Antisemitism, extremism and the case for a cautious Royal Commission

Independent Australia cautiously welcomes the Government's announcement this week of a Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion in Australia.

Cautiously, because while IA recognises Australia has long held a deeply racist, bigoted and chauvinistic culture, it is sceptical that antisemitism ranks even among the top ten most popular public prejudices. Discrimination against First Nations people, male violence against women and widespread Islamophobia are probably currently more the Australian hatreds du jour.

Previously, as members of a desperately remote and dislocated colony, Australians have viciously and methodically marginalised a great many groups of people, including, but not limited to, Indigenous Australians, convicts, Catholics, the Irish, Chinese, Afghans, Italians, Greeks, Turks, Eastern Europeans, Western Europeans, Lebanese, Vietnamese, Indians, Pakistanis, Africans (not South) and, essentially, more or less anyone who looks, cooks, sings, sounds or acts a bit "ethnic". Australian Jews, generally, don’t.

The opposite of hate is not love, it is indifference. In the case of antisemitism, for the broad swathe of Australian society, it's not that Australians won't hate you – they most certainly will – it's just that Jewish Australians have not thus far attracted the public's ire.

Gaza and antisemitism: What a Royal Commission can’t fix

Will the Royal Commission into Antisemitism end up with a full explanation of that social problem and provide workable solutions?

When Australians think about Jews, it is likely to be through the prism of our military,with other Allied nations, vanquishing the evil German Nazis in WWII, liberating Europe and those interred in concentration camps. This feeling is rather the opposite of antisemitism. Indeed, Australians feel proud to have help end a dark genocidal chapter in human history, one that saw more than 6 million Jewish people tortured and killed by an evil fascist regime.

These probably to feel a bit baffled that it appears the Jewish homeland we helped create is – according to what we cannot deny seeing on TV every night for at least the last two years – is now committing a genocide of its own, on a similarly marginalised people. And Australians can spot a genocide. We’ve committed one or two ourselves, and even wiped out an ancient island civilisation. As a country, you never really can make up for that. It’s awful. The shame.

That is what we are seeing in Gaza. Not hatred of Jews. Not antisemitism — anti-extermination. Anti-ethnic-cleansing. National disapproval of brazen human slaughter and blatant war crimes. It is, some may say, a positive element of Australian culture that does not necessitate a royal commission.

But, having said all that, despite the ridiculously specific and skewed terms of reference announced by the Albanese Government into its hasty royal commission into “antisemitism”, for one reason and one reason only, the topic is, in the view of this publication, really rather accidentally, worth investigating.

Because this publication has been calling out, charting, recording and noting the rise of antisemitism through the alarming resurgence of Neo-Nazis and White supremacists in Australia for many years. At least since 2 November 2018, when this writer, on the ABC’s then-afternoon panel show The Drum, drummed up a warning about the dangers of right-wing extremism in Australia. Four months later, the biggest terrorist attack ever conducted by an Australian, a Neo-Nazi right-wing extremist, was perpetrated in Christchurch, New Zealand. 51 died and 89 were injured in the unhinged rampage.

Watch 'The Drum' video here:

Of course, the Christchurch massacre happened in a mosque, not a synagogue, but the White supremacists still spout hateful anti-Jewish rhetoric and, indeed, distribute stickers with a Star of David to drum up support. Their ideology was during WW2, as we all know, to persecute not just Jews, but also Gypsys, Slavs, Negroes, the disabled and anyone they deemed lesser than their despicable Aryan ideal.

Independent Australia has, since 2018, enlisted noted anti-racism expert and investigator Tom Tanuki to expose these right-wing White supremacist Nazis. He does such an amazing job, you can read his stories on IA HERE. Also, make sure you check out his incredibly brave, vivid and funny videos HERE.

So, while IA doesn’t think antisemitism is the major form of discrimination in Australia, if this Royal Commission exposes and maybe helps curtail the rise of right-wing extremism – Nazism, let’s be frank – then we are all for it.

Because no one in Australia wants more evil, bloodthirsty fascists committing genocide upon helpless and innocent civilians.

So, says IA, roll on the Royal Commission.