Dragging Australia's name through the mud
Australian Pro-Israel groups are shaming Australia on the world stage - citing unreliable, bespoke antisemitism data
Summary
The world press from Germany, UK, France, Argentina, US, Canada and Israel descended on Australia this week to cover a meeting of pro-Israel lobby leaders called “the J7”.
The occasion was used to trot out bespoke antisemitism statistics, make broad-brush accusations tarnishing Australia’s reputation on a world stage, and to try to embarrass the Government into accepting the draconian measures put forward by Australia’s biased antisemitism envoy.
These leaders must be held to account for their statements, and to explain their statistics in detail to a commission, in particular where statements on Australian society are made and public money is sought.
This article breaks down the real story here in detail and outlines what is NOT antisemitic with references and examples.
Shortcut: Jump past contents to start reading main body of the article:👉 CLICK HERE
First published: 5 Dec 2025
Last Update: 11 Jan 2026 (see version history)
Contents
APPENDICES
APPENDIX A: Senate Committee June 2024 on right wing extremism
APPENDIX C: The sacred cow - why it must be so difficult to hear criticism of Israel
END PAPERS
Foreword
11 Jan 2026: I had written this article on 5 Dec 2025 nine days before the horrific tragedy on Bondi Beach. My heart goes out to those who have lost loved ones and I condemn this obscene and unrecognisable antisemitic violence.
In updating this article I have written a reflection on my writing conscious I would be going back to older articles to update them post Bondi. It feels like to not acknowledge the event in view of my typical writing subject matter would be insensitive. I have written a reflection here on my thoughts which I hope indicates my intent.
1. Introduction
There was a polished media campaign from the pro-Israel groups in Australia announcing that a relatively new group the “J7” would be meeting in Sydney this week .
A high profile group of leaders from the 7 countries with largest Jewish populations here to discuss strategies to combat antisemitism.
Perversely it almost seems to be a mark of honour to have the highest rise, most poignant events and so forth … but at best based on very opaque, very subjective statistics. Owned by those proclaiming statements of antisemitism.
ECAJ have at the same time produced a report on “anti-Jewish incidents” which are case in point - subjective and count things like criticism of Israel and so forth1.
But here’s the thing. It’s one thing to produce a report and get on Sky News Australia, The Australian newspaper editorial and talk to charts.
This time it’s the eyes of the world media all invited along.
And with these statistics and extrapolations - they are literally dragging Australia’s name through the mud on the world stage and tarring Australian’s with the broad brush of “antisemitism” for a world audience.
And why else? Also using that global platform to try to shame the Australian Government for not adopting the antisemitism envoy’s outrageously draconian “antisemitism plan”.
This should outrage every Australian.
2. What’s NOT antisemitic
ECAJ in its latest report have used specific language to get around the “antisemitism” definition on technicality, citing “anti-Jewish incidents”.
However - the same pattern of incidents previously reported by other pro-Israel groups as “antisemitism” are in this report. But people are not going to make that distinction - and indeed the language used when presenting generalisations on the J7 Press Tour do not either.
The fact is - the definition of an “antisemitic incident” is so broad. In Australia, we’re not talking pogroms or murder here - we are talking property damage. And the most serious property damage was politically and NOT ideologically (antisemitic) motivated.
2.1 Criminal property attacks
That happened just after Australia voted against Israel in the UN and Netanyahu literally warned Australia “terrorism would come to our shores”. In the run up to a general election where lots of pro-Israel rhetoric and policies were extracted from both parties.
Then Israel told us Iran did it.
Regardless of who did it - the Iranian Guard studying Bondi Deli plans or definitely, definitely not Mossad - it wasn’t antisemitic.
But even when a Court makes a ruling - the pro-Israel lobby don’t accept it. A judge notes a junkie given drug money to write on a wall cannot be confirmed as a hate crime - because it’s not. But the pro-Israel lobby don’t accept that ruling2.
Why? And is it in the statistics?
