THE JEWISH COMMUNITY

The 115–120,000 Jews in Australia out of a total population of 17,850,000 constitute the largest Jewish community in the East Asia Pacific Region. The great majority of Australian Jews live in Melbourne (50,000) and Sydney (45,000) but there are also significant communities in Perth, Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Adelaide. Australia is a favorite destination of Jewish emigrants from the former Soviet Union and from South Africa. Jews were among the first convicts who settled Australia in the eighteenth century. After World War II, many Holocaust survivors were admitted into the country and today it has the largest per capita number of survivors of any community in the Diaspora.

The leading communal organization is the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ). The community is served by two Jewish weeklies and several other periodicals. High enrollment in Jewish day schools and a comparatively low rate of intermarriage are characteristic features of Australian Jewry. Nearly all major Jewish and Zionist organizations have affiliates in Australia.

POLITICAL ORGANIZATIONS AND EXTREMIST ACTIVITY

In the year 2000 struggles between competing groups, which have persisted since 1996, as well as efforts by mainstream political parties to stem their influence, resulted in a setback for organized far right groups in Australia. The realignment of loyalties by supporters of these groups contributed to the volatility of this arena. The Internet has allowed some individuals and organizations to heighten their profile and to increase their influence in right-wing circles. The presence of parliamentarians representing the One Nation Party in some state parliaments also played a part in determining the allegiance of many members of the far right constituency.

The theme of an international Jewish conspiracy is central to the worldview of overtly antisemitic organizations such as the Australian League of Rights, the Adelaide Institute and the Citizens Electoral Councils. Extreme elements within some migrant communities also promote this mythology. The notion that Judaism is anti-Christian plays a part in the conspiracy theories of a number of extremist organizations, including the Adelaide Institute, the Australian League of Rights, the British Israel World Federation, “Identity” churches and some self-styled Biblical Fundamentalists.

The Adelaide Institute, a loose conglomeration of individuals around Holocaust revisionist Fredrick Toben, disseminates possibly the most virulent anti-Jewish propaganda of any Australian group. Its Internet homepage is linked to major Holocaust denial sites internationally and it continues to publish material, despite a complaint to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC, 1996 – see below) and Toben’s jail term in Germany (1999) for denial of the Holocaust. British Holocaust denier David Irving wrote in his “Action Report” of 20 July 2000 that Fredrick Toben’s “antisemitic website” was a liability to Holocaust revisionists.

The Australian League of Rights was described by the HREOC as “undoubtedly the most influential and effective, as well as the best organized and most substantially financed, racist organization in Australia.” Wolf Herfurth, a former activist in Germany’s far right NPD, was enthusiastically received when he addressed a meeting of the League in February 2000.

Under new director Betty Luks, the League publishes weekly newsletters (On Target and On Target Bulletin), monthly magazines (Intelligence Service, New Times and Social Creditor) and a quarterly (Heritage), and established a website in 2000. Most overt antisemitism is found in On Target and On Target Bulletin.

The Australian Civil Liberties’ Union (ACLU) continued to advocate Holocaust denial. Over the years the ACLU has become best known for public announcements advocating the “rights” of Holocaust deniers or other racists. John Bennett, who is the Union’s motivating force, sits on the editorial advisory committee of the California-based Journal of Historical Review.

Australian Friends of Europe (AFE), formerly Australian Friends of the BNP (British National Party), seeks to foster cooperation between “nationalist” groups against “globalist” socialism. The main AFE activists are Mark Wilson, former BNP organizer in Epping, UK, and Wolf Herfurth, formerly of Germany’s NDP. The group has made contact with, and been invited to address, the neo-Nazi Australian National Action, the Australian League of Rights and branches of the One Nation party.

Among the “Identity” churches, the Christian Separatist Church Society is the most militantly antisemitic, even ridiculing anti-Jewish propagandist Frank Dowsett of the (“Identity” church) Covenant Vision Ministry as being too moderate.

The reversal in fortunes suffered by the Australian imitators of the US “militia” groups, which began in 1996, continued during 2000. Factors contributing toward their decline included more restrictive gun ownership legislation introduced in the wake of the 1996 Port Arthur mass murder and the rise of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party, which offered their constituency a seemingly more viable means of “rescuing” Australia.

Racist skinheads not necessarily aligned with any formal organization are known to be present in small numbers in cities and towns throughout Australia and have allegedly been involved in racist violence against Asian students and harassment of members of left-wing groups. Attempts to exploit these groups or direct their violence toward Jews and other minorities are common.

