Australia/Israel Review

Conspiracy theories continue to feature on Australian media platforms

For decades, incitement against Jews, extreme anti-Israel rhetoric and the spread of antisemitic content and conspiracy theories by Australian media platforms targeting Arab and Muslim audiences have gone largely unchecked. The AIR has regularly highlighted some of the worst examples. Below are several of the most recent ones. 

“Zionism Piggybacks on Judaism”

Shayne Chester has a record of repeatedly making antisemitic arguments in the Australasian Muslim Times (AMUST). In his article “Zionists and the ‘Great Replacement Theory’” (September 29), Chester launches into a barrage of accusations against individuals and groups within the Jewish community.

He claims, for example, that “The Zionists are all-powerful and ruthless Holocaust deniers for Gaza,” and names Yaron Finkelstein, an advisor to the Liberal Party, in that context. Chester dismisses the rise in antisemitism in Australia, suggesting that Finkelstein employed it only as a “dead cat” political tactic “to divert attention from a negative topic (like genocide). ECAJ calls it their ‘local war’.”

His accusations continue. Chester accuses Jillian Segal, the Government’s Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism, of lying, asserting that her plan to address campus antisemitism is “built on untruths”. He says the claim that “64% of Jewish students experienced anti-Semitism on campus” is false and that “the fact-checked figure is 7%.” In reality, Chester is the one using incorrect data. According to a recent parliamentary inquiry, 66% of Jewish students reported experiencing antisemitism on campus. He also rejects ASIO’s finding that Iran was behind recent antisemitic attacks on the Jewish community, calling this conclusion an expression of “inherent Islamophobia”.

Shayne Chester (Image: X)

To conclude his antisemitic diatribe, Chester asserts that “Zionists exploit” the human mind’s difficulty in holding two opposing ideas simultaneously. He then attacks those who note that antisemites often use the term “Zionist” as a stand-in for “Jew”, specifically referencing former Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus. Chester compares this claim to saying that “if someone hates the gay cop Beau Lamarre-Condon who murdered two men, one must be homophobic” – a blatantly false and manipulative analogy. He ends with: “Zionism piggybacks on Judaism, it is not hard to see the difference.”

AMUST’s editorial choices follow the same pattern. An opinion piece, “Gaza Silenced: The Press Club and Australia’s Media Betrayal of Journalism” (Oct. 31) is accompanied by an openly antisemitic caricature by American illustrator Dwayne Booth (“Mr Fish”). The image portrays Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, wearing a shirt labelled “Israel”, buying naked corpses from the Angel of Death and decapitating them – a grotesque scene that evokes mediaeval antisemitic tropes, including the blood libel that Jews murder Christian children to use their blood in Passover matzah. The caricature also implies that Israel intentionally kills journalists, with a pile of “Press” helmets beside Netanyahu. Its style resembles the antisemitic illustrations of the Nazi Der Stürmer, depicting Jews with distorted, dehumanising features.

Israel behind 9/11 and ISIS

Daud Batchelor, a regular AMUST contributor and prolific spreader of antisemitic tropes and conspiracy theories, provides insight into the origins of this worldview in his article “Supporting Israel Today Is Definitely Un-Australian” (Oct. 30).

He begins by admitting that he “woke up” after the September 11 attacks, inspired by the antisemitic book Pawns in the Game by English conspiracy theorist William Guy Carr, which draws heavily from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Batchelor claims that “Israeli Mossad were likely responsible for the laying of explosives that brought down three New York towers,” echoing the assertions of professional conspiracy theorist Alan Sabrosky.

Later, in his condemnation of Israel, Batchelor repeats the debunked mid-2024 claim that the Palestinian death toll in Gaza exceeds 186,000 – a falsehood based on a letter to The Lancet speculating that the death toll could rise that high in future. He concludes by offering his own explanation – if not justification – for the Hamas massacre of Israelis on October 7, 2023. He insists that “Israeli propagandists incorrectly present [the massacre] as the war’s origin,” but it was really “an act after 17 years of siege, 75 years of occupation, and more than a century of worsening genocidal actions by Zionists.” He also describes it as “militant resistance” triggered in part by “the increasing harassment of peaceful worshippers” at Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Syria-ously conspiratorial

Presenting a similar conspiratorial narrative to that promoted by AMUST is a group of Australian supporters of deposed Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, who operate the “Hands Off Syria” website and social media accounts. One prominent member is disgraced academic and Iran-affiliated activist Tim Anderson.

In November, the group’s Facebook account shared a conspiratorial video from a US-based anti-Israel X account (@MHTruthUltra). The speaker claims that both al-Qaeda and Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa work “for the United States Government”, while “ISIS is an Israel and US government creation.” He also suggests these organisations are used to kill Muslims and overthrow Arab governments, “which only furthers Israel’s interest.”

DR RAN PORAT is an AIJAC research associate. He is also a research associate at the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation at Monash University and a research fellow at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism at Reichman University in Herzliya.