Jillian Segal’s appointment raises concerns over free speech on Gaza

The Albanese Government's choice of Jillian Segal as antisemitism envoy has sparked warnings over academic independence and growing limits on criticism of Israel, writes Mark Beeson.

NOT CONTENT with trying to silence critics and sources of independent opinion within the United States, the Trump Administration is attempting to increase its influence over the rest of the world. At a time when many people have lost faith in the possibility of objective analysis, this will only give comfort to the growing number of autocrats who want to shape public opinion in ways that suit their interests, prejudices and policies.

In a world where the leaders of other countries have been queuing up to demonstrate their supine fealty to Trump in the hope that the most powerful man in the world might look favourably upon them, reputable, independent sources of information ought to be welcomed, not closed down. Predictably enough, however, this is precisely what Trump’s lackeys have done.

The United Nations has become one of the few places in which the voices of the marginalised, oppressed and forgotten are occasionally given a hearing, even if their opinions are studiously ignored. Given the UN’s many failings and its lack of resources, influence and impact, it is remarkable that America has sanctioned the redoubtable Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza.

Antisemitism rising from history of hatred

Zionist propaganda tries to extend the historical antisemitism of Europe to the Muslim world and make it into a centuries-long horror.

Albanese’s “crime” was not just to draw attention to the ethnic cleansing that Israel is conducting in Gaza, but to also highlight the reality that other governments ‘shirk their obligations, [and] far too many corporate entities have profited from the Israeli economy of illegal occupation, apartheid and now genocide’.

Whether members of the Trump Administration are too dim to realise that their heavy-handed actions have drawn more attention to the war crimes being perpetrated in Gaza or simply confident that they can do “whatever the hell they want” with no fear of pushback from the international community is a moot point. The continuing slaughter of women and children is not in doubt, unfortunately.

Despite this, many countries, especially among America’s traditional allies, are reluctant to criticise, much less sanction, Israel’s continuing destruction of Gaza and its people. Indeed, not even the proposal to build a concentration camp to imprison the remaining population has drawn much negative commentary. Perhaps no one wants to get in the way of Trump’s redevelopment plans.

What’s even more remarkable, perhaps, is that countries like Australia seem intent on mimicking the sort of crackdown on supposed bastions of independent thought like universities that Trump has overseen in the U.S.

The Albanese Government’s appointment of Jillian Segal as a special envoy to combat antisemitism is a noteworthy response to an outbreak of arson attacks and vandalism, even though, according to the Jewish Council of Australia, the number of such incidents has been significantly overstated.

A number of Segal’s recommendations are highly controversial, especially those that may impinge on the intellectual autonomy of universities. While there is clearly an argument to be made that school and university students ought to have a good understanding of the horrors of the Holocaust, they should also be aware of the Nakba, in which Palestinians were deported from their traditional homeland — a process that continues to this day, of course.

The ABC's Antoinette Lattouf ‘issue’

"Deliberately starving and killing children is a war crime. Today, the court has found that punishing someone for sharing facts about these war crimes is also illegal."

But such even-handedness is no more likely in Australia than it is in the U.S. While on a much smaller scale, Australia continues to facilitate the genocide in Gaza by supplying remote weapon systems, often via third countries, especially the U.S., to maintain the pretence that it is not “directly” assisting Israel. As Francesca Albanese’s report points out, profit-oriented corporate entities have contributed to the dispossession by supplying the weapons and machinery to erase the Palestinian presence.

Not that many universities in Australia would welcome a forensic examination of their relationship with the arms industry either. On the contrary, in another telling indicator of just how taken-for-granted the increased militarisation of life has become even in countries like Australia, universities are falling over themselves to develop courses for, and generally align themselves with, the arms industry and the funding opportunities developments like AUKUS offer.

Anthony Albanese has assured the Australian public that “respectful” criticism of the state of Israel and its policies will still be tolerated. Given that this idea still survives in Israel itself, this is the very least we might expect. The bigger question is at what point do the policies of the Israeli Government, which have been described as war crimes by the International Criminal Court, become completely indefensible?

The endless killing and destruction in Gaza is clearly worse and more cynical than anything that happened in Iraq or Afghanistan, when Australian troops travelled to the other end of the world to stop it. Double standards and alliance politics don’t get much more glaring. What does it take for Western governments to get the message about war crimes and atrocities, no matter who may be committing them?

Mark Beeson is an adjunct professor at the University of Technology Sydney and Griffith University. He was previously Professor of International Politics at the University of Western Australia.