The leader of the neo-Nazi Australian National Action, Michael Brander, claimed on his website that he was being persecuted because he did not believe the plan to exterminate Europe’s Jews in World War II was proven. During a defamation hearing in 1999, an Adelaide magistrate noted that “denial of the Holocaust and failure to condemn the principles espoused by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party” were proof of his racism.

Some antisemitic organizations perceive Australia’s ethnic communities, particularly from Central and Eastern Europe, as fertile ground for recruitment. Since the fall of the Soviet Union there appears to have been an active debate within many of Australia’s Eastern and Central European communities on the matter of restitution of Jewish property and prosecution of Nazi war criminals, which often includes references to the need to investigate Jewish behavior as much as that of Nazis and their collaborators. Within some of these communities the anniversary of the Nazi occupation is marked as a national day rather than the date of post-Soviet-era independence.

In recent years antisemitism has been increasingly articulated by groups and individuals who represent New Age or other fringe, alternative lifestyle elements. The rhetoric of these groups is heavily laden with conspiracy theories, providing common ground for a large overlap between fringe far right organizations, and these groups.

Although the many small groups which comprise the Australian far left often make declarations critical of racism in all its forms, demonization of Israel is a common thread and the extremes of language used to condemn Zionism and Israel are almost indistinguishable from those of the far right, among them, promoting the concepts of Zionism as an “international conspiracy” and of Jews as Nazis.

Australia’s Arabic-speaking community is large and vibrant. It should be emphasized that Jews and Muslims in Australia interact on a number of levels and there is a good level of inter-communal cooperation on a range of matters, including opposition to far right political groups, the need to extend religious freedom and liberty, highlighting the religiously diverse nature of the Australian community and promoting knowledge of dietother religious requirements of minority faiths. However, there is antagonism, by no means only related to the political situation in the contemporary Middle East, which is a serious obstacle to a deeper relationship between the communities. Locally-based extreme Arabs and Muslims were reportedly behind some or even many of the incidents directed against the Jewish community, as well as behind the distribution of antisemitic publications (see below).

ANTISEMITIC ACTIVITIES

The year 2000 was characterized by three key events which had an impact on the behavior of extremist groups. The commencement of “Y2K” brought to the fore a number of millennialist and other extremist organizations which, it was feared, would exploit any confusion caused by the changeover to the new millennium.

Second, the Olympic Games, held in Sydney, were considered a possible scene for extremist action. The arrest of a self-styled neo-Nazi white supremacist, in possession of weapons and hate literature, was one of the results of a massive security sweep prior to the games.

The outbreak of violence between Palestinians and Israelis in late September coincided with a dramatic increase in reports of incidents of anti-Jewish harassment, vandalism and threats. The month of October 2000 exceeded by 25 percent any month since reports were first kept in a national database. During the three months from October to December, 42 percent of the entire year’s reports were received, including 63 percent of reports of assault and property vandalism. Although there were few positive identifications of perpetrators of acts of vandalism, assault or harassment, anecdotal evidence suggests that approximately one-quarter, including some from the local Arab community, were committed by individuals who were responding to negative media portrayal of Israel. Many incidents were committed by individuals associated with far right-wing groups, although most of this activity came in the form of propaganda and threat rather than physical actions.

There were 372 incidents of violence, vandalism, intimidation and harassment directed at individuals and Jewish communal institutions recorded during 2000, an increase of 47 percent over the previous twelve months, and 62 percent higher than the average over the previous ten years. The combined number of incidents involving physical assault, property damage and direct face-to-face harassment was 6 percent above the annual average.

The combined total of threatening telephone calls and hate mail was nearly 50 percent above the average over the previous ten years. Antisemitic telephone calls were reported by synagogues, communal institutions and individual members of the Jewish community.

Jewish individuals and institutions are sometimes the target of regular hate mail. One person, addressing Jewish homes in Sydney, regularly claims Jews are “the vermin of humanity” and urges “death to Jews.” Another, writing from Adelaide, accuses Jewish religious teaching of responsibility for all contemporary social evils.

The Jewish community received reports of antisemitic graffiti on Jewish institutions and private homes, in areas frequented by Jewish community members as well as in other locations. However, the rate was 60 percent below the prior ten year average.

