Sydney Opera House Audio FALSELY-CAPTIONED
Pro-Israeli Lobby Group complicit in fraud ... but the damage is done
Summary
Sydney Opera House Audio falsely captioned by Australian pro-Israel extremist group AJA- a look at the significant impacts on Australia’s reputation and utilisation against pro-Palestinian protestors:
NSW Police reveal not said
NOTHING to do with main pro-Palestine protestors (ABC Interview)
The legal difference in using the term “gas” never mind moral
Impacts of replaying this over and over and reinforcement of the link with protestors
Foreword (June 2025):
I had written this article on 2nd Feb 2024 - the day after the police revealed that “gas” was not chanted at the Opera House - fully aware of the impacts that had been suffered due to this and the mileage that had been made from this by the pro-israel lobby.
Now updating a few items in June 2025 … almost exactly the same false-flag*/pump it up patterns is emerging..
*when I say “false-flag” I am not denying a despicable incident occurred - as I note in this article - it’s the actual ideology driving it that is important in defining the actual risk vs. the presented risk. They do not match.
Shortcut: Jump past contents to start reading main body of the article:👉 CLICK HERE
First published: 2 Feb 2024
Updated: 26 Jun 2025 (see version history)
Contents:
3. Oh come on - “Gas”, “F*ck”, “Where’s” … the Jews - what’s in a word?
4. Nothing to do with mainstream humanitarian pro-Palestinian protestors
7. Opera House Thugs - still need condemned/ prosecuted - but not for this chant
8. Pro-Israeli Lobby PR - learnings from this: another pattern
End Papers
1. Introduction
This is a surprise to me to be honest - that the NSW Police have confirmed that the phrase “gas the Jews” was not used by a fringe group of quite frankly antisemitic individuals regardless.
But when you take a step back and consider the sequence of events in the Australian media and public life since then the impacts are huge.
Why does one unsaid word captioned for effect matter?
The horrendous damage caused by trumpeting this simple false but highly emotive word “gas” is awful. Don’t be naive when it’s attempted to be downplayed - Holocaust-evoking v standard vitriol? Get real.
Regardless the fact completely overlooked by the media was a press conference the very next day being very clear these idiots - whatever they said - had NOTHING to do with the majority peaceful pro-Palestinian supporters.
But hey who cares when you’ve the opportunity for “look over here!” hysterical broad-brush slander easy on the eye and ear for News Corp confirmation bias.
There needs to be learnings from this and a calling out of the pro-Israeli PR machine who have thrived off unproven information (globally in this case) yet again - “nothing to see here”.
Yeah, right.
2. NSW Police: the phrase “gas the Jews was NOT said”
Deputy Commissioner Mal Layton of Strike Force Mealing formed to investigate - after thorough investigation 2 Feb 2024:
“As a result of that examination, the expert has concluded with overwhelming certainty that the phrase chanted during that protest as recorded on the audio and visual files was “where’s the Jews?” Not another phrase as otherwise widely reported,”
Australian Jewish Association 15 Dec 20231:
“those who spread fake conspiracies that it was not genuine must now be seen as on the same level as Holocaust deniers”
The NSW Police Found:
Australian Jewish Association who originally shared the footage captioned with “Gas The Jews”2 claiming that this highly emotive Holocaust-evoking vile language was used. This was then proven by independent audio forensic analysis to be “where’s the Jews” - incitement at best.3
Four witnesses who came forward to provide stat decs saying they DID hear the chants cannot attribute this to individuals to press charges - notably one witness referring to the protest (at Town Hall - pro-Palestinian activist group not Opera House thugs) as a “pro-Hamas” rally.4
I personally think a small group of Opera House fringe protestors chanted something pretty unpleasantly antisemitic and were a bunch of thugs regardless - the very next day I posted my absolute disgust at this taking at face value what was reported here.
The Witness
Noting the witness to the wording of the chant claimed by the AJA.
She is a right wing pro-Israeli activist and interestingly has previously run as a Liberal Party candidate.
