And nobody thought this inappropriate...
And nobody thought this inappropriate...
Visiting Israeli IDF soldier with Israeli Flag at the Sydney Opera House
Summary
On December 7th 2023 an Israeli IDF Major visited Australia to give a number of talks and interviews on his experiences of October 7th and at one point stood in front of the Opera House for a posed photo waving an Israeli Flag.
A few weeks later an article was printed in the News Corp Australian newspaper using the image and then shared by the President of the Zionist Federation of Australia under the comment “Rule of law requires us to defend Jewish citizens”.
Entirely inappropriate, offensive but actually very telling.
Read on to find out why.
Contents
A photo at the Opera House
Early December Israeli IDF soldier Major Nimrod Palmach was invited to Australia to give a talk on his direct experiences as an active IDF combatant during the horrific events of October 7th.
He spoke at a number of events, including television interviews and newspaper articles (all News Corp owned outlets).
As part of the media events - he posed outside the Sydney Opera House with an Israeli flag
Clearly the image was intended as a contrast with the small group of Palestinian flag waving protestors - NOT associated with the regular Australian pro-Palestine protest organisers1 - who are alleged to have briefly chanted vile antisemitic words at the Opera House on 9th October (the footage authenticity is still unverified by the police and the original poster will not provide the original2).
The peaceful protesters in the official march were reacting to the NSW State Premier’s decision to light up the Opera House sails in Israeli Flag colours - NSW’s own #notinmyname.
Reaction to sharing the image
A few weeks later the image was used in an article printed in the News Corp Australian newspaper and then shared by the President of the Zionist Federation of Australia Jeremy Leibler on Twitter with the comment “Rule of law requires us to defend Jewish citizens”3.
After all the countries in the UN had just voted for an immediate ceasefire including Australia sharing of the image was entirely inappropriate and offensive on many levels.
A few of the comments in Twitter are telling, but some considerations:
Offensive to pro-Palestinians: an IDF Major in Australia directly involved in the conflict waving the Israeli flag: Inflammatory and offensive to the Australian pro-Palestinian community. Meant to “reclaim” back from the few racist idiots on 9th? In particular, incredibly insensitive to Australian Palestinians, many of whom would have relatives in the 18,000 dead. It is one thing for fellow Australians to democratically protest a different point of view - but can you imagine if a Palestinian visitor or official was to do the same?
Offensive to Australians: a member of the military from a foreign nation - who international opinion and The Australian Government themselves have just voted for a humanitarian ceasefire to stop indiscriminate slaughter of civilians - waving the national flag at an Australian icon. Really?
Major Nimrod Palmach during the 2023 Gaza conflict. Source: Jerusalem Post Dec 11 2023 here Exclusivity of the Jewish Faith - the comment “Rule of Law requires us to defend Jewish Citizens“ - calls out only Jewish people in Australia as worthy of protection. Pre-October 7th there is already (quite rightly) a huge taxpayer funded security budget allocated to Jewish institutions for protection and racism across Australia as noted is across multiple religions.
Conflating Israel with all Jewish people - perhaps most concerning overall and worth talking to separately.
The dangers of collectivism
The constant statements collectively stating a completely pro-Israeli position by organisations claiming to represent the whole Jewish community in Australia are concerning - even if they did, which they don’t.
You don’t see pro-Palestinian protestors waving the flag of Palestine and saying “all Muslims”.
The fact that Israel is referred to as “The Jewish State” is irrelevant - plenty of Jewish diaspora who don’t support what Israel is doing #notinmyname.
So this statement is not only incorrect - it’s inflammatory towards the local Jewish population in the sense it identifies them as a collective.
Most concerningly of all identifying Jewish people as a collective supporting the actions of the State of Israel is antisemitic by broadly accepted 2016 definition of antisemitism by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA)4.
Associating all Jewish people in Australia as a collective is irresponsible, hypocritical and foments division and conflict - and clearly untrue.
The Australian newspaper article on Rule of Law
The Australian article the image is taken from “The Rule of law requires us to defend Jewish Citizens” in addition to singling out Jewish people in Australia for special treatment, continued to emphasise fear in the community.
It continued to demonise the pro-Palestinian protestors, continuing the narrative association with the Opera House minority and printing bloodied image of child protestors in contrasts to a white shirted Major Palmach:
The vile implication is clear - that Arab children are bloodthirsty anti-Jewish (not anti-Israeli State policy) next generation haters - against the noble, brave IDF soldier holding the Israeli Flag at the Opera House in contrast.
The article is written by regular Australian newspaper law correspondent Chris Merritt, also vice-President of the Rule of Law Institute of Australia (non-Paywall text of the original article and PDF of the Australian article is on the website5).
Is is unclear who funds the Rule of Law Institute after investigations by the Australian Financial Review6 and Crikey7. It would be interesting to see if there is a relation between this institution and the law firm employees holding senior positions in Australian Pro-Israeli lobbying groups.
The overall tone of the article is of demonisation and exclusivity.
We continue to see demonisation and racist representations of pro-Palestinian protestors all across the media - see article below;
Increasing racism and Islamophobia in The Australian media:
UIA Events
The local tax free not-for-profit arm of Keren Heysod is the United Israel Appeal (UIA) which raised $32M AUD in 2022 of which $3.7M funded the whole Zionist Federation of Australia budget.
More information on how the Pro-Israeli Lobby is set up in Australia below:
The UIA organised Major Nimrod Palmach’s talk at an event.
Most recently UIA hosted a webinar with the Israeli Government spokesperson Eylon Levy8 on how to navigate what the Israeli Government sees as bias and becomes advocates for the Israeli Government’s position on “truth”.
