Australia / Israel Review

Voice debate brings out voices of hate

“How do you spell ‘rigged referendum’ in Yiddish?” 

This tweet, which happily garnered only a paltry 14 views, epitomises the offensive perspective of the extremists who have been spreading the message that the upcoming constitutional amendment referendum on an Indigenous Voice to Parliament is an attempt by the Jewish community to undermine white Australia.

The tweet was in response to a June 30 Twitter post by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, in which he wrote: “I’m heartened that so many Jewish groups, along with such a broad spectrum of multicultural groups and faith groups, will campaign for Yes to constitutional recognition this year,” and featured a photo of him shaking hands with AIJAC National Chairman Mark Leibler. Leibler, of course, co-chaired the Expert Panel Referendum Council on Constitutional Recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians and the Referendum Council that culminated in the release of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, and is a leading advocate for a “Yes” vote.

As Australia prepares for the referendum scheduled for later this year, debates between the “Yes” and “No” camps are proliferating in the media and beyond. At the same time, extremist voices emanating mainly from far-right groups are similarly multiplying on social media, making racist claims that the Voice is a conspiracy concocted by Jews. 

Employing an array of classical antisemitic tropes that have been in existence since ancient times but that they now dress in modern guise, the neo-Nazi Australia First Party and other far-right agitators have been tweeting and posting paranoid claims that Jews are behind a global power cabal acting in league with the United Nations and the World Economic Forum, amongst others, and that the Voice is part of this worldwide plot. 

These include targeted attacks against some leading Jewish proponents of the Voice, especially Mark Leibler and Liberal MP Julian Leeser, the former Attorney-General and Shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs, who they claim are the “masterminds” behind the Voice.

Most of the antisemitic tweets appeared in response to the aforementioned Twitter post by Albanese thanking Jewish groups who are supporting a “Yes” vote. 

One post which was shared by multiple accounts stated, “All of the major creators, financiers and supporters of the Voice to Parliament are Jewish. Ask yourself why 0.38 per cent of Australia’s population is using three per cent as a battering ram against the rest of the country.” The tweet then depicted eight people, seven who are members of the Jewish community plus indigenous activist Thomas Mayo who is claimed to have Jewish ancestry, with Stars of David above their faces.

Some other vile examples include: 

• “Mark Leibler’s behind it all… Mark Leibler & his globalist lackeys in the Australian Greens are responsible for Thorpe. She’s their demoralisation agent designed to divide Oz for their UN global governance agenda.” (4,568 views, 35 retweets, 67 likes)
• “Why the F*** is this guy [Mark Leibler] leading the YES campaign? Seriously? What are we dooooing, Australia? He has close links to Mossad (Israel’s intelligence agency) This is extremely concerning.” (2,416 views, 47 likes, 13 retweets)
• “F*** White Australia Coalition” announces unanimous support for Voice to Parliament… The group, the brainchild of long-time anti-white campaigner @LeiblerMark, announced unequivocal support for rewriting Australia’s constitution to destroy the nation-state, demoralise the populace and provide a platform for endless land grabs and rent extraction.”
• dr. juice @OJhitler Replying to @AlboMP “Of course Jews support it, this was their idea in the first place. That Jew you’re shaking hands with (Mark Liebler) was the main architect of the Voice. Jewish Power in Australia is more secure if White Australia is weakened, and you are complicit in it. Treasonous.” (32.4K views, 1,400 likes, 265 retweets)
• “Why do you want to Vote No to the Voice? Is it because of personal spite to Aboriginals? For me, I’m voting NO because the yes campaign is being led by Mark Leibler and because it’s clearly a globalist corptocratic snowjob & UN land grab. And because it won’t help Aboriginals.” (33K views, 682 likes, 116 retweets)
• @auseconomicunit: “Just a totally organic cohencidence for the betterment of Australia and totally not the latest chapter in the thousands year old hate and attempted destruction of white people.” cc: @OJhitler (5,097 views, 207 likes, 82 retweets)
• @barres1901: “Jewish people undermining and subverting western society – what a surprise” (27 views)
• @Cat207093 “Yes, because they too are in the business of undermining Australia’s sovereignty.”(242 views)

In response to this, Mark Leibler told the Australian Jewish News (AJN), “This social media activity simply goes to show that antisemitism is alive and well in this country, and sits side by side with the persistent racism experienced by Indigenous Australians.”