2.2 Protesting Israel’s actions in Gaza, The West Bank, Lebanon and Syria
Then there’s people protesting against Israel’s actions in Gaza - which I’m sure these incidents are related to.
Or continued brutal crackdowns in the West Bank, or further strikes on Lebanon and Syria.
And none of this “war is over” BS - the “ceasefire” is completely one-sided reflecting the asymmetric nature of the whole situation. And Israel maintains ceasefires with the right to strike as its ongoing actions in Syria, Lebanon testify (time of writing 5 December - sure to be another series of assaults soon). Which gets away with a “right to strike at will”? Only one.
To protest this is a no-brainer.
That’s not antisemitic.
2.3 Protest for the application of international law
To protest to uphold the legal findings by
ICJ July 2024 - the occupation is illegal and must cease
ICC November 2024 - Netanyahu and former IDF Chief Yoav Gallant arrest warrants
with an eye on the ICJ case that Israel is committing genocide, already confirmed by multiple groups.
To call for an end to the occupation, and for the arrest of Netanyahu are to call for international law.
That’s not antisemitic.
2.4. Anti-Zionist protest
A broader protest at the political ideology of Israel that has put in place the systems that have enabled the brutality of the occupation and apartheid.
In fact, the Australian Federal Court ruled in July of 2025 the clear delineation between antisemitism and antizionism3.
That’s not antisemitic.
2.5 Protesting Israel’s constitution
By the catch-all definition of antisemitism that the pro-Israel lobby are so keen to impose on society, this is antisemitic (as is criticism of Israel).
This could be protesting the events leading to the creation of the state of Israel, or the current system of laws enforcing not just apartheid in the occupied territories, but also in Israeli society enforcing a religious hierarchy.
Just a few weeks ago in Germany of all places the largest state appeals court protected the right to demand not just reform within Israel - which is a necessary condition to break the cycle - but to question the formation of the state of Israel in the first place4.
That was in Germany (as a matter of fact, a case brought by my local protest group in Düsseldorf).
None of this is antisemitic.
2.6 Calling for BDS to facilitate change
Since western governments have been complicit in the destruction of Gaza for the last two years and have basically trashed and ignore international law - all you can do is vote with your feet.
Calling for broad-brush boycotts on Israel as was done for Russia for less than Israel has done and as was done systematically to South Africa for its own apartheid regime.
This is not antisemitic.
2.7 Are all the above counted?
So are all the above included in the “statistics”? Because they are all not antisemitic - and a natural progression of people coming out to protest a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza - and through education discovering for themselves what a brutal regime has made the horror of the last two years an inevitable consequence.
3. Accuracy
On statistics - at a parliamentary committee into right wing extremism last June the most sensible call came from Dr. Stillman from the Jewish Council of Australia.
Senate References committee into right wing hate crime 17 Jun 2024:
“I think that the current surveys are deeply flawed. They tend to take a partisan view of hate crime…. such survey work and all those sorts of hate crime databases and so on need to be handed over to an independent academic source”
Dr. Stillman, Jewish Council of Australia
For more detailed transcript of the JCA testimony, see Appendix A: Senate Committee June 2024 on right wing extremism.
Statistics need to be transparent, standardised, comparable and centrally managed. Even though the ADL produces their own heavily criticised statistics in the US - the FBI does in fact maintain a central database using a standard methodology.
I looked at the raw data which revealed an interesting view of Islamophobia v Antisemitism - but also comparing the impacts I found of using ADL data v FBI data summarised in the table below:
This reinforces why a central, verified resource needs to be used to track hate crime - in particular where impactful statements are made based off that data. In fact, it’s the argument why Australia’s existing hate crime commissioner should be the central authority rather than creating envoys for subsets of racism.
4. Extrapolation
So - based on these opaque numbers from an internal definition we’re told - or rather the world is told to press from Canada, Argentina, Germany, US, France, UK and Israel:
“antisemitism up five fold since october 7”
“australia is a cesspit of antisemitism”
“melbourne is the most dangerous place for jews in Australia”
And as an example of a “trope” or not so innocent anecdote in a live FB stream the ADL leader said:
"we’re here where they chanted GAS the Jews at the Opera House”
Don’t get me wrong. Antisemitic chants were said by these odious individuals at the Opera House and they deserve to have the book thrown at them.
