Jihadi preacher verdict a win against hate and racism

The Wassim Haddad verdict shows that common decency should dictate that free speech and freedom of religion do not include the right to racially vilify other people, writes Peter Wertheim.

In November 2023, William Haddad delivered a series of speeches to his followers which were video-recorded and uploaded to various online platforms.

The speeches included generalised statements about the Jewish people which, on any reasonable view, were grossly antisemitic.

This occurred at a time when the Hamas atrocity-crimes in Israel on October 7, 2023 had perversely triggered an unprecedented upsurge in global antisemitism, including in Australia.

When it became evident that the responsible authorities in Australia could not or would not act to protect vulnerable members of our community from hate-mongering, threats and violence, we decided that we had no alternative but to take action ourselves so as to defend the safety and honour of our community.

That decision has been vindicated by the judgment that was handed down by the federal court Tuesday.

William Haddad delivered a series of speeches to his followers that included generalised statements about the Jewish people which, on any reasonable view, were grossly antisemitic. .Picture: NewsWire / Nikki Short

It confirms that the days when Jewish communities and the Jewish people can be vilified and targeted, with impunity, are a thing of the past.

This case was not about freedom of expression or religious freedom.

It was about antisemitism and the abuse of those freedoms in order to promote antisemitism.

People are free to engage in robust debate about international conflicts, whether their beliefs are true or false, informed or ignorant.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry Deputy President Robert Goot, Co-Chief Executive Officer Peter Wertheim and Simone Abel outside the Federal court. Picture: John Feder/The Australian.

But that does not include the freedom to mobilise racism as a polemical tool to promote one’s views – to dehumanise and vilify entire communities or individuals on the basis of their racial, ethnic or ethno-religious identity.

If the 300 ancestry groups and 100 faith communities living in Australia today were all free to vilify one another in the way that Mr Haddad vilified the Jewish people, the door would be wide open to chronic racial and sectarian strife of the kind that has devastated other countries, and the peace and harmony we have generally enjoyed in Australia would be ruined for everyone.

Common decency should dictate that free speech and freedom of religion do not include the right to racially vilify other people.

Common decency should tell us that that is where to draw the line. But when common decency is lacking, as we have seen far too often over the last 21 months, then the law will draw that line for us, as today’s judgment has demonstrated with crystal clarity.

Peter Wertheim is co-chief executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, and was one of the original applicants in the case against Mr Haddad.