Envoy to Combat anti-Semitism

Rowan Dean I 13 July 2024 I The Spectator Australia

The Albanese government this week appointed Jillian Segal AO as its Special Envoy to Combat anti-Semitism. That’s where the good news begins and that’s where it ends. Sadly, it is unlikely that Ms Segal will achieve a great deal in her new role, which has been compromised, probably fatally, from the start.

Were the first words uttered by Ms Segal at the Sydney Jewish Museum an acknowledgment of the huge surge in anti-Semitism on these shores from 9 October onwards being relentlessly fuelled by Islamists across Australia? Were her first words a condemnation of the large number of so-called prestigious universities that have happily allowed anti-Semitic protests on an almost daily basis for months on end? Were her first words to condemn the unctuous Vice-Chancellor of Sydney University for striking a deal with a group of pro-Palestinian protesters with alleged links to organisations like Hizb ut-Tahrir?

Were Ms Segal’s first words a stern rebuke to the Albanese government for fuelling ant-Semitism since the day it came to office with a series of policy and diplomatic actions that played into the hands of those whose fervent dream is the destruction of the Jewish state? Actions that included changing the designation of certain parts of Judea and Samaria (along with Gaza and the Golan Heights) from ‘disputed territories’ to ‘occupied territories’; reversing recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel; voting against Israel in various UN resolutions; reinstating the funding of Unrwa despite clear evidence of that vile organisation’s role in teaching anti-Semitic tropes; and dressing down Israeli ambassador Amir Maimon, saying Australia would not support Israel if it retaliates to Hezbollah’s lethal aggression.

Were Ms Segal’s first words to castigate the Albanese government for its well-observed lack of moral leadership in responding firmly and in a principled fashion to the surge in anti-Semitism across Australian cities since 7 October?

Were Ms Segal’s first words to call for the immediate arrest and, if possible, deportation of any individual inciting hatred of Jews from the pulpits of Australian mosques? Or the immediate arrest and, if possible, deportation of those individuals who shouted ‘Gas the Jews!’ on the steps of the Sydney Opera House on 9 October? Or indeed, were her first words to admonish the New South Wales Police for attempting to downplay that event with their risible ‘It wasn’t “Gas the Jews!” it was “Where’s the Jews?”’ press conference.

No. Jillian Segal AO’s first words as Australia’s Special Envoy to Combat anti-Semitism were a virtue-signalling ‘acknowledgment of country’. Standing inside the Sydney Jewish Museum, a place sacred to the memory of? six million Jews murdered in the greatest bout of anti-Semitism ever, Ms Segal was forced through convention or choice to pay lip service to an abstract concept honouring unknown individuals who died primarily of natural causes some two centuries ago somewhere within the vicinity of that building.

Worse, in doing so she gave succour to the very forces currently stoking the flames of anti-Semitism she is supposed to be suppressing. Let us be blunt. Aboriginal activism is not driven by the majority of Aborigines or part-Aborigines leading everyday Aussie lives, or even those living imperfect lives in remote communities; it has been largely driven since the 1970s by left-wing academics and neo-Marxist activists peddling their pernicious anti-colonialism myths. Inherent and indivisible from the concept of ‘acknowledgment of country’ and the even more objectionable ‘welcome to country’ is the notion, and acceptance of the notion, that non-Aboriginal people are at best guests in this country, at worst unwanted interlopers or invaders, with no sovereign rights.

Unsurprisingly, and as we warned in these pages, those promoting the fake ‘First Nations’ extremist ideology are the same people promoting the pro-Palestinian cause and for the very same fraudulent reasons; the idea that the Arabs are the rightful owners of ‘Palestine’ and the Jews are the interlopers. Ms Segal cannot be ignorant of the close links between the anti-Semites of the pro-Palestinian cause and extreme First Nations activists. Indeed, the entwined flags of both causes have now become de riguer at the ‘rallies’ of either.

The sorry conclusion is that Ms Segal appears to put the conventions and platitudes of the progressive woke left ahead of the urgent need to do a ruthlessly single-minded job: to root out and punish anti-Semitism. Ms Segal will sadly be treading water if she is not prepared to publicly name and shame those bodies and individuals fomenting anti-Semitism.

On top of which, when further harassment and intimidation of Jews occurs, Labor will simply point to Ms Segal to absolve themselves of any responsibility.

No doubt to shore up the votes of those anti-Semites currently proliferating within Muslim and/or leftist enclaves, Mr Albanese also announced a ‘Special Envoy for Islamophobia’ will soon be appointed.

At that point, the press conference went from unsettling to grotesque. Regardless of the seriousness or otherwise of Islamophobia in other countries, it is not an issue anywhere near on a par with anti-Semitism in Australia. Anti-Semitism, or Jew hatred, is the hatred of individuals to the point where they deserve to die; an irrational hatred which led to the greatest ever crime against humanity, the Holocaust. ‘Islamophobia’, such as it exists as a genuine ‘phobia’, is best described (by Melanie Phillips) as ‘any criticism of Islam’.

In other words, one is hatred and persecution of individuals because of their Jewishness, the other is fear of an authoritarian and ideological religion. Putting anti-Semitism on the same moral platform as Islamophobia gives the latter a significance it does not warrant and trivialises the former.

We wish Ms Segal every success in her new role. She’ll need it.

Author: Rowan Dean