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Australian Politician Whose Signs Were Hit With Swastikas Says Time Has Come to ‘Show Up for the Jewish Community’
Australian Member of Parliament Andrew Wallace. Photo: Screenshot
Vandals targeted the campaign yard signs of Australian parliamentarian Andrew Wallace in the country’s Sunshine Coast this past weekend, drawing black swastikas over his face on the blue and yellow Liberal National Party ads.
In addition to speaking out forcefully against antisemitism, Wallace serves as deputy chair of the Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee and chair of the Australia-Israel Allies Caucus. He previously worked as Speaker of the House of Representatives and led the campaign that resulted in the criminalization of publicly displaying Nazi symbols, including performing the Sieg Heil salute.
“I have never seen antisemitism as widespread and prevalent on the Sunshine Coast as we are experiencing today,” Wallace said after his campaign signs were vandalized. “Online and on our streets, we are confronting an antisemitism crisis – and it’s only getting worse.”
Wallace said that during the previous nine years he “had plenty of my election signs damaged and defaced, which is in itself a criminal offense, but this is beyond the pale and an affront to the dignity of Jewish Australians who have a right to live their lives in peace. We are better than this.”
Describing how he felt “absolutely appalled by this behavior,” Wallace said “Australia’s antisemitism crisis demands strong leadership, and [Prime Minister] Anthony Albanese, supported by his Teal and Green allies, has proven incapable and in fact, unwilling, to stand up to antisemitism and hate.”
Going further, Wallace urged for listeners to “ask yourself how we got here. The answer is simple: weak leadership, poor decisions, and wrong priorities from Anthony Albanese.”
Following the vandalism, the Australian Jewish Association said that Wallace “is a strong supporter of the Jewish community and Israel and a friend of the AJA.”
Wallace added that “it’s time for Australians to stand up, speak up, and show up for the Jewish community. Report graffiti and all forms of antisemitism to the police and stamp it out in conversation and online.”
Australia has seen a wave of crimes targeting Jews the last six months which authorities have linked to foreign actors paying with cryptocurrency for the antisemitic hate crimes. On March 11, police announced the arrest and charging of 14 people allegedly involved in an organized crime network behind some of the incidents.
“None of the individuals we have arrested … have displayed any form of antisemitic ideology,” New South Wales Police deputy commissioner David Hudson said. “I think these organized crime figures have taken an opportunity to play off the vulnerability of the Jewish community.”
However, Australian Jewish leaders have urged continued vigilance, expressing disappointment with what they described as law enforcement downplaying the severity of the recent spree of antisemitic crimes.
On March 20, police arrested an unnamed 41-year-old man for alleged involvement in the Jan. 29 vandalism of the Jewish day school Mount Sinai College in Maroubra, New South Wales. The graffiti included the phrases “Jew dogs” and “Jews are the real terrorists.”
In December 2024, an arsonist attacked the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne, prompting a response from about 60 firefighters with 17 fire trucks. Albanese said at the time that “to attack a place of worship is an attack on Australian values. To attack a synagogue is an act of antisemitism, is attacking the right that all Australians should have to practice their faith in peace and security.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu linked the synagogue attack with Australian government policy toward Israel. “Unfortunately, it is impossible to separate this reprehensible act from the extreme anti-Israeli position of the Labor government in Australia, including the scandalous decision to support the UN resolution calling on Israel ‘to bring an end to its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as rapidly as possible,’ and preventing a former Israeli minister from entering the country,” Netanyahu said.
Since its formation in December, the New South Wales Police Department’s Strike Force Pearl — created to counter antisemitic crime — has made at least 30 arrests.
In an interview with Sky News, Wallace revealed that the vandalism targeting his campaign signs had continued on Monday.
“It’s happened again last night as well — I’ve had reports that the same person it looks like has been out spraying the Nazi cross on my signs,” he said on Tuesday. “Unfortunately, what we’re seeing on the far left of politics and it has to be said on the far right of politics, are that these people are utilizing what happened on Oct. 7, 2023, for their own political purposes. This is a symbol that reflects the death of six million Jews.”
Thanks to Wallace’s efforts, display of that symbol in Australia can now result in a year’s imprisonment.
“I want people who are engaged in antisemitism to be held to account, to be charged, to be incarcerated,” Albanese said following the law’s passage in February.
The post Australian Politician Whose Signs Were Hit With Swastikas Says Time Has Come to ‘Show Up for the Jewish Community’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israeli Foreign Minister Says Not Ruling Out Diplomacy to Stop Iran Nuclear Weapon
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar attends a joint press conference with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani (not pictured), in Rome, Italy, Jan. 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane
Israel is not ruling out a diplomatic path to prevent Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Thursday, adding that there were signs that there could be indirect talks between Tehran and the United States.
“We don’t hold discussions with the Iranians, as you know, but they made it clear they are ready to an indirect negotiations with the US, and I will not be surprised if such negotiations will start.”
Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons, but Israel, the US, and several European countries have argued there is no civilian-use justification for the Iranian regime’s enriching large amounts of uranium to near weapons-grade levels.
The post Israeli Foreign Minister Says Not Ruling Out Diplomacy to Stop Iran Nuclear Weapon first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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This Book on the Jewish Connection to Israel Is a Must Read
An aerial view of the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
Ben M. Freeman’s The Jews: An Indigenous People deserves a spot on every Jewish person’s bookshelf, but especially Jews engaged in fighting the war in defense of Israel on campuses and elsewhere.
As the latest installment in his Jewish Pride trilogy, this book builds upon his previous explorations of Jewish identity and internalized anti-Jewishness, presenting a compelling argument for Jewish indigeneity to the Land of Israel — stressing this concept not only as essential to rebutting charges that Israel is a “settler-colonial” endeavor, but also as essential to Jewish identity and self-understanding.
