Altered Video - Sydney Protest Statement
The Loud Jew Collective is appalled by the revelation that a video of a recent Palestine Solidarity protest in Sydney was maliciously altered to show protestors chanting antisemitic remarks.
It is detestable that a bad faith actor created this video in an apparent attempt to discredit Palestinian organizing, and stoke inter-communal conflict. tensions is detestable. Jewish and Palestinian communities are experiencing immense pressure, and we condemn in the strongest possible terms this attempt to further pressure and divide these communities. But equally shameful is the speed with which traditional news outlets, and politicians amplified this message, fitting too neatly into narratives they were telling about Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims. In this climate of fear, Jewish communal organizations were primed to respond with outrage, further silencing Palestinians who are fighting for the lives of their families in occupied Palestine.
Nasser Mashni, President of APAN said this week on ABC’s Q and A this week Palestinians are “killed, blamed and smeared”. And we have seen his words in action over the past 7 weeks.
Conflict on these soils may make for good headlines, but it deeply affects the lives and struggles of real, flesh and blood people. Many actors profit off pitting Jewish people and Palestinians against each other in these times, but we must resist. Jewish and Palestinian people must stand together against racist domination wherever it persists, on stolen Indigenous lands here and from the river to the sea.
We call on every organisation, individual, and media outlet who propagated this video, and tried to delegitimise the vital movement for Palestine, to issue immediate apologies.
UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine, Francesca Albanese has this week emphasised the importance of focusing on the shared humanity of Palestinians and Jews. We must take her words with the utmost seriousness, and refuse to engage with those who continue to promote fear, and distract from the crimes against humanity being perpetrated by the State of Israel against the Palestinian population.
As Jews we have a responsibility to stand alongside Palestinians as they face the brunt of racism in this country at the moment, and as they endure genocide in Palestine. As Jews we need to be calmer in our understanding of the reality of the situation we face here in Australia: our organisations and institutions have a responsibility to work to ease tensions that are flying out of control.
We can only hope that after this revelation, Palestinian voices will now be reported properly, and sincerely in the media.
16 November 2023