She filmed herself during Sydney University O Week 2024 tearing down Palestinian posters on campus whilst later complaining at activists protesting a Liberal talk that they were “affecting freedom of speech”. Her own actions on deplatforming Palestinians were clearly in breach of Sydney University’s own Freedom of Expression policy specifically listing the destruction of posters as a breach.
Incidentally the witness above is also the daughter of Christian activist Rev. Mark Leach who himself went to a Palestinian rally waving an Israeli flag the following day after the Opera House event.
Mark went on to found the Christian “Never Again” Rallies which took place across Australia earlier in the year. These were thinly veiled pro-Israeli propaganda rallies featuring multiple Liberal Party speakers.
More appallingly and somewhat ironically they themselves weaponised the Holocaust in their framing of the Gaza conflict as eloquently noted by the Jewish Council of Australia in a press release in February (also click below for Instagram post summary).
3. Oh come on - “Gas”, “F*ck”, “Where’s” … the Jews - what’s in a word?
A freaking lot actually.
3.1 Emotive
The use of the word “gas” in the same sentence as someone of the Jewish faith is horrendously antisemitic and disgustingly offensive.
It’s completely black and white and quite rightly is a direct antisemitic link with the Holocaust which is truly repulsive. This would not be false-flag antisemitism.
To say “fuck” or “where” about an ethnic group is a general comment - offensive as it is.
The loaded emotion behind the us of the word “gas” evokes massive reaction in people. And it’s been used time and time again in media and elsewhere as a reinforcing generalisation - before the allegations were proven.
Even a NSW Labor MP had doubts on what he could actually hear and urged the Premier to await the outcome of investigations and was heavily abused for this.
3.2 Legal
The threshold for a hate crime (after the laws were changed in no small part due to this allegation) is now NOT met.
This is perhaps one of the most disturbing impacts.
People have been actively accused here of committing a hate crime with sentences5:
Fine of up to $11,000
AND/OR
3 years in Prison
Now even with “f*ck the Jews” never mind “where’s the Jews” - repulsive yes - but not illegal.
This is a very important point of law - somehow lost on the legal profession stacked pro-Israeli lobby in their public statement after the NSW Police Press conference dismissing the allegation:
Regardless - the individuals whatever they said are NOT part of the majority protestors - a fact conveniently forgotten to the next point.
4. Nothing to do with mainstream humanitarian pro-Palestinian protestors
To be very clear - this fringe had NOTHING to do with pro-Palestinian protestors also there on the night and who I have been peacefully and respectfully protesting with at Hyde Park every weekend (not once hearing anything antisemitic, inciteful or otherwise - I would speak out).
Here is Palestinian Action Group organiser Josh Lees the very next day after the Opera House clarifying this in an interview with ABC and condemning those protestors. Even he says something vile and antisemitic was chanted, see video below:
Decency of Sydney Rallies: at the Pro-Palestinian rallies in Sydney - here is Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN) President condemning antisemitic acts and being very specific about it see video below:
These people are NOT welcome nor actions like this condoned.
5. Impacts of the falsely captioned footage
BUT it has in no small way demonised the Pro-Palestinian protestors with the pro-Israeli lobby (globally in fact) making maximum use of this. Off the top of my head:
6 Million+ people worldwide watched the AJA post with the falsely-captioned footage - with obvious impacts on people taking at face value. Salacious footage in front of an Australian iconic building - which underscores further the “all Palestinian protestors in Australia” idiotic conclusion of passive news consumers.
Australia’s reputation tarnished worldwide - never mind actual humanitarian protest movement
Israel upped a travel advisory for Australia to “risky” for Israelis to visit - of course jumped on as clear evidence by local pro-Israeli lobbies
NSW Hate Crimes legislation immediately changed - this was quite right move - but the cause and effect is not right, showing the influence here.
No Hate Crime Committed: the idiots who may have chanted something - now are not up for the large fines & prison time outlined above associated with the use of the undoubtable hate filled repugnant term “gas the Jews”.
NSW Premier slaps down Labor Senator Stephen Lawrence who question veracity of footage - 1 Dec 20236
Journalists defamed/sacked for questioning the footage - Antoinette Lattouf7 and Cam Wilson8 reporting in Crikey. And direct contributory “evidence” to Antoinette’s dismissal from the ABC.