Greedy capitalists and “rootless cosmopolitans”

Other antisemitic tropes that have surfaced during the Voice debate include accusing Jews of being exploitative capitalists motivated by greed and profit, usually at the expense of non-Jews: 

• @Ashbiii: “Of course they will, they run the financial world and wouldn’t miss ruining Australia for anything!” (147 views)
• @MentatGhost: “How much did it cost to bribe them?” (43 views)
• @Scum_boy0: “How much you paying them? Save Australia 🇦🇺 Vote No” (35 views)
• @Driz000006: “How much 💵 you give them Albo? #VoteNoAustralia” (29 views)
• @Dave91473661: “Funny that considering they have a hand in drafting the Uluru statement. You’d think the Jewish [sic] would understand that danger of special treatment based on race and beliefs. The only thing I can think of is that there’s something in it for them, what did you promise them???” (155 views)
• “Well, considering the YES23 campaign is being headed up by a Zionist and tax avoidance expert – Mark Leibler – DECEPTION – is naturally how they swindle Australians into voting for this thing. You just cannot make this stuff up.” (3,107 views, 104 likes)

Other tweets harnessed the antisemitic motif of Jews as “rootless cosmopolitans” who lack allegiance to their country which they thus mercilessly exploit for their own profit. They are accused of caring only for themselves and Israel and of being incapable of altruism:

• “@leiblermark For who? Don’t see it bothers us Aussies. But then, you’re not one are you.” (32 views)
• @AusFirstParty “The Voice is a Zionist Jew con.” (33 views)
• “@GSahathevan @LindaBurneyMP @leiblermark Well the Voice and Heart are all Talmudic teachings aren’t they?” (785 reach)
• @HelenGouna: “They will campaign yes because it doesn’t affect their cultural or faith group. Try and do the same to them and let’s see how far you get.” (50 views)
• @sla73: “If the Zionist are onboard, then that’s another good reason to #VoteNo” (14 views)
• @Augustus__J: “Okay but if I say that Jews are behind the voice, suddenly I’m an ‘anti-semite’, and guilty of ‘hate speech’.” (299 views)
• @StanleySau1: “Pity that these Jewish groups won’t campaign for a stop to the putrid apartheid polices [sic] in Israel.” (18 views)
• Ms_J3nnif3r: “Hey Albozo. Does this also mean they support recognition of and giving land back to the First Nations of Palestine. Or just when it involves other countries and you throw our tax dollars at them?” (98 views)
• @BobJohn96400345: “.and who caused the chasm @AlboMP – Your mob did. The political elite. The Khazarian mafia. You wealthy self entitled criminals. You did it! #VoiceToParliament #voteyes #VoteNo #sackthemall #wethepeople” (35 views)
• @GeorgeS21916881 “WTF? Doesn’t this bloke read newspapers? Israeli settlers attacking Palestinians on West Bank.”(44 views)
• @szekowskii: “While we are talking about diversity, let’s all go research the Jewish law book the TALMUD Than [sic] you will understand who’s behind it all.” (25 views)
• @MarkerMagic8: “As a man who has had a Jewish girlfriend for many years, and dealt with Jews and Australian Jewish families, I can tell you that they’re the most racist, one-eyed and prejudiced people I’ve ever known. What they say about non-Jews is absolutely despicable. Why? Because they believe they’re god’s chosen people. Why? Because they personally wrote all of the scriptures that say that. What they choose to believe, is that circular, that culturally incestuous, that racist, and that dodgy. And make no mistake, they think Australian Aboriginals are the lowest of the low, of ‘Goyim’ sub-humans. The very opposite of a ‘Chosen People’. But they do like to play the political and media PR game to shape-shift away from how racist their whole cultural construct is.” (124 views)
• @DavidMa79715896: “That picture will assure another 6 million Australians vote NO.” (6 views)