Antisemitic and threatening e-mail now equals traditionally mailed material as the most common means of antisemitic harassment. Reports of receipt of electronic hate mail in 2000 were nearly three times the average over the previous ten years. Further, antisemitic individuals, and groups greatly increased their presence on Australian-based newsgroups in 2000, for the second year in succession, participating in discussions on such diverse matters as the visit to Australia by Louis Farrakhan in 1998, developments within the Middle East, questions relating to One Nation and issues of Jewish concern.

Virtually all Australian antisemitic organizations either promote Holocaust denial or argue that Holocaust deniers have a right to be given serious academic consideration. In the majority of cases Holocaust denial appears as a central plank in the platform of the organization, and some of these groups simultaneously espouse admiration of Adolf Hitler’s policies toward Jews.

Holocaust denial is also promoted by some Arab nationalists and Muslim extremists. A noteworthy development in this area – representative of the growing cooperation between extremist Arabs and Muslims and members of the extreme right (see below) – was promotion of the plan to convene an international Holocaust revisionist symposium in an Arab country, which was subsequently aborted.

Australian Jews are regularly blamed by members of extremist organizations and by a small number of commentators in the mainstream media for controversial federal and state policies on social matters, financial programs and the weakening of “Christian” or “British” institutions. The high profile of a number of individual Jewish Australians, particularly in the business community, is used as evidence of Jewish power. Government decisions which have accorded with public positions adopted by the Jewish community are also presented as evidence of Jewish control of the leaders of political power. The adoption of state and federal anti-racism laws over a ten-year period, negotiations with Baltic countries concerning the extradition of Nazi war criminals and support for Israel in international forums, are some examples of government decisions on which antisemitic commentators have sought to incite ill will towards the Jewish community.

Some antisemitic commentary was reported in the national ethnic media, including on SBS radio, which broadcasts foreign-language programs for various ethnic groups, although the language was not always obviously antisemitic when translated into English. Another issue of concern is the presence in Australia of foreign-language antisemitic publications, which circulate particularly amongst older members of some postwar immigrant communities. The book Mojmir – A Migrant’s Lot, published first in Croatian and then in English (under the title Thorn Lace) in 2000, included some blatant antisemitic expressions.

Both the Arabic-speaking and the Islamic communities are served by a vigorous media, in Arabic and English, which generally avoid inflammatory or offensive language, but do reflect the existence of extremist and antisemitic opinions within the communities they serve. For example, the publication Nida’ul Islam, which is available on the Internet and as a glossy magazine, prints extreme views of members of the Islamic community in Australia and of a range of overseas commentators. Typical of material published in the magazine identified the Jews as both political and religious enemies of the Islamic revival. The magazine’s website includes many disparaging references to “the Children of Israel,” “Jewish rabbis,” “Zionism” and “Arafat’s Jewish agents.”

Extreme anti-Jewish rhetoric of this type is also found on the Internet site al-Moharrer al-Australi. New material added to this site in 2000 included the claim: “[The United States] is being controlled and manipulated by Zionist interests. Tax payers money is being siphoned to ‘Israel’, the illegitimate state in Palestine.” The site also disseminates Holocaust denial arguments from the Arab Journal (Chicago) and from the Turkish antisemite Adnan Oktar, who writes under the pseudonym Harun Yahya.

Islamic Offerings from Australia, the Internet site of Keysar Trad, who represents the Islamic Council of NSW, includes links to the writings of the anti-Jewish shaykh Ahmed Deedat and to Ahmed Rami’s Holocaust denying Radio Islam.

The violence in the Middle East during the last three months of 2000 generated many anti-Jewish slurs. These included claims that Jews themselves were likely to be behind antisemitic violence (articulated by Australia’s official representative of the Palestinian Authority) and many allegations that Israel was behaving in a manner reminiscent of Nazi Germany. A major rally by oppoof Isrin Sydney featured an overtly antisemitic speech, in English, by a well-known extreme right activist, Jack King. A number of anti-Israel demonstrations also included anti-Jewish language.

“Identity” groups and other anti-Jewish propagandists have been quick to appreciate the possibilities of the Internet for spreading hatred and vilification, and this has provided anti-Jewish groups with much defamatory literature and the facility to reproduce “state of the art” antisemitism. The submission of pieces from Australia defaming Judaism in online discussion groups of religion, which began in 1994, continued throughout 2000. Misrepresentations of the Talmud were at the base of leaflets, hate mail and abusive telephone calls.

