Australian Jews critical of Israel walk a lonely road. The Australian Jewish community is one of the most hegemonically Zionist and pro-Israel of any diasporic community. Its central organs, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) — led by Alex Ryvchin, and its sister organisation, the Zionist Federation of Australia (ZFA) led by its Melbourne President Jeremy Leibler, have consistently opposed calls for a ceasefire in Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza, condemned the International Court of Justice’s issuance of provisional measures against Israel is ‘incentivising terrorism’, and denounced critics of Israel such as UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese.
The Australian Jewish News — the largest publication in the community — is similarly staunchly pro-Israel, celebrating the release of two hostages in Rafah on February 15, omitting any mention of the rivers of innocent Palestinian blood shed for their release. Children are raised in an explicitly pro-Israel ideological environment. Moriah College, Sydney’s largest Jewish day school, sends its students on a six-week program to Israel in Year 10. Many, if not most, young Australian Jews spend their summers at Zionist youth camps, Habonim Dror, Netzer, Hillel, B’nei Akiva, which foster youth engagement with Israel, before sending them on very heavily subsidised trip to Israel for a year post-High School, known as Shnat (Hebrew for ‘Year’) — the equivalent of Birthright in the United States.
It is no wonder then that young Jewish Australians are overwhelmingly pro-Israel. The Australian Union of Jewish Students (AUJS) lists ‘Zionism’ as one of its four constitutive pillars. Its website states that it seeks to “to promote a positive image of Israel on campus” — demonstrating the links between student organisations and ‘Hasbara’, organised Israeli public diplomacy — or as its detractors see it, propaganda justifying the occupation of the Palestinian Territories and the mass death created by the war on Gaza. Young Australian Jews are conditioned to believe — and perpetuate the myth, that Israel is a fundamental part of their Jewish identity. That any criticism of Israel is a criticism of them. When pro-Israel Jews claim criticism of Israel is antisemitic is often not only a cynical attempt to shut down debate, but also a genuine expression of their own fears of antisemitism. It’s for precisely this reason that it is such a common theme among anti-Zionist or non-Zionist Jews that they ‘unlearned’ this conditioning, a process of slow exposure of what the modern Israeli states truly represents. There are few Jews who are critical of Israel at 20, but many at 30. Internal contestation of deeply held beliefs is a careful and difficult psychological process.
It is important to note that mainstream Jewish institutions permit some criticism of Israel, for example, Netanyahu’s controversial gutting of the Israeli Supreme Court’s power to review legislation. Crucially, such criticisms only challenge aspects of Israel’s rightward shift that threaten to tear down Israel’s carefully constructed self-portrait as a liberal, egalitarian, democratic state. Thehese are ultimately self-serving, protecting Israel’s reputation — and as such the continued legitimacy of the occupation — as they are altruistic. Jewish organisations will cite these as examples of frank criticism of Israel, when in truth they simply reflect what is permissible within a narrow and carefully considered Overton window.
For those Australian Jews willing to cross the Rubicon and criticise Israel’s many violations of international law, a grim wasteland awaits. In ways subtle and explicit, you may slowly be excluded from the mainstream of the community. Disparaging eyes follow you at Synagogue. You may be tarred with slurs such as ‘Kapo’ or labels such as ‘self-hating Jew’’. You will receive messages and calls criticising you, or your parents will receive those messages and calls, rebuking them for their daughter or son signing a petition calling for a ceasefire, or appearing on B-Roll footage of a Palestinian protest in the city. You will find it harder to engage with your community, not only out of despair for the atrocities they refuse to condemn, but out of a fear that they no longer even want you.
In online Jewish community groups, anti-Zionist Jews are condemned and ridiculed, while non-Jewish Zionists — such as provocateur and failed Liberal candidate, Freya Leach are cheered on for stunts such as removing pro-Palestinian flyers on USyd campus. It is a source of deep personal sadness that for many Jews, simply cheerleading for Israel — an act often beset with ulterior motives in Evangelical eschatology, or by islamophobia, render someone more accepted in my community than the 1,000 years of Jewish blood that flow through my veins, my knowledge of the Torah, my Bris, my Bar Mitzvah, my immense pride at being part of an ancient, learned, and resilient people.
Anti- and non-Zionist Jewish community groups exist. These groups are small, albeit growing in number. While they offer a refuge of sanity among the wider darkness, by their very nature they are formed to provide a bulwark against mainstream Zionism. They are political organisations, no substitute for the wider institutions of the Jewish community. Unlike the US and the UK, where the larger demographics of Jewish organisations allow for a critical mass of anti-Israel Jews to develop, Australia is structurally limited by the size of our community.
The road to Jerusalem stretches out before me. Walking it shall toll my humanity. I stand, transfixed to the pavement wondering how the path that lay at my back had taken me to such a treacherous point.
