Australia’s sanctions on extremist Israeli settlers have drawn accusations of antisemitism, but criticism of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians must not be confused with hatred of Jewish people.
A major national news item of 10 June, 2026: “Tensions have flared again between Australia and Israel after the federal government joined a coalition of countries to impose extra sanctions on extremist settlers in the West Bank and the organisations that support them.
“Israel lashed out at Australia and the other countries for adopting what it labelled “disgraceful” sanctions, accusing them of fuelling antisemitism in their own nations”.
What bubble of deluded self-righteousness do the Israeli leadership and its supporters worldwide live in?
It is the cruelty manifested towards Palestinians and an inexcusable grab for Palestinian property by illegal Israeli settlers on the West Bank, together with the continuing onslaught in Gaza, coupled with overreach into Lebanon, that is causing a perceived rise in antisemitism. But is it antisemitism? There can be no excuse for swastikas, racist tropes, defacing holy places, threatening Jewish citizens, let alone recourse to violence. All such actions are to be condemned. Those who engage in them – presumably out of misplaced identity with Palestine – are doing harm to Palestinians and those who support them. They are replicating the very actions they are actively opposing.
What is most frequently called antisemitism is not. It is necessary criticism of Israel’s actions, conducted outside the framework of international law, with the clear aim of ensuring not only the death of any idea of a Palestinian state, but far worse, the herding of Palestinians out of their territories into what might only be described as gulags, all for the sake of creating ‘Greater Israel’.
The cry of antisemitism is being used as a weapon to silence criticism of Israel. I understand the Royal Commission has accepted or adopted the IHRA definition of antisemitism. In doing so, it is opening itself to interpreting cries for justice as antisemitic. They are far from that.
The Queensland government has made the recitation of the cry: “From the River to the Sea Palestinians will be free” a criminal act. It is far from that. It is not a cry for the abolition of Israel; it is a cry for all residents of the land to be treated equally.
This is a plea that wherever Palestinians live, they should be free, the very thing the Israeli government does everything to prevent. I will soon be in Queensland for a month. Should there be a protest march while I am there, I would be proud to join that cry. As Jesus once said, “let the very stones cry out’’.
Apart from the devastation caused to Palestinians, the tragedy of Israeli action and Zionist propaganda is that Judaism is itself diminished, a point made by many Jews throughout the world, including Australia. This debate is bravely pursued in some arms of Israeli media. Wherein does the future of Judaism lie?
Judaism’s foundations lie in the patriarchal narratives. The promise to Abraham and his successors that they would become ‘a great people’ (nation) was made on the basis that through them all the peoples (nations) of the world would be blessed. It was not made for them alone. For this statement to be used to defend the forced removal and denial of others’ rights is blasphemous. (We might well ask what Trump had/has in mind in saying he will make America great again. His focus appears to have achieved the polar opposite).
The abuse afforded the flotilla crews in the short time they were held by Israeli authorities shocked the world. But it is a small glimpse into the suffering and abuse suffered by Palestinian people every day – including their children. It is also a window into what appears now to be acceptable to Israeli moral or ethical life. In response, the Israeli ambassador to Australia had the gall to stand in front of Australian TV screens and say it did not happen.
Now, I fully realise some terrible abuses, not least October 7, have been perpetrated by Palestinians. These must be condemned. But let me ask who are the primary terrorists? They are those who use coercive power both institutionally and by private citizens, to forcefully remove, imprison, torture, and dispossess a people for whom this has been their ancestral land.
Mr Trump loves to promote what he calls the Abrahamic Accords. What he understands by this is an agreement between nations of like minds to himself who agree to promote economic and security cooperation. In 2020 several nations signed such an accord, many of whom are guilty of abusing their own human rights obligations.
A true accord worthy of association with Abraham, would be based on commitments to justice, the rights of minorities, respect and dignity for all. This should be possible for any nation that claims to be Christian, Islamic or Jewish, for all three Abrahamic religions share this common foundation. That all three have used their faith as a form of coercion or oppression is a denial of the faith’s foundation.
There should be no accord under this name with Israel, unless or until Palestinians are free – from the river to the sea.
Europe in the 1930s and 1940s was the scene of the most horrendous victimisation of Jewish people, culminating in the unspeakable atrocity of the holocaust.
The weaponising of ‘antisemitism’ without differentiating that scourge from strong criticism of Israel, encourages the notion that Jewish people continue to be the primary victims of others’ hatred. It has been shown the worst cases of antisemitism in Australia were initiated by overseas interests.
The Zionist lobby and other voices who defend Israel could be taken far more seriously if they would themselves critique the abuses of the Israeli government from the perspective of what politicians here rather loosely describe as “Australian values”.
George Browning was Anglican Bishop of Canberra Goulburn 1993 – 2008. He was President of the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network 2013 – 2022. He is now its Patron. He is also Patron of Palestinian Christians in Australia, and of the Palestinian ecumenical liberation theology centre -Sabeel.