaking havoc in key shipping routes facilitating the transfer of oil, humanitarian aid and other products.
The Yemen-based, Iranian-backed armed group is protesting against Israel’s military action in Gaza, which was prompted by the October 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas, an entity also supported by Iran.
“We won’t be sending a ship or a plane,” Marles said on Sky News on Thursday.
“That said, we will be almost tripling our contribution to the Combined Maritime Forces. We need to be really clear around our strategic focus and our strategic focus is our region – the north-east Indian Ocean, the South China Sea, the East China Sea, the Pacific.“
Dutton said the decision not to provide more substantive support made the Albanese government “an international laughing stock”.
“It takes a lot of effort with a special blend of weakness and incompetence for our prime minister to turn his back on our closest ally, a decision that could only be welcomed by Hamas [a listed terrorist organisation]. Doesn’t that say it all?” the opposition leader, who is on leave, posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“The decision should be reversed and our integrity restored.”
The Albanese government has stressed the US request for help included a call for personnel, which it has provided.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Wednesday 20 December 2023 emphasised the United States’ keenness for Australia’s “diplomatic and public support”.
But opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham said Albanese’s claim didn’t “pass muster”.
“Does anybody really think that the Australian government has some effective diplomatic back channel to the Houthi rebels in Yemen?” Birmingham said.
“If [there are] not operational limitations, then explain why it is that Australia is missing in action in responding to this request and this challenge.”
Birmingham said Labor’s reluctance to send a ship to the Middle East exposed Australia to a perception it did not have adequate military resources to free up a ship.
Australia sent HMAS Toowoomba to the Persian Gulf in January 2020 amid growing tensions between the US and Iran. Then defence minister Linda Reynolds later that year announced the Defence Force would “reduce its naval presence in the Middle East to enable more resources to be deployed to our region”.
Michael Shoebridge, the director of think tank Strategic Analysis Australia, said the government was wrong not to take the Houthi threat more seriously as it had the potential to inflate global oil prices.
“This policy mindset that Australia just needs to focus on our near region – unfortunately, the world keeps crowding in on us,” he said, noting the Ukraine war’s impact on energy and food prices.
The Houthi episode also exposed the “small and vulnerable” state of Australia’s navy, Shoebridge suggested.
Former federal Labor MP Michael Kelly and former NSW treasurer Eric Roozendaal have launched Labor Friends of Israel to take on “support for Hamas among ‘progressives’ ”, The Australian ($) reports, though it’s not clear who, if any, notable progressives have publicly supported the terrorist outfit. In what feels vaguely defamatory, the paper has hyperlinked the quoted words above to a story about Labor ministers Ed Husic and Anne Aly alleging 2.3 million Gazans were being collectively punished by Israel (and it refers to the pair again further down in the story) — which is not the same as supporting Hamas, but anyway. The group will also back pro-Israel Labor candidates and build “friendship and understanding with the Jewish community”.
Meanwhile cricketer Usman Khawaja has been charged (in cricket land, not legally) for wearing a plain black armband in support of Palestinians in Gaza without seeking permission, The Courier-Mail ($) reports. “Personal messages” require prior approval from Cricket Australia and the ICC, the statement said, but this is a “first offence” and he’ll only get a reprimand. It comes as Nine newspaper readers condemned the ABC for sacking Antoinette Lattouf over her views on the Israel-Gaza conflict — one accused the broadcaster of “a very jaundiced concept of ‘democracy’ ” and another called it “Big Brother” considering her views were shared outside of work. It comes as Communications Minister Michelle Rowland told chair Ita Buttrose it was “unfortunate” that the prime minister did not approve managing director David Anderson appointment’s in 2019 as required by the cabinet handbook. Buttrose countered the rules didn’t apply then, The Age ($) reports, and besides, ABC needed its independence in the matter.
The LNP federal opposition is now showing clearly that they are rabid hawks, blindly following the military industrial complex's agenda of throwing munitions at everything they disagree with.
Unfortunately the current ALP governments - both Federal and State - has been apparently willingly dragged into that quagmire, courtesy, no doubt, of the military industrial complex's lobbyists and donors. And others - so-called "independents" (such as Cricket Australia and the ABC) - are apparently happy to follow suit.
The powerful reach of the Zionist lobby in Australia has been on display the past few weeks, with news that lobbyists pressured ABC executives leading to the sacking of ABC journalist Antoinette Lattouf for sharing information from Human Rights Watch on her social media.
As the story of her unfair dismissal became global news, it seemed the pressure from transnational Zionist lobby groups didn’t rest with the media and government, and in fact, was a multi-sector, multi-tentacled lobbying army that is working to threaten the livelihoods of those who possess public views that support the people of Gaza under the charge of antisemitism.
On the morning of October 19, after receiving news from a friend trapped in Gaza about the bombing of the Al Ahli hospital, Farah Abdurahman, a media advisor to the NSW Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ), published a LinkedIn post to express her dismay in a train on the way to work.
