ADC News
Volume 1, No. 3
September 2008
ADC wins grant for youth leadership program
Jewish, Muslim and Christian students will benefit from a Multifaith Youth Leadership Program which was recently launched by the ADC.
The program is being partially funded by a $10,000 Interfaith grant from the Victorian Multicultural Commission.
The ADC is currently looking for a sponsor to provide additional funding for this important project to improve future interfaith relations.
The program will bring together university students of the different faiths who have been identified as having strong leadership potential in their communities. About 30 students are expected to participate in a residential workshop in early February. Participants will be expected to be involved in other interfaith activities throughout the year and to make an on-going commitment to relevant student leadership. As future leaders, these students are an essential pathway to good relations in the coming decades. For more information, contact project co-ordinator Ari Morris, who is pictured with the minister and local members receiving the VMC cheque.
 Thank you to ADC Appeal volunteers
August was appeal month and ADC ran a highly successful three week appeal, thanks in large part to the efforts of many dedicated volunteers. Appeal chairman Tony Levy (pictured) and organisational mastermind Helen Gardner led the volunteers, including many B'nai B'rith stalwarts and students from Yavneh and Mt Scopus Colleges gave up their evenings to telephone potential donors and process donations. ADC staff not only worked hard during the day managing the incoming donations but also volunteered several evenings each to ensure the appeal ran smoothly. Donations are still rolling in so Appeal results have yet to be announced. Those who have yet to send in their donations are asked to do so promptly. Many thanks to all those who donated both money and time.
Orator's influence felt as Australia decides on Durban II 
Human rights expert Professor Anne Bayefsky raised deep concerns about next year's Durban Review conference, when she spoke as ADC orator in July. Professor Bayefsky recalled the deep antisemitism of the Durban Conference on racism in 2001 and spoke of her fears that next year's conference in Durban will see a repeat of that experience. Professor Bayefsky meet with Federal MPs to discuss Australia's attitude to attending Durban II. The Federal Government has yet to make a commitment on whether it will go to the conference, which Canada has said it will boycott and which the US is likely to boycott. The ADC and Executive Council of Australian Jewry are working together on how to ensure Australia provides a strong voice against antisemitism at the United Nations, whether by attending the conference and speaking up or by staying away.
ADC in the internet age
With the challenges of internet hate and the opportunities of improved communication, the ADC is working to provide services suited to the internet age. ADC research director Deborah Stone recently completed a major report on Antisemitism on the internet, which is available in full here or in a brief version here. Our weekly Webwatch publication monitors coverage of issues of concern in the media and can be viewed here. Our website officer Pam Goldman has been busy improving our website communications and subscriber lists. If you need to update your details or know someone else who would like to get ADC publications contact her.
 Getting Al-Manar off air
A Lebanese satellite televisions station which repeats the blood libel and describes Jews as pigs and apes is broadcasting in Australia. The ADC is working with the Federal Government to have Al-Manar taken off air because of our deep concern about its antisemitism. Unfortunately this issue has been further heightened by statements by the chairman of the Australian Arabic Council Roland Jabbour that such broadcasts were "reasonable". The ADC is appalled at this response and has called for Mr Jabbour's resignation.
Offensive website postings removed
An antisemitic posting on a Yahoo discussion group has been removed following complaints by the ADC. The posting which told readers "Never trust a Jew" and recommended "try using the Torah its already rolled up like a dunny roll" was posted on a discussion thread entitled "Israel's continuing land grab". The posting was removed but Yahoo took no responsibity for disseminating hate speech, informing the ADC it did not write or edit posting and did not take responsibility for their accuracy or offensiveness. Another offensive posting was removed from a football fan site Bomber Blitz after the moderator was alerted that an antisemitic joke had been posted. This posting was removed promptly once the moderator was alerted and highlights the value of being alert to problems on moderated sites on all kinds of subjects.
Cultural sharing with Muslim community 
The ADC has participated in recent events to bridge cultural differences with the Muslim community. ADC representatives attended an Iftar dinner, a breaking the fast Ramadan meal organised by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship, and a mosque open day run by the Australian Interfaith Society, a Turkish Muslim interfaith organisation. In both cases the aim was on finding cultural similarities and learning about one another's faith.
Monitoring extremists
The ADC is monitoring the Australian Protectionist Party (APP), a new far right party running a racist agenda. APP NSW chairman Darrin Hodges is campaigning for the Sutherland Shire Council, on a ticket that says only white Australians are welcome in the area and Asians are to blame for the growth of high-rise developments. Hodges, a former member of Australia first, also campaigned against the establishment of an Islamic school at Camden. APP has links with the far right British National Party. Member Mark Wilson, a former BNP activist, describes the party as “there to represent European-descended people of Australia”. His views can be heard here. Several APP members have defected from Australia First but Australia First leader Diane Teasdale objects to APP's association with Australia First.
Downunder Newslinks, a website that describes itself as providing “Australian news for white people” is featuring a 30-episode Holocaust denial movie entitled “One Third of the Holocaust.” Created by Mike Smith, this video seeks to prove that Treblinka, Sobibor and Belzec were not death camps and describes the Holocaust as a fraud. Smith links his Holocaust denial mythology to Middle East politics, claiming the Holocaust is a fabrication used to eliminate indigenous people such as the Palestinians, and accusing the Israelis of destroying Palestinian culture.
The Citizens Electoral Council (CEC), the Australian branch of the U.S. based LaRouche movement, is running a campaign attacking George Soros, a Hungarian born Holocaust child survivor, global financier and philanthropist. The campaign describes Soros variously as the financial godfather of US presidential candidate Barack Obama, a British intelligence agent and responsible for conflict in Georgian-Soviet conflict in South Ossetia. Soros’s Jewish Hungarian background has made him a target for the extremists in the US and their Australian media release echoes the theme.
Following the failure of a Federal Court action, on technical grounds Bible Believers continue to publish Holocaust denial and antisemitism on their website. In a recent newsletter Anthony Grigor-Scott wrote that whenever the Zionist-controlled press blames others of a crime the plain truth is that it is they who have initiated the crime. “This is clear from the so-called holocaust hoax of the six million Jews in World War I, the holocaust hoax of six million Jews between the wars, and the holocaust hoax of six million Jews in World War II. Throughout this period Jews really murdered 66 million mainly nominal Christians in the USSR, plus nine to eleven million Germans after war's end.” Other Newsletters blame the Jews for climate change, banking costs and oil prices.
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Antisemitism 