Sydney Opera House Audio FALSELY-CAPTIONED
Sydney Opera House Audio FALSELY-CAPTIONED
Pro-Israeli Lobby Group complicit in fraud ... but the damage is done
Summary
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.
Contents:
🚨‼️ NSW Police: Sydney Opera House “Gas The Jews” - THIS WAS NOT SAID
Oh come on - “Gas”, “F*ck”, “Where’s” … the Jews - what’s in a word?
Nothing to do with mainstream humanitarian pro-Palestinian protestors
Opera House Thugs - still need condemned/ prosecuted - but not for this chant
🚨‼️ NSW Police: Sydney Opera House “Gas The Jews” - THIS 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).
Oh come on - “Gas”, “F*ck”, “Where’s” … the Jews - what’s in a word?
A freaking lot actually.
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.
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.
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.
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):
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.
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.
Pro-Israeli Lobby PR - learnings from this: another pattern
But …. The overall usage of this bullshit 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 of this shit.
Broader article on the Modus Operandi of the pro-Israeli lobby (ex-AJA) in Australia:
Related Articles
Substack:
Misrepresentation of the Pro-Palestine mainstream cause in no part fueled by the salacious Opera House chant and pro-Israeli PR machine (globally) on this:
Broader article on the Modus Operandi of the pro-Israeli lobby (ex-AJA) in Australia:
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).