Antisemitic Organisations in Australia
While Australia is a country which condemns all manifestations of antisemitism, the nation is nonetheless host to a number of individuals/organisations notorious for endorsing and fomenting the world’s oldest hatred. Some of the more well-known Australian culprits include:
The Australian League of Rights (ALR)
Founded in 1946 by the late Eric Butler, this antisemitic organisation promotes Holocaust denial and publishes weekly newsletters, monthly magazines and a quarterly magazine. It conducts regular meetings, implements ‘action’ campaigns and seeks publicity for its antisemitic analysis of domestic and international affairs. Through its website, the ALR continues to promote and foment antisemitism and racism in Australia. Other main activities include the distribution of books, videos, cassette tapes and antisemitic publications such as The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, which promote the League's conspiracy-driven agenda.
Adelaide Institute (AI)
The Holocaust-denying Adelaide Institute (AI), features venomous and hateful material on its website. The organisation was established in 1994, by Fredrick Toben, who has travelled frequently to address far-right gatherings both in Australia and abroad. Toben is to appear before the Federal Court of Australia in May 2007, charged with failing to obey a 2002 court order to remove antisemitic material from his website. In 1999, he served seven months in a German prison for inciting racial hatred and defaming the memory of people murdered in Nazi death camps. In December 2006, Toben travelled to Iran for a state-sponsored conference on Holocaust denial.
Citizens Electoral Council of Australia (CEC)
The Citizens Electoral Council of Australia (CEC), is the Australian arm of the U.S. based Lyndon LaRouche extremist political cult. The Melbourne based group has targeted Jewish organisations and individuals, promotes the view that the world is headed for financial disaster, and has raised millions of dollars in Australia by preying on elderly and disempowered Australians. The CEC distributes conspiracy theory propaganda, and participates in the mass mailings of literature reflecting the beliefs and philosophy of LaRouche, an antisemite and convicted felon. The CEC promotes the view that world finances have been usurped by a cabal of Jewish bankers called the Oligarchy, and that the "terrorism" which commenced with 9/11, is being implemented by powerful international financiers whose objective is to globally unify police states under the false cloak of a "war against terrorism."
Australian Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
The Australian Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), was founded by lawyer John Bennett, following his expulsion from the Victorian Council for Civil Liberties (now Liberty Victoria) in 1980, after linking his Holocaust-denial views with the council, thereby making his position untenable. The ACLU should not be confused with the bona fide Australian Council for Civil Liberties. The ACLU is in fact one of our nation's most antisemitic Holocaust-denying organisations, with a long history of espousing xenophobic views, and with ties to notorious racist organisations, both locally and abroad. Purporting to be an annual legal guide for the layperson, Bennett also promotes his own agenda through "Your Rights" a publication available at newsagents and other venues. It is of concern that this booklet, and use of the name Australian Civil Liberties Union, may give Bennett undeserved legitimacy and credibility in the community.
Australia First Party (AFP)
Founded in 1996 by Graeme Campbell, the Australia First Party (AFP) is a right-wing nationalist movement concerned about issues of immigration, multiculturalism and Asianisation. Sydney branch president Jim Saleam has stated that "the war on Zionism has just begun" and that peace can only be achieved by dismantling the Zionist monstrosity. He has accused Australian Zionists of hating "with all the venom of their Nazi-like souls", and labelled them as "essential agents of a foreign state" and "enemies of the idea of Australian independence." A popular speaker in far-right circles, Saleam described the Australian Jewish News as dripping anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian hate, and also accused the Jews of Israel of not being related to the Hebrews of the Bible, instead falsely describing them as descendants of the Russian Khazars.
In 2004, Saleam's AFP Sydney branch letterboxed material which requested "a Commission of Inquiry into the Zionists" and which also promoted "Neturei Karta" for its "rational, balanced, Jewish view." Saleam recently described this tiny group on the farthest fringes of Judaism, as representing “the only possible Judaism.” In reality, Neturei Karta advocates the dismantling of the State of Israel until the arrival of the Messiah, and has a long history of making extremist statements and supporting antisemites and Islamic radicals.
Another AFP Sydney political activist is German-born Welf Herfurth, who has an impressive history of involvement with extremist organisations and forums both here and overseas. The former One Nation member has labelled Zionism as a myth, and denied the Holocaust, which he described as highly lucrative for the Jews, and having brought post-war Germany to its knees. Herfurth asks how Australian nationalists could imitate the German ultra-right National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) example, by breaking down nationalist stereotypes promoted by the Jewish owned media, and he dreams of "German liberation from bondage to NATO and Israel."
Sheik Al- Hilali
Known as Australia's most senior Muslim cleric, the Egyptian born sheik in 1988, gave an antisemitic lecture to a group of Muslim students at the University of Sydney, where he was quoted as saying "Judaism controls the world by secret movements (and) destructive doctrines and groups such as communism, libertinism, Freemasonary, Baha'ism, the Rotary clubs, the nationalistic and racist doctrines. The Jews try to control the world through sex, then sexual perversion, then the promotion of espionage, treason and economic hoarding." Hilali also endorsed the infamous blood libel Russian forgery The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, which claimed that Jews controlled the media and were the underlying cause of all wars threatening the peace and security of the planet. In 2004, the controversial mufti gave a sermon in a Lebanese mosque, where he reportedly praised the September 11 attacks on the U.S. as "God's work against the oppressors" and endorsed Arab martyrs and a holy war against Israel. In 2006, Hilali was dumped from John Howard's Muslim Community Reference Group after denying the Holocaust and labelling it a "Zionist lie." He also described Israel as a "cancer." Uncertainty continues over his future as the nation's spiritual leader over recent statements regarding women, and his mockery of Australia made on Egyptian television. |
Antisemitism 
