Anti-Israel activists: These are the faces of a hideous hatred that has no place in our country
These are the anti-Israel activists who helped disseminate the details of hundreds of Jewish Australians in the arts industry across the internet which led to the PM’s move to ban the online form of harassment.
A social-justice warrior who urged people to “let Zionists know no f..king peace”, an artist who called them “genocidal racists”, and a children’s author who praised terrorist organisations are the anti-Israel activists who helped disseminate the details of hundreds of Jewish Australians across the internet.
The Australian can reveal that Elsa Tuet-Rosenberg, Zee Mazloum and Matt Chun – whose real name is Matt Jones – were prolific sharers of the leaked personal details of Jewish creatives from a WhatsApp group, which led to Anthony Albanese moving to ban the online form of harassment.
Tuet-Rosenberg shared almost 200 Instagram stories pertaining to the doxxing, while Mazloum and Chun referred to the group’s members and Israel as “genocidal”.
Feminist author Clementine Ford and writer researcher Randa Abdel-Fattah also disseminated a link to the leaked documents and details to their large social media followings.
It has led to the abuse and harassment aimed at the people and businesses outed in the leak, as Jewish leaders welcomed a move by the government to accelerate “anti-doxxing” laws.
It is unclear who within the WhatsApp group leaked the chat, and who specifically uploaded it to a now-defunct web page, although analysis of Tuet-Rosenberg’s, Mazloum’s and Chun’s accounts show a history of anti-Israel sentiment.
Tuet-Rosenberg shared the leaked transcripts and names, professions and photographs regularly from early February, saving each in Instagram story tabs called “Zio Receipts”.
To her 8000 followers, she disseminated links to the leaked transcripts and members, which included teachers, librarians and university professionals.
Tuet-Rosenberg is the founder of Hue, a social-justice group that trains people to “challenge systems of oppression”. In 2020, at Melbourne’s Next Wave Festival, she played a character running in the “2050 Australasia Republic election”, lesbian cyborg “Poona”.
She is Jewish.
Tuet-Rosenberg filed the Jewish WhatsApp members into categories like “Artists” and “Sports Zios”, urging her followers to “let these f..king Zionists know no f..king peace”.
“We must be noisy, disruptive and unapologetic,” she wrote in a February 2 Instagram story.
On February 4, she wrote: “Let the outrage you feel at (the WhatsApp chat) move you to burn this system and colony”.
She said that “Zimbos” maintained their positions due to other Zionists “in management”, calling them “genocidal fascists” who had moved “too deep into fascism” to reason with.
“Time’s up,” she wrote, referring to the leaked group.
Mazloum started posting transcripts of the leaked group about two weeks ago, also sharing the links across last week.
The stories are saved in a “Local Zios” Instagram tab, where Mazloum identifies the names, pictures and businesses of some of those in the group.
On January 30, Mazloum called Zionists “genocidal racists”, sharing named pictures of what they had determined were “frequent contributors” to the WhatsApp group.
“They (the Zionists, WhatsApp members) are plotting, making moves and using their power to dox and damage,” a February 3 Instagram story read.
An account associated with Mazloum’s main profiles sells T-shirts with a link to an “anti-Zio tees” store removed due to “harmful” content.
In one photo, Tuet-Rosenberg and Mazloum pose in the T-shirts, which read “F..K ISRAEL” and “ALL ZIONISTS ARE BASTARDS”. Both were contacted – via their Instagram pages, and available work and personal email address online – but hadn’t responded.
The Weekend Australian revealed on Friday how Chun was a key figure in the widespread dissemination of the documents, and how the author had received federal grants in the tens of thousands of dollars.
His real name is Matt Jones, a NSW South Coast local who used to own a cafe and has received at least $100,000 in varying grand funding dating back to 2010.
“Israel is nothing but a hideous, bloodthirsty white colonial project operated by an organised gang of insatiable racists and thieves,’’ Chun claimed on Instagram. Backing Yemen in its opposition to the West, he claimed: “All power to Yemen as it resists imperialist horror.”
He claimed that Israel had no right to exist and that stronger action needed to be taken by Palestinian supporters, and he posted relentlessly on the Middle East conflict, on October 8, calling Hamas terrorists “freedom fighters” and “martyrs”, adding “death to the occupation”.
In January, he said: “Zionists can see that their lies are no longer fooling anyone, and they’re shitting their stolen pants right now.”
He also said people “shouldn’t be friends with Zionists”.
Ms Ford shared the link to the leaked transcripts and names on both Instagram and Facebook, which collectively have more than 500,000 followers, telling them that she was sharing to provide an insight into “how co-ordinated efforts are to silence Palestinian activists and their allies”. She shared extracts of the transcript, especially those messages in the WhatsApp chat targeting her.
Dr Abdel-Fattah, a sociology research fellow at Macquarie University and writer, was listed as a “collaborator” of an Instagram post to her 28,000 followers with a link to the documents in a Friday, alongside Tuet-Rosenberg and Chun.
Chun, Ford and Dr Abdel-Fattah all failed to respond to The Australian.
Zionist Federation of Australia CEO Alon Cassuto said: “It’s unclear how publishing lists of Jews and denigrating the work of great Jewish Australians who have supported the arts for generations does anything for the Palestinian cause. What is clear is that it is destructive to social cohesion.’’
Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin said bipartisan support for possible anti-doxxing laws was “extremely positive” but that the scale of the problem needed to be understood.
“In addition to the harassment and death threats, we are seeing efforts to drive members of our community from whole industries and sectors,” he said.
“We are seeing co-ordinated campaigns to boycott businesses owned by Jewish Australians with no connection to any foreign country. As a nation we have to determine what we stand for and what we stand against.”
On Monday, the Prime Minister said he had directed Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus to bring forward new laws in response to the Privacy Act review.
“These are 600 people in the creative industries, people like Deborah Conway, the singer, people who are in the arts and creative sectors, who had a WhatsApp group … to provide support for each other because of the rise in anti-Semitism,” he said.
“The idea that someone should be targeted because of their religion … is just completely unacceptable.”
Victoria Police confirmed it was investigating the leaking of details and that their inquiries were ongoing.