2000-year-old conspiracy

Defining Zionism to the Australian public

Understanding the history of our home and our relationship to it is fundamental to what it means to be Jewish, just as it is to all displaced indigenous groups.

Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism, Jillian Segal. Photo: Giselle Haber
Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism, Jillian Segal. Photo: Giselle Haber

ABC Drive plays through the speaker on my phone as I fold laundry with Ellen Fanning. She probes Daniel Aghion, president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ), and Max Kaiser, co-CEO of the Jewish Council of Australia, on the appointment of Jillian Segal to the role of Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism.

I commence the unceremonious arranged marriages of tonight’s remaining odd socks as Aghion speaks in favour of the appointment. Not only is antisemitism on the rise, he says, but the popularisation of “anti-Zionism” – a movement calling into question the existence of a Jewish state – is gathering momentum.

Kaiser shares concerns, expressing that Segal’s position on Israel renders her more of a pro-Israel spokesperson than someone equipped to tackle antisemitism. He believes the appointment “singles out antisemitism, when other groups are also suffering from racism”, and I don’t catch whether Fanning informs him that the government announced its intentions to appoint a special envoy on Islamophobia on the same day.

Aghion speaks for most Jews on one single issue: that Jews share indigeneity to the Levant, and that Israel exists where the Kingdom of Judea had. That Roman Emperor Hadrian renamed the area Syria Palaestina after destroying Jerusalem, paving over a people, and that the Jewish nation was massacred and expelled. It remained home, as home always does.

Or the short version: Aghion and Segal, like most Jews, are Zionists.

Understanding the history of our home and our relationship to it is fundamental to what it means to be Jewish, just as it is to all displaced indigenous groups. We have suffered tremendously from homelessness, and have prospered as the result of our return. I wish for all indigenous people the land-back operation that we achieved, and only hope that it culminates in far less bloodshed.

Zionism isn’t blind “support for Israel”. Zionism is the acknowledgement that Israel, the home of the Jews, exists with as much legitimacy as Australia (1901) or Pakistan (1947). 
I am highly critical of Israel, as I am highly critical of Australia, Syria, China, myself and people who double-park their cars. I am highly critical generally. Those who want the best for themselves and their countries should be too. 
Jews debate about Israel’s war cabinet, alleged IDF war crimes, Charedi conscription and what a ceasefire might look like. After those debates, some of us stay up at night holding each other’s hands on the living room floor in horror as screens beam Palestinian children being dragged out from under rubble.

We do not share a single brain, but we do share a home. That is Zionism. 
You may have broken bread with Jews, worked with Jews, or dated one of us. You may be familiar with some of what constitutes our Jewishness: our scriptures, our spiritualities, our laws, our philosophies, our origins and the multifaceted culture that emerged as the result of our separation from our home.

There are Zionist Jews and even some anti-Zionist Jews. You may have met “I’m technically Jewish” Jews – quite vocal all of a sudden. I met a “technically Jew” who recently began regularly sending me videos claiming that Nazis founded Israel and that Hitler was a Rothschild. This is an example of an antisemitic Jew. There are dark-skinned Jews with Polish passports, and light-skinned Jews with Israeli passports.
Just like the Jewish Council of Australia, I don’t support Netanyahu. And just like them, I know that Jewishness has nothing to do with unquestioning support for anything. I carry these sentiments with me one day onto the USYD encampment. The kids are friendly, and we talk at length, only reacting in disgust when I identify as a Zionist. They’re of the impression that being critical of a state and supporting its right to exist are mutually exclusive.

Addressing antisemitism is not simply about putting an end to anti-Jewish graffiti. If it were, then Kaiser would be right when he likens antisemitism to racism against other minorities. But how often are other minority groups shamed for visiting their people’s homeland? How often are artists of other backgrounds de-platformed and harassed for merely keeping shtum?

The Jewish Council of Australia appears to represent a minority voice among Australian Jews as they seem not to distinguish between racism and a millennia-long, shapeshifting conspiracy theory. And therein lies the difference between EJAC’s contribution to tonight’s discussion and the Jewish Council’s.

Segal’s role is not to tackle racism. It is to find a way to help government unpick antisemitism for all that it is: an indefatigable conspiracy theory, masquerading as a social justice movement, that lumps all of society’s worst crimes onto Jews.

No envoy has any hope of tackling antisemitism until we first tackle our obsession with Jewish statelessness. Defining Zionism to the public is the single most important step forward.

Joshua Dabelstein is a freelance writer from Sydney.

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