The Jewish community raise their voice to call out extremists
Jun 21, 2024
The Jewish Council of Australia, according to reports by Al Jazeera, is deeply concerned that the Australian Jewish Association is promoting the far-right Israeli politician Moshe Feiglin as a speaker at an Australian Zoom event, apparently held on 19 June, notwithstanding that Feiglin has recently quoted Adolf Hitler in reference to the wiping out of Gaza’s population.
Readers are fully aware that Jewish people all over the world are distressed at what they see as the current Israeli government acting in disregard of international law and purporting all the while, to do so in their name. This has been perhaps most clearly seen by the response of younger generations of American Jews, notably in colleges across the United States.
The Jewish Council of Australia (JCA), appears to be a similar body in Australia. The JCA was only recently formed, and is said to be comprised of human rights experts. The JCA has expressed concern over another Australian Jewish organisation, in this case the AJA – the Australian Jewish Association – which the JCA sees as advancing an extremist position of superiority of Jews over and above Arab peoples.
The JCA is particularly concerned that the AJA is promoting the far-right Israeli politician Moshe Feiglin as a speaker at an Australian Zoom event, apparently held on 19 June, notwithstanding that Feiglin has recently quoted Adolf Hitler in reference to the wiping out of Gaza’s population. It is a dreadful reference. It can only associate the Palestinians of Gaza with the Jews of Europe, and the Holocaust, or Shoah, which ensued.
The JCA does not accept the claim of the AJA that it, the AJA, speaks for all Jewish Australians. The JCA sees the AJA for what it is, namely a far-right group aligned with the extremist settler movement. The extremism of the AJA has already been the subject of comment in these pages: refer ‘Palestine’ – The name the Australian Jewish Association wants expunged: December 29, 2023.
Feiglin is recorded as saying such things as: “we must turn it (Gaza) into Hebrew Gaza”; “There is one and only one solution which is to completely destroy Gaza before invading it”; “I mean destruction like what happened in Dresden and Hiroshima, without nuclear weapons”. And it happened, and is happening, viz. the destruction of hospitals, universities, mosques, and cultural centres.
Such statements are consistent with what Palestinians are saying is happening in Gaza – namely that it is a genocidal ethnic cleansing of Gaza in anticipation of Jewish resettlement. Members of the right-wing Israeli government openly speak of the new Nakba, that is, the new expulsion, and contemplate continuing warfare, for which read ‘genocide’, until at least the end of this year. But, as the JCA believes, such statements are contrary to the core values of Judaism.
The JCA is to be commended. May its criticisms of extremist groups such as the AJA be heard and acted upon.
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Paul Heywood-Smith is an Adelaide SC of some 20 years. He was the initial chairperson of the Australian Friends of Palestine Association, an incorporated association registered in South Australia in 2004. He is the author of The Case for Palestine, The Perspective of an Australian Observer published by Wakefield Press in 2014.
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