Welcome to Elly Explains. This is the segment where I deep dive into the big stories sliding across your news feeds. In the next five minutes, I will give you all the tools you need to engage with a major news story, understand the context, and become more media literate. We will unravel the origins, the facts and maybe even the bias of mainstream media.

 Today we will be talking about the media’s reporting on antisemitism and Islamophobia in Australia – how it started, what’s really happening and why we are being lied to by our news feed.

I want to preface this by saying that I am not Jewish, nor am I Muslim. I am privileged and I cannot speak to personal experiences of discrimination based on my race. I have however, devoted countless hours to understanding the Australian media landscape and will speak with this experience. The following segment will draw on voices from Jewish and Muslim communities to supplement my cultural knowledge gaps.

The context

Let’s get some facts straight from the top. The state of Israel – a Jewish population – has been perpetrating a gruesome genocide against the Palestinian people – who are Muslim.

The Israeli Defence Force (IDF) is killing countless Palestinians a day, based on the ideological view that the Palestinian race should be eradicated.

Despite condemning the actions of the Israeli government, the broader Jewish community are fielding criticism by pro-Palestinian protesters – often reported on as antisemitism. While some cases are legitimate, it appears the true meaning of antisemitism has been lost within the media discourse, instead, being used to criminalise any pro-Palestinian rhetoric.

Extremist acts of violence against Jewish people exist and are unacceptable. However, media reporting has distorted and sensationalised the actions of protesters, conflating the Palestinian solidarity movement with discrimination against Judaism.

Some more definitions for you. Islamophobia is a conditioned fear or hatred of Muslim people leading to prejudice and violence (likely due to the social brainwashing following the so called ‘war on terror’). Antisemitism is having bias or hostility against Jewish people.  

Now our discussion today hinges on the difference between antisemitism and anti-Zionism – two terms often easily confused in media discourse. So, what does it mean to be anti-Zionim? To be anti-Zionist is to oppose the creation of a so called ‘Jewish homeland’ through the occupation and colonisation of Palestine.

How it is being reported on

So you’ve probably heard this sentence a bit in the news lately: rates of antisemitism and violence against Jewish people is on the rise in Australia. It’s a narrative that has been dominating the news cycle for months. But how common is antisemitism in Australia?

Let’s turn to an article released by the Guardian. In exposing this rhetoric, the Guardian reports on research by the Jewish Council of Australia (JCA) – an organisation who has been publicly critical of Israel’s actions in Gaza. This research took 389 individual incidents submitted to a parliamentary inquiry on antisemitism. Defining antisemitism as “discrimination, prejudice, hostility, or violence against Jews as Jews, or Jewish institutions as Jewish,” just 79 (or 1 in 5) of those incidents were determined to be correctly identified as antisemitic. 

The JCA further concluded that almost half of the reported incidents were in fact, support for Palestine, or criticism of Zionism. Reports of antisemitism were lodged for the use of phrases such as “from the river to the sea” or “intifada”, the Arabic word for uprising.

While antisemitism is existent in Australia, this word has become acceptable to use in describing Palestinian solidarity rather than explicit acts of discrimination.

The media

So why? Why would the media make such an obvious mistake in their reporting? You would think that would be an embarrassing failure, right?

Actually, this is a deliberate tactic to draws public attention away from the genocide in Gaza and further the deep rooted demonisation of Muslim people. There is nothing inherently racist about calling Israel an apartheid state, this is simply an acknowledgment of human rights violations in line with international standards.

But by blurring the line between anti-Zionism and antisemitism, the Australian mainstream (mostly conservative) media, is able to further their deeply rooted stereotypes and ideological hatred of Muslim people.

Presenting antisemitism and Islamophobia as in competition with one another simply aims to divide society. This narrative ultimately plays on our human instinct to take a side. Let’s also remember that mainstream media is a business. Conflict sells, and the more people are divided, the more we engage. It is purposefully divisive and aims to breed hatred and engagement.

To conclude

Let’s be clear here. This story is by no means trying to diminish the very real prejudice faced by Jewish people. Antisemitism is a disgusting belief and should never be tolerated!

What we do need, is the ability to be both pro-Palestinian and actively oppose antisemitism.

People struggle with this idea – that we can hold two truths at once. This isn’t a story of ‘what do we care about more: antisemitism or Islamophobia.’ The reality is, we can hold sympathy for Jewish people and communities while calling out the actions of the Israeli state.

Pro-Palestinian does not mean anti-Jewish!