Sidoti and Cox face off at Caulfield Shule

A co-author of a United Nations genocide inquiry and an international law expert who challenges its findings addressed a packed hall at Caulfield Shule on Thursday night, in an event organisers say was targeted online and forced them to screen every guest by hand.

Chris Sidoti, one of the three members of the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, shared the stage with Dr Brian L. Cox, a senior fellow of Canada’s Macdonald-Laurier Institute and former professor of international law at Cornell. The commission determined that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

The event was organised by ABC Watch, the Australian Jewish Association, Allies for a Strong Australia and The Hague Initiative for International Cooperation (THINC).

Organisers told The AJN the livestream was disrupted for the first half of the evening by what appeared to be a denial-of-service attack by hundreds of bots. The stream was restored for the second half.

Jewish community activist and ABC Watch co-founder Sharon Kuperholz said the event could not be publicly promoted for security reasons.