Abdurahman arrived at her desk at 9am as images were streaming into the world revealing the devastation at the hospital site, and her post was getting attention. Within moments, her post was being aired on the Ray Hadley show, and by 2pm, she was called in by her superiors, who initially sent her home for some personal leave under the pretence of ‘mental health care’, citing the attention her post received.
The speed with which Abdurahman was removed was remarkable. Within moments after Abdurahman posted, the Zionist lobbyists had sent screenshots to the Ray Hadley Morning Show on 2GB, who then relayed this information to the office of NSW Premier Chris Minns for comment. Within a small matter of hours, her organisation was made aware of the situation by the NSW Premier’s office.
Initially her directors “feigned concern” for her mental health about replies to her LinkedIn post calling her things like a “rape apologist”, before sending her home on what would turn out to be forced extended leave without pay. Farah would never return to her position at the DCJ.
The Australian Jewish Association and a vexatious cartel of pro-Israel lobby groups are pursuing individuals in their workplaces across multiple industries in Australia, with individuals and groups targeted who have spoken out against Israel’s actions facing real and concerning consequences as a result.
A lapel pin worn by a Qantas flight attendant made national news as a former Liberal Party staffer had a photo he took of the worker on a flight to Tasmania amplified by the pro-Israel lobbies and the Murdoch-led media onslaught, leading to a national frenzy and over 6,000 signatures on a Change.org petition calling for the flight attendant’s dismissal.
Not satisfied with this, the AJA also spammed another photo featuring an airline worker wearing a similar lapel pin to his colleague, using the same tactic to shame the employee and coerce the employer to terminate them.
Dr Kate Ahmad is a Neurologist and administrator for the Doctors of Palestine Facebook group, a safe space for doctors to discuss the issues away from more public forums that are becoming increasingly heated, and where discussions on Israel and Palestine are often banned.
Dr Ahmad says members are being targeted using the industry regulator APHRA to report doctors for claims of antisemitism, and in the short time since October 7, thirteen members of the ‘Doctors of Palestine group have been reported to APHRA, eleven of them Muslim women, largely for social media posts within the closed Facebook group.
Dr Ahmad says it is infiltrated by pro-Zionist groups choosing “Arabic names, who make false profiles and pretending they are those doctors,” who then take screenshots to share for “complaints and doxing purposes”.
“M.A.”, a Sydney-based epidemiologist and academic, echoes these sentiments, saying he has been doxxed by #notmydoctor and #balanceisnotonesided on Instagram, leaking private and confidential information of the doctor to social media with links in the comments to the APHRA complaints office. M.A. complaint was to UNNSW.
He says APHRA is being used as a cudgel to drag medical practitioners before the regulator.
Forced to investigate each complaint that comes in, Dr M.A. says the Zionist lobbies, some of whom received millions in recent grants from the Attorney-General, are “costing taxpayers a lot of money, and a lot of resources, to investigate unfounded claims, that is doing nothing but endangering APHRA’s responsibility to the population.” (More to come on this story.)
There is a pattern emerging throughout Australia where an employee who takes an anti-Zionist or pro-Palestinian position can be targeted wherever they earn a living, with real and potentially dangerous consequences for those who take a stance on a humanitarian crisis the ICJ has ruled to be a ‘plausible’ genocide in Gaza.
Since the sacking of Antoinette Lattouf, additional claims of similar treatment have emerged from individuals in a wide range of different workforces across Australia. These examples highlight a deeply entrenched corruption in our institutions, which has arisen due to unrelenting pressure from powerful lobby groups, tying religion and culture to the goals of a colonial apartheid state in the Middle East and slandering those who speak out against it as antisemitic.
People who have said nothing about Judaism have had their livelihoods dramatically affected under the charge of antisemitism for criticising the government of Israel, government workers sacked, airline staff bullied, academics censored, and doctors unable to do their jobs.
After taking her two days leave, Farah Abdurahman logged in on the next Monday and realised she was locked out of the corporate software. Enquiring about it in her directives Microsoft Teams group as to what might be going on, she noticed the director removing her from all the group chats, her access was then revoked, and she was effectively on suspension without pay with no direct contact with any of her superiors.
Being on an employment contract as a Government advisor, the department kept communications through the contracting agency, refusing to contact her directly, and informed Abdurahman by proxy that her services would no longer be required. Abdurahman was sent home without pay, her contract was abruptly terminated, and she has not heard from DCJ in three months.
As was the case with both Lattouf, the Qantas flight attendant and Abdurahman, the Zionist lobby uses friendly media outlets to amplify their claims and put more pressure on employers. Lattouf was shamed in the Murdoch Press; the Qantas employee was taken to task in Murdoch’s Sky News Australia and Farah Abdurahman was shamed by outrage journalism in the Daily Mail. She was not contacted by the reporter she says.
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