NSW anti-Semitism inquiry marred by terror claim

One of NSW’s top Jewish leaders has criticised the witness list of a parliamentary inquiry into anti-Semitism after one speaker appeared to claim Hezbollah and Hamas were not anti-Semitic.

NSW Jewish Board of Deputies president David Ossip gives evidence on Monday. Picture: John Appleyard

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One of NSW’s top Jewish leaders has criticised the “curation” of a witness list of a parliamentary ­inquiry into rising anti-Semitism after one speaker appeared to claim terrorist groups Hezbollah and Hamas were not anti-Semitic.

The NSW parliamentary inquiry into the rise of anti-Semitism began on Monday, hearing from some of the state’s peak ­Jewish bodies as well as leading Muslim groups and “fringe” Jewish organisations.

It heard how a “hoax” terror caravan plot “terrified Jews” amid an “unprecedented rise” in anti-Semitism, but also concerns from Muslim organisations that their communities had been vilified for criticising the Israeli government.

As the inquiry heard evidence, it was reported that a western Sydney Islamic preacher told a gathering of followers on Friday that court action taken against him over allegedly anti-Semitic comments was about the “Jewish lobby” wanting to “destroy” Islam.

Wissam Haddad, of the Bankstown Al Madina Dawah Centre, said a “religious conflict” was gripping Sydney and asked for help paying legal bills as it was about time “somebody fights back”, according to the Daily Telegraph.

“We may not be able to physically go and fight against the Israelis … but we can fight here with our wealth,” he reportedly said.

Much of Monday’s inquiry focused on the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of anti-Semitism, which includes criticism of Israel that would not be “expected or demanded of any other democratic nation” or describing that state as “inherently racist”, but which preceded a clash between Liberal MLC Chris Rath and a member of the Jews Against Occupation ’48 group, Allon Uhlmann, who disputed that terror groups Hezbollah and Hamas were anti-Semitic.

“You don’t believe that Hezbollah and Hamas are anti-Semitic organisations,” Mr Rath asked Mr Uhlmann.

He replied: “Hamas and Hezbollah, terrorists or not, are not anti-Semitic organisations.”

NSW Jewish Board of Deputies president David Ossip said the inquiry had been “hijacked” and he had never heard of Mr Uhlmann’s group.

“It’s sad that a very important and noble inquiry was hijacked and, for a time, descended into a farce,” Mr Ossip said.

“Questions need to be asked about how the witness list was ­curated. It says it all that this individual couldn’t even bring himself to acknowledge that Hamas and Hezbollah, which are sworn to the murder of Jews and the elimination of Israel, are anti-Semitic.”

Mr Ossip said there was “room for debate” among Jewish Australians on the Israeli government and its policies, but that the “far-left” groups speaking at Monday’s inquiry wrongly claimed to speak for the community, “when in reality they don’t”.

He said that in the past 20 months there had been an “unprecedented and shocking rise in anti-Semitism”.

The Great Synagogue board member, Jack Pinczewski, left, and the synagogue’s chief minister, Rabbi Benjamin Elton. Picture: John Appleyard

“For the first time, the Jewish community has felt unsafe and at risk not because of anything they have done, but because of who they are,” Mr Ossip said.

“The resurgence of anti-Semitism in mainstream discourse – whether through overt hatred, coded language or veiled as political criticism – acts as a corrosive force within civil society.”

The inquiry was instigated following anti-Semitic vandalism attacks targeting synagogues and the discovery of an explosive-laden caravel in Dural, which was allegedly co-ordinated by fugitive Sayit Acka in a ploy to use it as a police bargaining chip. But Jack Pinczewski, a board member of Sydney’s The Great Synagogue, which was an apparent “target” of the caravan, said the incident terrified the community, regardless of Acka’s alleged ultimate goal.

“The ends were not to terrify Jews, but the means were to terrify Jews,” Mr Pinczewski said.

“The ends were for this man to negotiate with police, and the means by which he was going to do that was to terrify the Jewish community sufficiently to encourage (police) to act.

“(The attacks) were definitely anti-Semitic, in effect, and with an intention.”

Peak Muslim bodies, including leaders from the influential Lebanese Muslim Association and Australian National Imams Council, reiterated their community’s condemnation of anti-Semitism but raised concerns with the nature of the inquiry, an agreed definition of anti-Semitism and how recently passed legislation targeting hate speech lacked sufficient consultation.

“We condemn all forms of racism and no community should be subject to vilification because of their faith … we support strong and meaningful responses to anti-Semitism, just as we support the same toward all forms of racism,” LMA secretary Gamel Kheir said.

“But (the LMA’s) appearance is not just to affirm (that view) but also raise a deeper concern. This inquiry, while well intentioned, risks exacerbating a perception that some forms of hate are taken more seriously than others.”

Mr Kheir criticised how pro-Palestine rallies had been “smeared” because of a “handful of isolated incidents”, pointing to how a Muslim woman had been reprimanded by her employer for attending a protest with a placard that included a Nelson Mandela quote.

“There’s a shared responsibility to (foster) social cohesion and it begins with fairness,” he said.

“The fight against anti-Semitism should not be at the expense or stigmatisation of another community.”

Mr Kheir said education remained a better remedy to hate speech than legislation that risked driving elements “underground”, noting that the community’s criticism of the Israeli government was not a criticism of the Jewish faith or people.

Sheik Mohammed Trad, the LMA’s religious education co-­ordinator, said that a handful of “high-profile cases” of alleged anti-Semitic sermons were isolated incidents.

“It’s telling that in the hundreds, if not thousands, of prayer spaces we’re not seeing this issue arise,” he said, adding that grieving Muslims were being careful in the language they used to talk about the conflict. “The centres I have attended there have not been any indication of anti-Semitic expression,” he said.