Crikey.com 12 Dec 2023 “Viral footage showed protesters chanting ‘gas the Jews’. Nobody can verify it” here 
Crikey.com 19 Dec 2023 “New footage and audio experts raise further doubts about Sydney Opera House protest video“ here Falsely-captioned footage played OVER AND OVER again on News Corp media - discrediting mainstream humanitarian protestors - whenever discussing “pro-Hamas” protestors - continuing the narrative of association with the mainstream protestors never mind unquestioning the content of the video, despite open investigations. In fact Sky News on Dec 14 tried to say that the footage was real from additional footage found. Clearly NSW Police and forensic investigators have looked at this and concluded otherwise (AJA Post). - https://www.facebook.com/AustralianJewishAssociation/videos/387615567035293/
Used as “key evidence” to fan the flames of antisemitism
Sky News 11 Dec: News Corp Sky News interviews News Corp The Australian Editor (pattern?)- and plays the Opera House Footage on repeat (again) interspersed with images of Sydney Hype Park protests. This is two months after the isolated event. (link here) AJA given some “credibility” - With this one post, AJA were catapulted from a little known unpleasant right-wing pro-Israeli group (even disowned by the “official” pro-Israeli groups in Australia) to a group then given a platform in News Corp media.
I’ve written two articles on the impacts of demonising pro-Palestinian humanitarian protestors - mentioning this Opera House debacle (at the time assuming it was true what was said, but noting NOTHING to do with mainstream protestors):
6. What Needs to Happen Now
🇵🇸📢 Pro-Palestinian Humanitarian protestors need to blast this on all channels and refer back to it - blast it continually on social media citing the impacts from above and the manipulation by the pro-Israeli lobby here
🇮🇱🚫 Apologies from the pro-Israeli lobby/documented examples of “pumping up antisemitism” off this - for leveraging this so salaciously and unquestioningly whilst investigation is ongoing.
One should note that there is form on this - pumping up unproven reports (and I’m talking locally in Australia - never mind the IDF propaganda over the overall Gaza crisis).
A terrible incident happened at New Year when a 76 year old man was assaulted on the street and his house robbed.
Notably Victorian State local MP James Newbury broke the news - in his post highlighting the man’s religion and tragic family history before any other details9.
At the time - there was no mention of it being linked to ansemitism and indeed subsequent investigation found again no evidence of this - a thug taking advantage10.
For a number of days this was absolutely blasted and quoted as emotive evidence of antisemitism - spreading virally amongst the pro-Israeli online community as confirmation bias - again with no proof and an ongoing investigation.
Was there any apology for this? (not diminishing the terrible attack on an old man -it’s the manipulation that needs apologised for).
Exactly the same principal as the “Burgatory” case in the Palestinian community with recent police confirmation that there was no evidence there to prove it was an Islamaphobic attack - and you can see what a song and dance was made about this by the pro-Israeli lobby demanding apologies.
So for the doctor incident and for the use of the opera house - a huge apology is required.
Which won’t be forthcoming - so evidence required of how this was pumped up for future retorts to the next antisemitism claim.
👨⚖️🚨 Australian Jewish Association need criminal charges brought against them. Ideally disbanded. Regardless - they should not be given any legitimacy and return to obscurity (though it might do other pro-Israeli lobbies good to have a “bad cop”).
Notably their scripted interviews are completely laughable and embarrassing to the News Corp journalists who interview them and they are a fairly narcissistic organisation.
As an example of one of their interviews was the Sky News Australia Bolt Report on 2 January 2024 with James MacPherson interviewing AJA President David Adler on antisemitism of course utilising opera house footage.
The bias and salacious extrapolation is quite unsettling in addition to the laughable “Dorothy Dixon” nature of the interview.
I would honestly be embarrassed if people overseas watched this as an example of Australian journalism - a fact not lost on UN Palestine Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese talking to global audiences on her media experience in Australia in November incredulous at the bias11. And she goes to a lot of countries!