But they did not use the highly emotionally charged word “gas” which has different legal implications never mind moral. Don’t be naive here.
Now - this was corrected by NSW Police almost two years ago5 - and yet it is still repeated by the ADL today.
So such as shocking word grabs global attention as much as it catapulted the extremist AJA to notoriety when their falsely captioned meme went round the world when it first came out.
And the ADL did it again today - with ECAJ looking on and clearly not bothering to correct them.
Hey - would you let the truth get in the way of a good statistic-reinforcing anecdote?
Finally on that same anecdote - tarring with the same brush. You would forget that the vile people at the opera house had NOTHING to do with the decent pro-Palestine protestors who have been coming out for the last two years, and who were not present that night as was clarified on the ABC that night. The same night that the Israeli Ambassador literally called Palestinians “animals” live on the ABC.
🎥 Instagram Video: Calling out the Israeli Ambassador to Australia Amir Mamon 10 Oct 2023 for saying Palestinians were “animals”. Click below to watch: 👇
5. Conclusion
The bottom line here is that the pro-Israel lobby has trashed Australia’s reputation, based off opaque and self serving statistics, in front of the world press from the US, Argentina, France, Germany, UK, Canada and Israel.
Unchallenged.
Using props like the Opera House with untruths restated, and with the backdrop of Adass synagogue - a politically motivated crime by paid criminals - to again generate the photo op.
And the real chutzpah here is that after literally extracting pre-election promises of $30M public money to rebuild the synagogue (in addition to insurance money and a private raising) - the pro-Israel lobby then used the same platform the strong-arm the Government into implementing the antisemitism envoy’s “plan” that was delivered some months back.
The plan is a ridiculous, draconian overreach that would embed further suppression of criticism of Israel and was rightly rubbished by broad sections of society.
The antisemitism envoy herself said that the Government is helping her to enact the plan. The same antisemitism envoy who did not speak out against literal Nazis criticising Jewish people in front of the NSW Parliament last month. As she gave video evidence rather than appearing in person at a Parliamentary inquiry - because she was at the ECAJ AGM in Queensland6.
I’m honestly flabbergasted by this latest antisemitism-churning initiative by the pro-Israel lobby.
They MUST be held accountable for these stunts and for these broad-brush accusations extrapolating and stating “a sickness in modern Australian society”.
APPENDICES
Appendix A: Senate Committee June 2024 on right wing extremism
This is part of the Hansard transcript from a segment of the JCA evidence before the Parliamentary Committee into extremism on April 17 2024 where they called for independent statistics to be gathered by a central authority on all forms of racial and antisemitic hate crime7.
Dr Stillman : I’ve written about that, in fact, and you’re on a great point. At least from a Jewish community point of view, I think that the current surveys are deeply flawed. You’ve heard some of the kinds of reasons why. They tend to take a partisan view of hate crime. It’s easy to collapse everything into being anti-Jewish when there may be a political element involved. We have seen that in terms of IHRA. A lot of the opponents of the IHRA are Jewish academics, not non-Jewish leftists. So there’s that whole area. These surveys, because of the methodologies used, are very, very sloppy. They basically serve the political agenda of those who are organising it.
My argument is that such survey work and all those sorts of hate crime databases and so on need to be handed over to an independent academic source which can deal with these conflicting world views—and they exist. For example, I greatly respect the work of OHPI, the Online Hate Prevention Institute of Dr Andre Oboler. It’s excellent. He and I don’t agree on many things, but, at least in terms of online hate measurement, he does an excellent job. Compare that to some of the work done by some of the other organisations, which wouldn’t even pass a first-year stats test. It’s extremely sloppy. It’s not transparent. They are playing monkey numbers and claiming huge numbers, and the media hears them. That’s what you’re asking about. They’ll claim there’s been a 500 per cent increase in antisemitism, and, once you drill down, they’re playing a numbers game. Yes, there’s some increase, but it’s a percentage of what? It’s not social science. So it really needs to be handed over to those who are more expert. I know of certain academics in Australia who are very interested in this kind of work and who offer a much more dispassionate and empathetic view, rather than a subjective and political view of these things.