The book is not only a historical analysis, but a call to action for Jews to reclaim their indigenous status with pride and conviction.
Freeman establishes his central thesis at the start: Jews are an indigenous people of the Land of Israel, and systematically dismantles the misconceptions that frame Jews solely as a religious group or as a people defined by exile and victimhood. Instead, he presents them as a distinct ethnonational group whose cultural, spiritual, and historical roots are deeply embedded in their ancestral homeland.
Importantly, his approach aligns with the framework actually used by global indigenous movements everywhere else, which assert indigeneity based on historical continuity, cultural persistence, and connection to the land, among other factors. Without the double standards that are all too frequently applied to the Jews, the case for Jewish indigeneity is actually quite cut and dry.
In particular, Freeman dedicates significant attention to the United Nations’ criteria for indigeneity, demonstrating how Jews meet these standards nearly perfectly. I say “nearly” because of the seven key criteria, one does fail to apply — namely the criterion that the “indigenous” people must be a minority in that land. But, as he rightly points out, this criterion is absurd: should an indigenous people who manage to reclaim their land suddenly no longer count as indigenous?
One wonders — although the book does not address this — if that criterion was adopted specifically to exclude Jewish indigeneity to the Land of Israel.
Freeman backs up his argument with historical discussions that are both thorough and accessible. He takes the reader on a journey through Jewish history, from the early origins of the Israelites in the land that would become Israel, through the ancient Jewish kingdoms, the destruction of the Second Temple, and the subsequent diasporic experiences. His discussion of the Hasmonean period and the Bar Kokhba revolt highlights the Jews’ continuous struggle to maintain sovereignty over their homeland. This history directly refutes the Anti-Zionists’ claim that Jewish connection to Israel is a modern political construct rather than an intrinsic and ancient reality.
And this isn’t just a history book. Freeman demonstrates how the denial of Jewish indigeneity fuels contemporary Jew-hate. He critiques the ways in which colonial frameworks have been misapplied to Israel and Zionism, showing how anti-Zionist rhetoric relies on distortions of Jewish history. He argues that rejecting Jewish indigeneity is not only intellectually dishonest, but also serves to weaken Jewish identity and agency.
Through this analysis, he makes a compelling case that reclaiming Jewish indigeneity is an act of empowerment and resistance against anti-Jewish erasure. This is one of the book’s most powerful contributions: it does not simply present historical facts, but actively seeks to reshape Jewish consciousness and self-perception.
Freeman’s writing is both scholarly and deeply personal. He weaves personal anecdotes and reflections into the broader historical and political discussion, grounding the text in a lived Jewish experience. Most originally (and refreshingly), he closes the book with a half-dozen personal interviews of people with quite varied Jewish identities, ultimately reinforcing his main theoretical points. The book’s balance of scholarship and emotional resonance means it has something to offer to scholars and laypersons alike. It fills a crucial gap in Jewish discourse, providing Jews with the language and framework to articulate their identity in a world that often seeks to erase or distort it.
At a time when Jewish history and rights are under increasing scrutiny and attack, The Jews: An Indigenous People offers a powerful and necessary response. Every Jew should read it, and every Jewish university student should have it in their toolkit.
Andrew Pessin is a philosophy professor and author, most recently, of Israel Breathes, World Condemns: The Trajectory of Campus Antisemitism to October 7, and the Aftermath. More information about him and his work is available at www.andrewpessin.com.
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How the Red Cross Is Facilitating Palestinian ‘Pay-for-Slay’
Palestinian terrorists and members of the Red Cross gather near vehicles on the day Hamas hands over deceased hostages Oded Lifschitz, Shiri Bibas, and her two children Kfir and Ariel Bibas, seized during the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack, to the Red Cross, as part of a ceasefire and hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, Feb. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Hatem Khaled
The International Committee of the Red Cross continues to facilitate rewards to imprisoned Palestinian terrorists, thus playing a central role in providing an “economic incentive” for terrorism.
Last week, the PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs alerted families of Palestinian terrorist prisoners about the need to obtain Red Cross documentation to prove the terrorists’ eligibility for Pay-for-Slay salaries.
What is shocking is that when the terrorists’ families approach the Red Cross for the document, the Red Cross knows that the sole purpose of this document is to enable the terrorists to receive their terror rewards. And yet the Red Cross cooperates.
The following is the announcement that the Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs posted on its Facebook page:
Posted text: “The period of financial aid for the prisoners [i.e., terrorists] whose names appear below ends in March 2025.
The families of the detainees among them must bring a document from the [Red] Cross or the most recent court session for those who have not been issued a Red Cross document.
As for the administrative detainees, they must bring the administrative extension together with the [Red] Cross document, if it was issued.
This is [to be done] by April 5, 2025 at the latest.
[PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs, Facebook page, March 20, 2025]
Over a year ago, Palestinian Media Watch exposed that PLO Prisoners’ Affairs Commission Director Qadura Fares said that the Red Cross document is “the document that we established in our [prisoners’ law] as a main document [to confirm salary eligibility]” [Official PA TV, January 31, 2024].
Since the Red Cross plays such a central role for the Palestinian Authority (PA) and its terrorists, the Red Cross has great leverage. It could certainly condition its assistance to the PA’s terrorist prisoners on having the PA/Hamas permit it to visit the Israeli hostages. This should be a fundamental Red Cross demand and condition to the PA, as well as a basic demand by Israel to the Red Cross.
Itamar Marcus is Palestinian Media Watch (PMW)’s Founder and Director. Ephraim D. Tepler is a contributor to Palestinian Media Watch. A version of this article originally appeared at PMW.
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