Jewish Lawyer Testifies on Dual Threats to Pro-Palestinian Jews
Human rights lawyer Sarah Schwartz gave evidence before Australia's royal commission on antisemitism and social cohesion, describing how Jewish supporters of Palestinian freedom face targeted attacks from both their own community and neo-Nazis. The commission was established after a Hanukah celebration at Bondi beach left 15 people dead.
Schwartz, executive director of the Jewish Council of Australia, said that over the past two years she has spoken to countless Jewish people who feel unable to express their political convictions without risking public exposure or family rupture. She noted that after she was publicly described as an 'anti-Jew' during a live ABC interview, one Jewish person wrote to her: 'Growing numbers of Jews are feeling excluded and betrayed by communal institutions because of their political convictions.'
Holocaust Memory Weaponized Against Dissent
Schwartz detailed how Israel's defenders have turned symbols of Jewish persecution against her. Online, she is called a 'Kapo' and 'Judenrat', invoking institutions the Nazis created to make Jews complicit in their own persecution. Memes depict her as a rat, place yellow stars on her clothing, and put her on a train to concentration camps. During a live ABC interview, another Jewish guest declared she was 'an anti-Jew,' prompting a publication to debate whether that description was justified.
At the same time, Schwartz is targeted by actual neo-Nazis who traffic in conspiracies such as the 'Great Replacement,' portraying Jews as the hidden force behind multiculturalism and anti-racism. They recycle familiar caricatures of Jewish appearance and power, indifferent to her views on Israel, targeting her because she is publicly Jewish and stands with Muslims, migrants, and anti-racists.
UN Report on Gaza Finds Genocide
Last week, a UN commission of inquiry concluded that Israel has continued to commit genocide through the deliberate targeting of Palestinian children in Gaza. The report found that Israeli forces deliberately shot at children's vital organs, used high-payload munitions in densely populated areas, and that starvation caused by Israel's blockade inflicted profound and lasting harm.
Israeli officials dismissed the report as part of an 'anti-Israel narrative' and accused those sharing its findings of 'parroting blood libels,' invoking one of history's oldest antisemitic myths. Schwartz argued that this framework collapses Jewish identity into the state of Israel, recasts criticism of Israel as hostility towards Jews, and turns the Holocaust from a warning against atrocity into a test of political loyalty.
Impact on Australian Debate
Schwartz said Australia's debate has become almost entirely disconnected from Gaza itself. 'We argue about protesters, slogans, university encampments and definitions of antisemitism. Universities adopt managerial policies to mitigate controversy. Regulators adopt contested definitions which chill speech. Journalists learn which stories attract organised campaigns.'
For Palestinians, the result is global silence, turning evidence of mass atrocity into a debate about permissible speech. For Jews, it flattens their identities into allegiance to a nation-state. Jews who refuse that allegiance must be cast out. Schwartz concluded: 'When the Holocaust is used to police Jewish identity, silence those who bear witness to atrocity, or to recast allegations of mass violence as acts of persecution against the accused, it is hollowed of any moral force.'