Ms Schwartz : I concur with what Dr Stillman said in relation to the broad methodology and statistic-gathering in regard to antisemitism. If we could provide one example: one issue is that there is only one Jewish communal group which collects statistics in regard to antisemitism. That group, as Dr Stillman mentioned, uses the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism. We have seen, reading their recent reports on antisemitism, things that would be classified as legitimate criticisms of the state of Israel, including calling Israel a racist endeavour, things that, although some people may find them uncomfortable, we say clearly don’t go into dehumanisation or racism against Jewish people as Jewish people.
The issue with that is that we have subjectively noticed a rise in antisemitism, but we don’t have any objective data in regard to what that rise means and where that rise is coming from. I think that’s a major issue, because when you have data that captures so much content that is not antisemitic, it does a few things. Firstly, there has been a real push by pro-Israel organisations to place antisemitism in a category of its own outside of other forms of racism. We say that antisemitism, like other forms of racism, should be tackled together in relation to focusing on this dehumanisation framework that other people have given evidence about.
We also think that those trumped-up statistics mean that many create a lot more fear and division within the Jewish community. People are terrified about antisemitism, and they are being told that stickers saying ‘Free Palestine’ are anti-semitic. That creates a lot of fear amongst the Jewish community. When those lines are repeated by the media and in political discourse, that creates further fear and feelings of division and segregation. We have real concerns about that definition. It should be mentioned that even the drafter of that definition has said that this was never intended to be used as a means of curtailing free speech, and has concerns about the weaponisation of that definition to curtail free speech.
So we are incredibly concerned because we have seen, in parliamentary bills that have not got up, attempts to place that definition into parliamentary bills. We think that is based on a political objective, not based on a solid definition of racism. So I absolutely support what Dr Stillman said about placing responsibility for gathering data around racism into the hands of objective bodies who have really robust definitions of what is racism and what is not, and focus on those frameworks of dehumanisation.
APPENDIX B: Why keep Jewish people in a state of fear?
Israel’s actions do not make Jewish people feel safe. This is the reality. And if the truth behind the statistics were to be revealed - then the facade would fall - therefore the definition of antisemitism in the numbers HAS to include criticism of Israel.
Rabbi Cohen, Torah Jews “Zionists cannot allow Jews to live peacefully outside Israel—because if we do, their ideology collapses.”8
APPENDIX C: The sacred cow - why it must be so difficult to hear criticism of Israel
Israel literally projects itself around the world as a “sacred cow” to people of the Jewish faith and to sects of Christians believing in biblical prophecy - and leverages this to great extent.
C.1 Christian Zionism
It amplifies stories of biblical prophecy to attract and retain Christian Zionist who believe that the second coming will only happen if Jewish people are in the land of Israel. Read: ideological belief that’s a get out of jail free card.
That’s a huge demographic in the US and all round the world. I lost a personal friendship with someone who I knew was a Christian but went into an almost manical protection mode when it came to Israel’s actions in Gaza - purely for religious reasons. It was so sad to see.
Worryingly in our own Australian Parliament - one of the FIFTEEN “friends of Israel” type groups across state and federal parliaments is a Christian Zionist network practicing “faith-based diplomacy”.
This is surely a disturbing development - bringing religious ideology into a cross-party private network to take zionist policy decisions supporting Israel. So much for a secular state.
C.2 Jewish Education
This is perhaps the greatest tragedy. Imagine an education system where Jewish children from all round the world are taught to idolise Israel from the youngest age, the flag in the classroom from the start. Where making Aliyah is the ultimate goal - as Mecca to Muslims - and with a vast system of groups, scholarships, prizes to enable that.
Yet from that early age the education system teaches an extremely selective view of Israel’s history - and indeed tells outright lies.