The Victoria-based newspaper Strategy, which draws inspiration from the US-based racists of the Patriot movement, prints items drawn from a variety of sources. In 2000 it promoted a range of extremist organizations and publications, including Holocaust denier Olga Scully’s book, video and cassette, and various anti-immigration and “Identity” church groups, among them the British Israel World Federation (which believes that the British peoples are the true descendants of the Israelites).

Because of their common hatred of Jews, there is cross-pollinization and fraternal support among some elements of the Islamic and Arabic-speaking communities and white supremacists, “Identity” groups and other overt racists. For example, Islamic Offerings from Australia, Scott Balson’s Australian National News of the Day and The Strategy, have drawn on the Holocaust denial of Ahmed Rami’s Radio Islam, while the New Age Annwn site, the Adelaide Institute and Scott Balson have all quoted US white supremacist William Pierce.

National Action West Australia’s new website has links to the Southern Cross Hammerskins, Drumbeat Music, the Adelaide Institute and the Church of the Creator (NSW). It also stated that it stood for opposition to “the unproportional influence of zionists in many western governments [sic]” which it would “never accept in our country.”

The Christian Separatist Church Society (CSCS) announced its presence in advertisements in The Strategy and The New Australian Times (a journal targeting alienated conservative rural Christians). The website of CSCS is militantly antisemitic. CSCS activists such as Dr. Ken Cratchley used phrases such as “Talmudist Jews,” “the bandit state of so-called Israel” and “Judeo-Christianity.”

An Australian woman, Jane Qantrill, using an e-mail signature identifying her as an active supporter of the white supremacist National Alliance, ran a “club” on Yahoo! called “The Holocaust Revised,” which served as a vehicle of communication between Holocaust deniers and promoted their beliefs. Other Australian forums disseminating antisemitism and racism include “The Nugget Forum,” related to the far right Freedom for Australia site, and the “Matilda Australian Political Message Board.”

Several individuals who had publicly confronted racist rhetoric in a variety of forums were subjected to anonymous personal threats, circulated in general discussion lists such as newsgroups and online clubs.

Coverage of issues relating to the Australian Jewish community by the mainstream media is extensive and out of all proportion to the community’s size within the Australian population. On reparations and compensation claims resulting from the Nazi Holocaust, the coverage has been generally sympathetic to the community, while that of Israel and the Middle East is less sympathetic. A few columnists, contributors or correspondents to mainstream newspapers expressed open or veiled antagonism to Jews and/or Judaism, and/or compared Israel with Nazi Germany. One such example was the article by Robert Mackline in The Canberra Times of 14 October. Antisemitic comments were sometimes heard on talkback radio, but the hosts would apologize once this was brought to their attention.

Australia’s political institutions are not completely free of anti-Jewish prejudice. In one particularly notorious case during the period in review, South Australian State Liberal parliamentarian Graham Gunn made an openly anti-Jewish comment, invoking the stereotype of greed as a Jewish characteristic. After he was condemned by his political opponents as well as by Jewish and ethnic leaders, and eventually by his own party, he issued a public apology.

RESPONSES TO RACISM AND ANTISEMITISM

Findings in two complaints to the HREOC in 1996 were delivered in 2000. The cases were lodged by the ECAJ against Olga Scully and against Fredrick Toben of the Adelaide Institute. The commissioner determined that Scully had imputed to Jews many negative “attributes.” She was to desist from her unlawful conduct and apologize. Similarly, the commissioner directed Toben to cease his use of the Internet to promote antisemitic propaganda and apologize to the complainants. Neither has abided by the commission’s orders. Since the HREOC does not have the power to enforce its directions, the complainants applied to the Federal Court for an enforcement order. The cases were to be heard in 2001.

An outstanding moral voice against racism came from Governor-General Sir William Deane, who made a series of speeches on this theme during 2000. Churches, such as the Uniting Church in Australia, were also important proponents of diversity and tolerance, often in concert with the Jewish community. The Catholic Church promoted inter-religious and multi-faith understanding as a particular focus in the lead up to the year 2000.

Australia was among the countries which endorsed the final declaration of the January 2000 Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust. The federal government has demonstrated this commitment, inter alia, through its promotion of an anti-racism education campaign and the ongoing public awareness programs conducted by the HREOC. Community organizations, the business sector and individuals are also involved in a broad range of educational initiatives.

Individuals operating alone, such as Dr. David Maddison of Melbourne, or in small groups, are using the Internet to counter the propaganda of racists and antisemites, either by participating in newsgroups or developing websites, such as the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies’ Holocaust Education Internet resource.