{"id":202859,"date":"2025-09-05T17:22:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T17:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/202859\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T17:22:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T17:22:12","slug":"israel-lobby-has-luxury-antisemitism-summit-on-gold-coast-while-gaza-burns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/202859\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel lobby has luxury antisemitism summit on Gold Coast while Gaza burns"},"content":{"rendered":"

While hundreds were killed in Gaza this week the Israel lobby held a luxury summit for local councillors on the Gold Coast to suppress criticism of Israel. Wendy Bacon<\/strong> and Stephanie Tran<\/strong> report.<\/p>\n

As Israel intensified <\/a>its assault on Gaza this week, reducing entire neighbourhoods to rubble and killing hundreds in Gaza City, its supporters in Australia gathered this week at a luxury resort on Queensland\u2019s Gold Coast.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Australian Mayors\u2019 Summit Against Antisemitism, hosted by the US-backed Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), convened mayors, politicians and business leaders offering all-inclusive<\/a> travel and accommodation. Among the throng were figures associated with far right wing group Advance Australia such as Stanley Roth and Sharon Kuper.<\/p>\n

The mayor of Waverley Council in Sydney unveiled the Council\u2019s Model Antisemitism Strategy<\/a> to delegates even before the event had ended on Friday.<\/p>\n

Luxury lobbying while Gaza burns<\/p>\n

Gaza\u2019s media office says <\/a>Israel has detonated at least 100 explosive-laden robots in Gaza City over the past three weeks to destroy entire residential blocks and neighbourhoods. About 1,100 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza City alone during Israel\u2019s assault there since August 13.<\/p>\n

\u201cSheikh Radwan is being turned upside-down,\u201d resident Zakeya Sami told Reuters. \u201cIf the takeover of Gaza City isn\u2019t stopped, we might die. We won\u2019t forgive anyone who watches this and does nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

But inside the Gold Coast resort, the deaths of Palestinians were absent from the agenda. Instead, the focus was on how Australian councils could suppress criticism of Israel and clamp down on pro-Palestinian movements.<\/p>\n

The summit is run by the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), an organisation bankrolled<\/a> by US right-wing donors. Its mission: lobby governments and institutions to adopt the discredited IHRA definition of antisemitism, which deliberately equates criticism of Israel with anti-semitism.<\/p>\n

\n

Critics of Antisemitism Summit \u2018antisemitic\u2019 says Israeli antisemitism chief<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Political complicity<\/p>\n

Australian leaders from across the political establishment lined up to endorse the event.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles<\/a>, opposition leader Sussan Ley, and former prime minister Julia Gillard all sent supportive video messages. Human Rights Commissioner Lorraine Finlay, UNSW chancellor David Gonski, and Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism Jillian Segal were among the featured speakers.<\/p>\n

The summit also had the backing of federal local government minister Kristy McBain and her NSW counterpart Ron Hoenig.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jewish writer Veronica Sherman attended a protest outside the summit. She challenged the narrative that the pro-Palestine movement was antisemitic telling MWM the following:<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m an Israeli citizen, who served 2 years in the Israeli airforce. Last month, I went to the Sydney Harbour Bridge pro-Palestine protest with a sign that clearly said I was Jewish and I was met with only love and warmth. I then saw Combat Antisemitism Movement\u2019s vile and toxic posts labelling the march as antisemitic. Reading CAM\u2019s social media and speakers list it was clear that these people only amplify antisemitism. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey do nothing to make Jews safe. I wanted to come here as Jewish person to show that some Jews are against this and because I knew they would only accuse other protesters of antisemitism. If we are going to discuss antisemitism, let\u2019s discuss all forms of racism but right now, we should all be focused on stopping the genocide that is unfolding in front of our eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jewish<\/a><\/p>\n

Jewish writer Veronica Sherman<\/p>\n

Criminalising Palestinian existence<\/p>\n

The summit\u2019s agenda extended to an attempt to police Palestinian identity itself. One of the most alarming features of the summit was a CAM report cataloguing supposed \u201cantisemitic\u201d symbols. <\/p>\n

The list included the watermelon, long used as a discreet emblem of Palestinian solidarity when the flag was banned, as well as the keffiyeh scarf and the flag itself.<\/p>\n

The attempt to prohibit these symbols reveals the true purpose of CAM\u2019s campaign, to erase Palestinian culture and silence any expression of resistance. According to the CAM Action Plan, which was released today, incidents of antisemitism should be monitored and reported to authorities. And councils should partner with police on managing public protests.\u00a0<\/p>\n

25-08-26_Digital_CAM_Antisemitism Symbols Report<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Cover for a genocide<\/p>\n

Last month, Israel\u2019s security cabinet formally approved<\/a> the occupation of Gaza City,\u00a0 the latest step in a genocidal sequence of destruction, starvation, occupation, and ethnic cleansing. What Palestinians describe as the dream of \u201cGreater Israel\u201d is being realised in real time.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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\n \"Wendy <\/a><\/p>\n

Wendy Bacon is an investigative journalist who was the Professor of Journalism at UTS. She worked for Fairfax, Channel Nine and SBS and has published in The Guardian, New Matilda, City Hub and Overland. She has a long history in promoting independent and alternative journalism.<\/p>\n

She is a long-term supporter of a peaceful BDS and the Greens.<\/p>\n

\t\t
\n \"Stephanie-Tran\" <\/a><\/p>\n

Stephanie is a journalist and has a law\/journalism degree. She was a finalist for the 2021 Walkley Student Journalist of the Year Award and the winner of the 2021 Democracy’s Watchdogs Award for Student Investigative Reporting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While hundreds were killed in Gaza this week the Israel lobby held a luxury summit for local councillors…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":202860,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,50],"class_list":{"0":"post-202859","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115152849788248817","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}