Imagine a child taught that from such an early age trying to unlearn that as an adult. And if your whole identity is based around affiliation with Israel - a false and manufactured one - then having a bunch of people waving Palestinian flags and shouting against Israel can only naturally be seen as offensive to your core as an individual.
I get that.
But it’s not antisemitic.
🎥 Instagram Video: 🇮🇱🎓 Seth Rogen, Debra Winger and Simone Zimmerman share the selective truths they were taught about Israel growing up. Click below to play 👇
It’s untruths about Israel being deliberately propagated to keep the state going. These kids defend Israel at all costs, grow up to work in responsible positions in Government, and send money back to Israel via local donation groups and Karen Haysod to the Jewish National Fund. All of which support projects in the occupied territories.
Israel knows this.
And to criticise that and call it out into the daylight is NOT antisemitic.
APPENDIX D: J7 and similar groups
There are multiple global groups already to meet and discuss antisemitism in addition to the J7.
D.1 J7
Leaders from the 7 largest Jewish communities outside Israel established July 20239.
🇺🇸 USA - ADL
🇫🇷 France -
🇦🇺 Australia - ECAJ
🇬🇧 UK - Board of Deputies of British Jews
🇨🇦 Canada - CRIF
🇦🇷 Argentina - CIJA
🇩🇪 Germany - Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland
D.2 SECCA
This is the umbrella group that the Australian special envoy Jillian Segal belongs to with its HQ in Israel.
SECCA was founded in 2019 to ensure that countries throughout the world had “special envoys” working in an official capacity with the country’s Government to combat antisemitism in a structured way.
The positions are typically funded by each Government and co-ordinate centrally with SECCA and meet at least annually.
There is some controversy over the definition of antisemitism that is to be applied in unison to each country - in particular when the IHRA definition favoured by the WJC can shut down criticism of Israel.
Jillian Segal was appointed in July 2024 with a clear pro-Israel bias to a highly paid Government position with a large department with zero scrutiny.
D.3 Israel antisemitism summit
tbc
END PAPERS
📚 Further Reading
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Statistical review of ADL antisemitism data (first published 29 Apr 2024):
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How much Islamophobic hate crime reported?
ADL Proprietary Stats - Methodology, reporting channels - issues
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🗄️ Version History - Article Updates
First published: 5 Dec 2025
Last Update: 11 Jan 2026
Sleekit Scotsman ☮️🏴 articles are updated periodically to add latest information on the subject of the article for relevance
Updates
11 Jan 2026:
added foreword
5 Dec 2025:
updated internal hyperlinks
added SECCA detail to Appendix D
added detail to Christian Zionism and Jewish education Appendix C
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ℹ️ About Sleekit Scotsman
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📋 References
ECAJ 2 Dec 2025 “Special report: Anti-Jewish incidents in Australia 2025“ - https://www.ecaj.org.au/document/special-report-anti-jewish-incidents-in-australia-2025/
Federal Court of Australia NSD 1503 of 2024 Wertheim v Haddad [2025] FCA 720 - https://www.judgments.fedcourt.gov.au/judgments/Judgments/fca/single/2025/2025fca0720
Higher Administrative Court (OVG) North-Rhine Westphalia, Press Release 21 Nov 2025 “15 B 1300/25: Denying the right to exist of the State of Israel must not be generally prohibited“ - https://www.ovg.nrw.de/behoerde/presse/pressemitteilungen/50_251121/index.php
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
ECAJ FB 30 Nov 201 AGM Queensland - https://www.facebook.com/share/p/17YwByqayp/?mibextid=wwXIfr
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
Voice of Rabbis X Feed 3 Dec 2025 - https://x.com/voiceofrabbis/status/1996148655326470621?s=20
ECAJ Facebook 2 Dec 2025 - What is the J7? - https://www.facebook.com/ECAJewry/posts/pfbid0sSDQL85djzRWveJt1WgsBBsSZ6dLJFiJ9zJn1H1wLKX4iATcVM53goLpLGjhGPKHl