Emma Clancy, Sydney
Against the backdrop of Israel's brutal wars in Lebanon and Palestine, the mainstream media has gone on a propaganda offensive to rebuild unquestioning public support for the so-called war on terror and to undermine the solidarity that many Australians have felt with the victims of Israel's wars.
While trying to whip up mass hysteria around the Heathrow airport "terror plot", the corporate media has begun to push more openly for the banning of political and religious organisations. For example, in an August 26 article titled "Fanatics free to spread hatred", the Daily Telegraph opines that questioning Israel's right to exist is grounds enough to be added to the federal government's list of proscribed terrorist organisations.
As well as playing on the threat of terrorism to consolidate public support for the undermining of civil and political rights, the corporate media is also cynically using reports from the Jewish community about a rise in anti-Semitism to justify racism against Arabs and Muslims, and to attack free speech. On August 21, the Daily Telegraph fretted that "an outbreak of racial violence is deeply dividing Sydney, with authorities alarmed by a dramatic surge in attacks". The article claimed that "the worst have been directed at Jewish Australians", citing harassment and assaults against Jewish students at Sydney University.
Revealing its hypocrisy, the newspaper, which has for years been campaigning against Muslim girls and women being allowed to wear the hijab in schools, is concerned because some Jewish students are wearing baseball caps over their skullcaps. The article says that Australian Union of Jewish Students (AUJS) president Greg Weinstein "believed left-wing groups on campus were responsible".
Simon Cunich, a global solidarity officer at Sydney University and a member of the socialist youth organisation Resistance, told Green Left Weekly that this accusation by the AUJS is absurd. "Resistance is opposed to all forms of oppression, harassment and discrimination on the basis of religion, race, gender or sexuality, and we actively campaign against this."
Cunich believes AUJS's accusation is a "politically motivated attack on students who have been campaigning against Israel's wars on Lebanon and Palestine. Any rise in anti-Semitism must be fought against, but equating opposition to the racist Israeli state with anti-Semitism, and suggesting that progressive activists are responsible for violence against or harassment of Jewish students, is outrageous and unfounded."
The AUJS is principally a political — not a religious — organisation. Its declared aim is to "foster a positive relationship with Israel" and its main activities on campuses concern defending Israel's aggressions against its neighbours and its occupation of Palestine.
An AUJS leaflet circulated recently at Sydney University, titled "Understanding Israel's actions: Combating Hezbollah", bluntly states: "Israel has said it is targeting facilities which serve Hezbollah. Therefore, civilian infrastructure is a legitimate target."
The AUJS is an affiliate of the World Union of Jewish Students, which is based in Jerusalem. The WUJS website offers resources to Zionist students for building support for Israel.
It states: "For the Israel activist, it is important to be aware of the subtly different meanings that well chosen words give. Call 'demonstrations' 'riots', many Palestinian political organizations 'terror organizations', and so on." It continues: "Describing demonstrators as 'youths' creates a different impression from calling them 'children' ... Consider calling settlements 'communities' or 'villages'."
Cunich commented, "So who is really promoting racism on campus? The advocates of a racist state who try to dehumanise Arabs in order to build support for Israel's actions? A group that dismisses the slaughter of more than 1000 Lebanese civilians as 'legitimate targets'? Or those of us who are campaigning against oppression and injustice in all of its manifestations?"