Far-right websites The Occidental Observer and XYZ have also published a series titled, “Jewish Architect of the voice Exposed,” by Brenton Sanderson, who in the past has contributed articles to the Holocaust denial website The Adelaide Institute. In his five-part series, Sanderson fixates on the role of “jewish [sic] ethnic lobby groups and in particular Mark Leibler in pushing ‘diversity’ and mass immigration on an Australia that never asked for it… Furthermore, while XYZ News has focused on the role of Marxists, political aborigines and international institutions in foisting ‘the voice’ referendum upon us, it is important to understand the motives of jewish [sic] ethnic lobbyists who are fellow architects of the so-called ‘voice to parliament’.”

It’s only towards the end of Part Five of the supposed exposé that Sanderson reveals the so-called “motives” of the Jews supposedly behind the Voice. Speaking generically about mass Muslim and non-white immigration to Europe and beyond, Sanderson says it’s all a Jewish attempt to undermine white nation-states while Jews themselves have the ability to flee to what he incorrectly claims is a culturally homogenous homeland – Israel: “As a result of Jewish activism, millions of White people are also increasingly fearful of their or their children’s future. Unlike Jews, however, they don’t have the option of fleeing to the relative safety of an ethnostate.”

As AIJAC Executive Director Colin Rubenstein told the AJN: “It appears that whenever there is a controversy, antisemites also use such opportunities to spread their contemptible hatred.” This certainly seems to be the case in Australia’s current national debate over the impending Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum.

Part of a global trend

Conspiratorial antisemitism – the highly irrational narrative that Jews are all-powerful and are the cause of all the ills that befall the world – has an extensive history spanning thousands of years in various iterations. Claims that Jews are behind the Voice campaign to serve their own nefarious purposes is just another version of this antisemitic trope of Jew as puppet master – which sadly is not only alive and well but has recently been on the rise. 

Other recent manifestations, amplified by the extensive reach of social media, include an explosion in online claims blaming Jews for unleashing the COVID-19 pandemic on the world, or claiming COVID vaccines were a Jewish plot. 

Moreover, last year American rapper Kanye West (who now calls himself “Ye”) took to social media to issue a series of antisemitic rants which, however unintelligible, had the unfortunate impact of reaching an audience, mostly youthful, numbering in the tens of millions. Worryingly, his claims were defended or echoed by some other celebrity figures.

In Australia last year, young Aussie Rules footballer Harry Sheezel, the first Jewish player in the AFL in over 20 years, faced a torrent of antisemitic abuse on social media following an article that was published online in which he expressed his aim to be a role model for the Jewish community, ESPN reported.

The Jewish Chronicle recorded comments made about Sheezel online including: “A Jew actually doing physical exercise? Fake news,” and “Does he have enough gas in the tank?” – a disgusting reference to the Nazi policy of gassing Jews in the Holocaust.

As Dr Rubenstein wrote in an op-ed in the Australian in December 2022, “Experts say it’s not so much that the oldest hatred is back. Rather, it simply never left, but today those who harbour anti-Semitic beliefs are becoming much less inhibited in shamelessly expressing and acting on them. We’re seeing this in popular culture.”

The Voice debate has sparked the latest manifestations of this worrying trend. It may not be extremely widespread, but it is nonetheless a poison in Australian society that can have murderous real-world effects – as numerous attacks on Jewish institutions overseas amply demonstrate. This antisemitism must be acknowledged, documented, monitored and confronted, even as the country continues to debate the case for and against the Voice.