Two days after Eylon spoke at the event the Israeli Army shot dead 3 men - who were bare chested, shouting in Hebrew and holding a white flag.
Clearly not the line Eylon says “taking unprecedented efforts to keep civilians safe” with respect to individuals the ground combat theatre, never mind in the bombardment.
Those men were Israeli hostages.
More in this and the implications in the article below.
The implications of the IDF Israeli civilian ‘friendly fire’:
Major Palmach’s PR day job
Major Palmach is actually an Israeli Army Reservist who served on October 7th.
His day job is CEO of an organisation Israel-IS an Israeli Advocacy NGO formed in 2017 by three ex-IDF soldiers with “the goal of improving Israel’s global image”.
The focus of the organisation is techniques to structure communication to change the narrative on Israel, focusing on young people.
There are a number of videos on the YouTube channel - all over a year old - describing some of the operations and approaches.
They have a social media influencers program targeted at selected young Israelis that share Israel-related content targeting specific interest groups utilising what is called “Israel-IS methods of engagement”.
Noting the video is just a year old the statements presumably incorporated into the teaching program of “Ambassadors” echoes the Israeli Government line:
Enemies are those pointing out unpopular truths such as “Israel is an apartheid state”
Criticising Israel is “Propaganda”
Everyone who criticises Israel does not want them to exist (note the picture of students pointing out international law - UN Resolutions). This is patently untrue - follow international law, two state solution.
There is also a program for IDF soldiers educating them on talking positively about their service on returning to their overseas communities - actually using an example in the video “Israeli Airstrikes kill pregnant woman and baby”…. so how to spin that?
The objectives and approach of the program appears to be:
Adopting the same narrative on Israel - no criticism
Learning Israel-IS defined methodology and techniques to shape discussions
Changing the conversation - from these very serious issues to lighthearted social side of youth Israeli life.
On that last point - of course people the world over have social and cultural subjects and discourse to connect on.
But you have to credit young people in the international community who have priorities and awareness.
When talking to an Israeli of any age who blindly supports the actions of the State - breaking international law, conducting indiscriminate bombing - this is a more serious issue to broach first rather than trying to apply a conversation technique to obfuscate discussing the wonderful scuba diving off Israel’s coast….
The Tide is Turning
The pro-Israeli PR machine is a complex beast and is in full operation at this time trying to keep everyone on-message.
And clearly they don’t care who they offend in the meantime fuelled by a sense of entitlement and a continued association of any criticism of Israel with antisemitism.
Just as the current conflict has laid bare Israel’s refusal to comply with international law to date the methodology of the PR and influence machine is becoming very transparent also.
The Israeli Government position is becoming indefensible - as is the position of those who parrot the propaganda in other countries, claiming to represent the views of an entire local community - who happen to be of the same faith.
They are looking out of step with the times and at worst risk building resentment towards the communities they say they represent - when really they represent the Israeli Government.
There are multiple Jewish groups in Australia against the actions of Israel, representation by their local community groups and calling for a ceasefire. The numbers increase at every pro-Palestine rally in Sydney every Sunday, and no doubt in other cities throughout Australia.
A group Jewish Australians for a Ceasefire are against their community group position and as at 13th December their open letter petition to The Australian Government9 has been signed by over 1000 Jewish people in Australia FOR the ceasefire stating:
“We reject the claim that the Australian Jewish community unanimously supports the actions of the Israeli government. Our Jewish values are incompatible with the unjustified cruelty and reckless disregard for human life and dignity that the Israeli government is displaying.”
We can only hope this common sense prevails and turns the tide.
Related Articles
Substack:
Further Detail on Pro-Israeli Lobby Groups in Australia:
Increasing racism and Islamophobia in The Australian media:
The implications of the IDF Israeli civilian ‘friendly fire’:
Other:
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ABC Interview with Palestine Action Group organiser Josh Lees 10 November - noting the Opera House minority were unknown to the main organisers and asked to leave (click image below to play video segment on Instagram) -
Crikey 15 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/
Jeremy Leibler President of the Zionist Federation of Australia tweet 15 Dec 2023 -https://twitter.com/jeremyleibler/status/1735535691885633825
International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) website - working definition of antisemitism 2016 - https://www.holocaustremembrance.com/resources/working-definitions-charters/working-definition-antisemitism
Rule of Law Institute Website - reproduction of Australian Article 15 Dec 2023 - “The Rule of Law requires us to defend Jewish citizens“ https://ruleoflawaustralia.com.au/commentary/rule-of-law-requires-us-to-defend-jewish-citizens/
Australian Financial Review Nov 21 2021 - “Who is funding the ‘mysterious’ Rule of Law Institute?“ - https://www.afr.com/rear-window/who-is-funding-the-mysterious-rule-of-law-institute-20211129-p59d5r
Crikey.com Aug 13 2017 - “Just what is the Rule of Law Institute?“ - https://www.crikey.com.au/2017/08/31/just-what-is-the-rule-of-law-institute/
United Israel Appeal FB page; hosting live webinar with Israeli Government spokesperson Eylon Levy 13 December 2023; - https://www.facebook.com/uiaaus/posts/pfbid0dh84HRTEZwNakjaKmcGV93Pv4aEdfdtf75kJDwkERKVs4BWMTAtM1e7G3EawA7Hpl
The Guardian 7 Dec - Jewish Australians for a Ceasefire have organised a petition for the ceasefire: as at 13 Dec 1000 Australian Jewish people have signed - https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2023/nov/07/australia-news-live-daylesford-crash-victims-driver-anthony-albanese-xi-jinping-china-visit-interest-rates-rise-rba-politics?filterKeyEvents=false&page=with:block-654910798f0837ca751b3ebb#block-654910798f0837ca751b3ebb