‘I’m no anti-Semite’, but Clementine Ford’s social media bile says otherwise

Author Clementine Ford

In December, Clementine Ford told The Australian she was not an anti-Semite, describing the suggestion as “ludicrous”. But since the doxxing of 600 Jewish creatives on her social media accounts, it is worth re-examining the charge and the evidence that supports it.

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance states it is not anti-Semitic to criticise Israel or Israeli policies. Criticism of Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Defence Force strategy or tactics in the war in Gaza cannot be anti-Semitic. Many people – including several world leaders – have called for a ceasefire to the hostilities in Gaza, and such calls are not prima facie evidence of hostility towards Jews.

But what is anti-Semitic, according to the IHRA, is denying the Jewish people’s right to self-determination (ie, in claims that Zionism is “racism”), applying double standards to Israel (ie, expecting behaviour that is not expected of any other nation), the use of classic anti-Semitic images, symbols or stereotypes in relation to Israel (ie, blood libels) and holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of Israel (ie, black-listing). On each of these accounts, Ford is guilty.

On her social media accounts and Substack newsletter, Ford amplifies Islamist rhetoric that portrays Israel as an occupied territory since the 1947 UN vote on the Partition Plan for Palestine. When she talks about “occupation”, she isn’t just talking about Gaza or the West Bank. She’s referring to the state of Israel as a whole.

The Anti-Defamation League in the US explains that criticism becomes anti-Semitic when “Israel is denied the right to exist as a Jewish state and equal member of the global community, and when traditional anti-Semitic symbols, images or theories are used in the demonisation of Israel”.

On her Instagram account, there is a video of Ford speaking softly in dark lighting in front of her phone camera about “Zionist ideology”, stating there are “not enough babies in the world who could be bombed” to satisfy it. On a post to her Substack account this week, Ford talks of children being “ritually maimed and disabled” by Israel.

Clementine Ford

Throughout her social media posts she describes Zionists as “monsters”, “sadists” and “ghouls”; Israel as a “disgusting”, “evil” “oppression machine”.

Ford has shared disinformation about the war in Gaza, including conspiracy theories about Israel “harvesting the organs” of Palestinians (false), and planning to use “illegal nerve gas” resulting in children having “flesh melted away” (also false).

The Anti-Defamation League describes such disinformation as modern-day blood libels. The blood libel, or ritual murder libel, is an ancient anti-Semitic trope that accused (and still accuses) Jews of murdering children in rituals for blood. The libel is ancient. The ADL explains that “blood libels have frequently led to mob violence and pogroms, and have occasionally led to the decimation of entire Jewish communities”.

These libels have been reinvented and redistributed since October 7. The charge of genocide against Israel is one. Repurposing images from the Syrian civil war is another. While Ford is quick to condemn the use of (non-existent) nerve gas by Israel in Gaza, I could not find any record of her condemning the very real use of chemical weapons in Syria.

This double standard is how anti-Zionism becomes anti-Semitic. Of course, children have died in the war in Gaza, and all civilian losses during war are a tragedy.

But to paint the Israel-Gaza war as being “genocidal” is to deny the history of urban warfare, and where the Israel-Gaza war sits within it. Here is some context. In the 2022 siege of Mariupol 25,000 civilians were reportedly killed, including 600 in a single theatre bombing. In the Chechnya conflict of the late 1990s, more than 50,000 civilians were killed. When the Allies went to war against the Nazis, the UK bombing of Dresden claimed 25,000 civilians. When the US firebombed Tokyo, 300,000 civilians were killed including 80,000 to 100,000 in a single night.

In the 1945 Battle of Manila, 100,000 civilians were killed.

More recently, in the 2016-17 battle of Mosul to defeat ISIS, more than 10,000 civilians were killed. And in the ongoing Syrian civil war more than 300,000 civilians have been killed.

Civilian casualties happen during urban warfare – even when adhering to the laws of war. Condemning Israel for a defensive war after its citizens have been slaughtered, raped and mutilated, and blaming Israel for civilian deaths when Hamas hides behind human shields, holds Israel to a standard we do not expect from any other nation.

But perhaps the most egregious example of Ford’s malignant activism has been her doxxing of 600 Jewish creatives. It is worth noting again that both the ADL and the IHRA state that collective demonisation of Jewish people over the actions of Israel is anti-Semitic. Yet, after all this, Ford continues to argue that she is not an anti-Semite. She says she can’t be because there are “Jewish anti-Zionists” she is allied with.

But separating out “good Jews” from “bad Jews” is just another form of invidious hate. Jews know that whenever they find themselves on lists, real physical danger is not far off.

If there is any consolation, Ford’s online rants against Zionists are not influential among serious people. Most Australians are not anti-Semitic, and most Australians have a reflexive distaste for the kind of bile Ford spews. Nevertheless, her reach among young people and women in particular is substantial. For as long as her work continues to be endorsed by respected institutions it will continue to have the appearance of legitimacy.

Claire Lehmann is founding editor of online magazine Quillette.