Sky news have edited down the interview to remove the most quite frankly ridiculous parts (their version here) but the AJA have posted up the full version (not surprisingly to get full mileage here) at the link below on their FB page:
📺🔗 👇https://www.facebook.com/AustralianJewishAssociation/videos/899830188491437
I’d suggest AJA Social Media accounts should be frozen pending investigation - I suspect a lot of posts will be deleted.
7. Opera House Thugs - still need condemned/ prosecuted - but not for this chant
Don’t get me wrong. I think there’s a “plausible case” to use the term of the moment that some really unpleasant antisemitic chants were said by an unpleasant group of thugs, not associated with the mainstream protestors. They still deserve to be condemned and applicable justice served if they can be identified.
This is completely in line with the approach taken by mainstream humanitarian pro-Palestine protest groups Palestine Action Group Sydney and the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network as above videos condemning them.
8. Pro-Israeli Lobby PR - learnings from this: another pattern
But …. The overall usage of this rubbish has had an absolutely huge impact.
And no surprise …. Not a peep out the mainstream press this morning. A “non-story”, “ship has sailed”.
Enough.
Epilogue: Lessons learned? Absolutely not.
In February 1 2024 the ZFA President Jeremy Leibler attended the Global Antisemitism Forum in Jerusalem12. As with all countries a huge spike in “antisemitic incidents” appeared to have occurred quantitatively - noting that there has since been extensive analysis of the quoted statistics calling out their subjective nature13.
Essentially “criticism of Israel” is being presented as antisemitic which clearly is not true14.
However the big qualitative example everyone had seen was Australia’s national icon, the Opera House with a mob shouting the horrific “gas the Jews” chant.
And Leibler took centres stage in the Knesset reading this off.
The very next day on 2nd February the NSW Police forensic team released their investigation results that “gas” was not said and it was most probably another phrase.
A big difference for the reasons outlined in this article. And convenient that this information was released until shortly after Leibler’s speech.
Do you think Leibler corrected himself after? Were the minutes of the conference retrospectively adjusted? Why bother with the rhetoric.
Fast forward a year to the 2025 Israel Antisemitism Conference15. As the true nature of Israel’s conduct in Gaza and it’s real agenda are exposed to the world with the accompanying lies Israel seeks alternative allies - as far right as they have become.
And the German Antisemitism Czar of all people - refused to attend the conference - since Israel has actually invited real antisemites.
What better fitting example of the difference of the attempted conflation of a political ideology and the religion of Judaism - and that the two are distinct. Israel crossed the line and Germany was true to its historical staatsräson in protecting the Jewish people from anitsemitism by NOT attending.
And finally - do you think lessons were learned in jumping the gun, making speeches and changing laws before the police have completed an investigation.
Absolutely not just a year later - “March 2024 NSW Caravangate” scandal revealed to be a non-antisemitic criminal enterprise - yet law changes rushed through in the weeks before the police announce it was a scam16.
Sounds familiar…
📚 Further Reading
Sleekit Scotsman ☮️🏴 Substack Related Articles with article summaries.
The Australian 2025 antisemitism criminal hoaxes, the history of bias in NSW and how the pro-Israel lobby milked it (first published 12th March 2025):
NSW Premier Chris Minns’s pro-Israel bias and history of suppressing pro-Palestine protest
Events after the police revelation of hoaxes
NSW Parliament pro-Israel bodies
Australia’s UN voting record and the timing of the attacks
Government community funding and support summary
“Make waves not graves” - Sydney protest 3 December 2023(first published Dec 3 2023): a look at the themes of protest:
media & government demonisation of protestors
school protests
contrasting positions
No Room for Antisemitism - but plenty of room for racism (first published Dec 12 2023): the demonisation of pro-Palestine protestors in The Australian press
“No room in this movement for antisemitism”
Sydney opera house memes
Caricatures
Association with Hamas
Fomenting division in Australia
Statistical review of ADL antisemitism data (first published Apr 29 2024):
Official FBI hate crime statistics
Accurate comparison of Islamophobia v Antisemitism statistics - surprising results…
How much Islamophobic hate crime reported?
