Race ambassador Tasneem Chopra told to step aside

The Australian Human Rights Commission has asked one of its race ambassadors to ‘step back’ from duties while it investigates a racial discrimination complaint against her.

AHRC ambassador Tasneem Chopra. Picture: David Geraghty

The Australian Human Rights Commission has asked one of its anti-racism ambassadors – who appeared to dismiss concerns that Jewish women were raped on ­October 7 – to “step back” from duties while it investigates a racial discrimination complaint against her.

It follows a Senate estimates hearing that heard how the AHRC ended a contract with consulting firm Hue after The Australian revealed one of its founders allegedly helped widely share the doxxed details of Jewish creatives, saying Zionists should “know no f..king peace”.

Last week, the AHRC asked consultant and self-described “anti-racism champion” Tasneem Chopra to “hold herself out” from ambassador work after a complaint was made against her and her social media posts.

Those posts include casting doubt on Hamas’s sexual violence on October 7, saying Zionists “lie, lie and lie”, that Israel had “forfeited its right” to exist, and that Zionists were “racists and white supremacists”.

Ms Chopra had been included on the AHRC’s list of anti-racism ambassadors for its “Racism – It Stops With Me” campaign, alongside former Socceroo Craig Foster, among others.

“I am advised that the AHRC considers it is appropriate to ask Tasneem Chopra not to hold ­herself out as an ambassador for the campaign while a complaint is on foot,” an AHRC conciliator told the complainant.

“This is because retaining a person as an ambassador on an anti-racism campaign at the same time as being the subject of a complaint under the Racial Discrimination Act could impact on public confidence about the impartiality of the commission’s statutory complaint handling process, and to ensure there is no perception of bias in the handling of your complaint.

“We do so without making any judgment on the outcome of the complaint, but focused on ensuring the integrity of the complaint handling process.”

The Australian does not suggest that Ms Chopra has breached that act, just that a complaint has been made about her.

The complaint pertained to posts on X published and re-shared by Ms Chopra.

In a now deleted post in December, Ms Chopra cited an Israeli government statement stating “Israeli police have acknowledged that during the shock and confusion of October 7 … they were not focused on collecting semen samples from women’s bodies, requesting autopsies or closely examining crime scenes.” Chopra added the word “Right”.

A UN investigation found there were “reasonable grounds” to believe rapes happened at multiple locations on October 7, and “convincing information” that sexual violence – including gang rapes – was committed against hostages, which “may still be ­ongoing”.

In others, included as part of the complaint, Ms Chopra shared a video of British-Jewish comedian Alexei Sayle talking about Zionist Jews. “And they lie and they lie and they lie and they lie and they lie,” Ms Chopra captioned the post.

In another, she re-shared a post that said: “For many watching the atrocities unfold, Israel has forfeited its right to exist as a state.”

She also re-shared a post that said: “Zionists are just your common garden variety racists and white supremacists.”

Ms Chopra is also a member of a Fire Rescue Victoria com­mittee that advises the body on diversity and inclusion, as well as being on the advisory board to the Victorian Public Sector Commission.

The AHRC was unable to comment on the matter, given its statutory obligation to maintain confidentiality in relation to the complaints process.

It comes as it attempts to navigate a path forward amid rising racism and hate speech, but has been criticised since the onset of the war on October 7, particularly by the Jewish community who have said it hasn’t done enough to fight anti-Semitism.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Peter Wertheim said the “number of anti-Israel partisans” associated with the AHRC was “too large to be dismissed as an ­aberration”.

In late May, Liberal MP Julian Leeser said that since October 7 the AHRC had said “nothing about the rise of anti-Semitism in our community”.

“This (Ms Chopra’s posts) is more evidence of why the commission is completely inappropriate to undertake the inquiry into anti-Semitism on university campuses,” he said on Monday.

It follows The Australian revealing how one of those who widely shared the doxxed details of Jewish creatives, Hue co-founder Elsa Tuet-Rosenberg, had a contract with the AHRC to produce “anti-racism materials”.

At Senate estimates on Friday it was revealed that the AHRC had “varied” Hue’s contract to bring forward its end date after “public discourse” and “community concerns” with her alleged role and public comments.