ADL Proprietary Stats - Methodology, reporting channels - issues
Perspective: relative to other categories of crime
🇦🇺📢🇮🇱 Australian Pro-Israel Lobby: Modus Operandi (first published Jan 10 2024)
Comprehensive review of the modus operandi of the Australian pro-Israel lobby in a fully referenced research article. Regularly updated with version history. The article covers:
organisational structures & policy platform
influence in Parliament
influence in business, law and public figures
influence in the media and the pro-Israeli PR machine
🗄️ Version History - Article Updates
First published: 2 Feb 2024
Last Update: 26 Jun 2025
Sleekit Scotsman ☮️🏴 articles are updated periodically to add latest information on the subject of the article for relevance
Updates
26 Jun 2025:
added in epilogue
reformatted article
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📋 References
Australian Jewish Association FB Video Post 15 Dec 2023 - https://www.facebook.com/AustralianJewishAssociation/videos/728752965823071
Australian Jewish Association FB Video Post 10 Oct 2023 - https://www.facebook.com/AustralianJewishAssociation/videos/697874508877529/
Sydney Morning Herald Feb 2 2024 - “Police review finds no evidence ‘gas the Jews’ phrase chanted at Sydney Opera House protest“ - https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/police-review-finds-no-evidence-antisemitic-phrase-chanted-at-sydney-opera-house-protest-20240202-p5f1v7.html
Australian Jewish Association FB Video Post 15 Dec 2023 - https://www.facebook.com/AustralianJewishAssociation/videos/728752965823071/
NSW Government Premier Press Release 21 Nov 2023 - “Prosecution of threats and incitement to violence set to be streamlined“ - https://www.nsw.gov.au/media-releases/threats-and-incitement-to-violence
Australian Jewish News 1 Dec 2023 - “Minns slaps down MP who questions veracity of ‘gas the Jews’ footage“ - https://www.australianjewishnews.com/minns-slaps-down-mp-who-questions-veracity-of-gas-the-jews-footage/
Crikey.com 12 Dec 2023 “Viral footage showed protesters chanting ‘gas the Jews’. Nobody can verify it” https://www.crikey.com.au/2023/12/13/viral-footage-gas-the-jews-police-factcheckers-unverified/
Crikey.com 19 Dec 2023 “New footage and audio experts raise further doubts about Sydney Opera House protest video“ - https://www.crikey.com.au/2023/12/19/new-footage-audio-experts-sydney-opera-house-protest-video/
James Newbury Twitter 1 Jan 2024 X Post -
https://twitter.com/newbury3186/status/1741588123170296015?lang=en
Plus 61 Media: Australia, Israel and the Jewish World 3 Jan 2024 “Jewish man, 76, assaulted in Brighton: not antisemitism“ - https://plus61j.net.au/jewish-man-76-assaulted-in-brighton-not-antisemitism/
Al Jazeera 27 Nov 2023 - “Francesca Albanese: Western media is living in an "alternate reality" | The Listening Post“ (comment on the biased Australian Media from her recent trip 1m43s in).
Australian Jewish News 1 February 2024 “Leibler at the Knesset” - https://www.australianjewishnews.com/leibler-at-the-knesset/
Hansard Australian Parliamentary Business 17 Jun 2024 “Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee 17/6/2024 – Right Wing Extremist Movements in Australia” - https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Hansard/Hansard_Display?bid=committees/commsen/28084/&sid=0000
See Jewish Council of Australia transcript from the hearing Dr. Stillman’s discussion of the nature of antisemitism statistics.
The Guardian 5 Jan 2024 “Anti-Defamation League staff decry ‘dishonest’ campaign against Israel critics“ - https://www.theguardian.com/news/2024/jan/05/adl-pro-israel-advocacy-zionism-antisemitism
Ha’aretz 14 Mar 2025 “Germany's Antisemitism Czar Cancels Participation in Israel's 'Combating Antisemitism' Conference Due to European Far-right Invitees“ - https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-03-14/ty-article/.premium/citing-far-right-invitees-germanys-antisemitism-czar-cancels-trip-to-israel-confab/00000195-945e-d2e6-af97-d65ee70c0000
ABC News 10 Mar 2025 - “Police say Sydney's Dural caravan incident was 'fabricated terrorist plot'“ - https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-10/nsw-police-strike-force-pearl-caravan-dural-arrests/105032876