Australian Army Reservist’s Security Clearance Revoked Over Loyalty to Israel

A three-member bench of the Administrative Review Tribunal (ART) determined on 20 February 2025, that the 2 June 2023 decision of ASIO director Mike Burgess to strip a member of the Australia Army, referred to as HWMW, of his security clearance due to an adverse security assessment, was “reasonable, appropriate and proportionate” given his demonstrated “loyalty to Israel”.

HWMW has been a full-time member of the Australian Army Reserve since 2013, after having joined the Australian Defence Forces in 2004. The man obtained an NV1 security clearance in 2008 and an NV2 clearance in 2010, which was then removed in 2023, after four ASIO reviews, including two interviews, beginning in 2020, which found that he shouldn’t have “security clearance of any kind”.

The key question for the ART was whether the adverse security assessment in respect of HWMW was issued in accordance with the relevant laws, the Administrative Review Tribunal Act 2024 (Cth) and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Act 1979 (Cth), and that the decision served “the protection of Australians and Australia from espionage and acts of foreign interference”.

The decision to remove HWMW’s clearance was related to, but not solely based upon, his having been a volunteer member of the Sydney Community Security Group (CSG), an organisation that provides security and intelligence services to the Australian Jewish community, between 2014 and 2023, and he’d failed to disclose CSG training in Israel that he’d attended, despite being required to.

And as Greens Senator David Shoebridge ascertained during 26 February Senate estimates, despite ASIO and the tribunal both finding that the army reservist had “demonstrated a higher level of loyalty to Israel than to” Australia, and was therefore, potentially susceptible to the threat of foreign interference, HWMW has not been removed from the ADF but rather remains an inactive reservist.

The ASIO assessment

The ASIO adverse security assessment found that HWMW had “demonstrated a higher level of loyalty to Israel than to the Australian government”, which is incompatible with the loyalty required to this nation that an individual must hold in order to be “a security clearance holder”.

During a second assessment interview held in March 2022, HWMW twice stated he would reveal “classified and sensitive information to Israel” if asked, and only then would he tell ASIO of this. And he further set out that he loves Israel, holds natural solidarity to the nation as a Jewish individual and that he too holds loyalty to the Community Security Group.

In terms of training with the CSG in Israel, HWMW stated that “he did not openly declare the purpose of his Israel travel during the clearance process, as he was worried doing so would have a negative effect on his security clearance process and would require answering more questions about the CSG, which he had been told by the CSG to be guarded about”.

Based on this, ASIO found HWMW “had intentionally withheld information on his travel to attend Israel-based training courses” and that this demonstrates his “loyalty to Israel outweighs his obligations to the Australian government as a security clearance holder”.

“ASIO has longstanding security concerns regarding any Australian citizen undertaking overseas travel for training funded by a foreign government without Australian government knowledge or consent,” states the ASIO adverse security assessment.

“The concerns become particularly acute when that training involves a clearance holder, firearms handling, tactical planning and security principles.”

During the initial October 2020 interview, it was found that HWMW attended CSG training in Israel in 2016 and 2019, and he “undertook self-defence and scenario-based training”, which included “basic security principles, planning skills and firearms handling”. This training was conducted by Israeli government funded organisation Ami-AD, with trainers having served in the Israeli Defence Force.

HWMW further told ASIO that he understood that CSG trainees could be considered “a natural recruiting pool” for Mossad, an Israeli intelligence agency.

ASIO then found that HWMW had mislead the Australian government in regard to his CSG training in Israel in order to protect those involved, and further to minimise the impact it might have upon his NV2 security clearance.

An “associated inherent risk”

On lodging an appeal with the tribunal, the army reservist referred to as HWMW contended that over his 19 years of service to the Australian Army, he had “conducted himself in accordance with the requirements of his security clearance”, and that had demonstrated “his devotion and loyalty to Australia”.

HWMW had originally lodged his appeal against the ASIO adverse security assessment with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and the corresponding Act that underpinned it. However, as the AAT was replaced by the Administrative Review Tribunal, with new corresponding legislation, on 14 October last year, and his appeal hearings were held before the current ART, in line with the new Act.

The army reservist further set out to the tribunal that as “a practicing orthodox Jew”, he considers the land of Israel the Holy Land of the Jewish people, and the state of Israel and the Holy Land “are now inextricably linked”.

HWMW further asserted that “there are elements of dual identity arising from his Jewish faith as an Australian, but there is ‘no substantial dichotomy in being raised with two separate and distinct loyalties’, and while this “may have presented a security risk”, foreign governments must accept “an inherent level of risk that a Jew… will hold a latent level of loyalty for the Jewish nation”.

The army reservist further set out that the assessment that he’d likely provide sensitive or classified information to Israel was false, and that his “breach of confidentiality” in terms of telling the head of Sydney CSG about his first interview with ASIO was due to his “dichotomy of loyalty and the lack of guidance in navigating unchartered conflicting requirements”.

Foreign interference threat posed

In their final findings in regard to the HWMW appeal, ART deputy president Peter Britten-Jones, senior member Simon Webb and general member Shane Evans found that the contested parts of the adverse security assessment that were disputed by the army reservist stripped of his security clearance had been based on his statements during the two ASIO interviews.

As for his loyalty to Israel, the ART assessed that HWMW had asserted this, in terms of his Jewish faith making him a member of the Jewish nation, and he’d admitted that this had “blurred the lines” of his loyalties, while the tribunal also found that the man continues to harbour loyalty toward to the CSG, despite no longer being an official member of it.

The ART members further ascertained that ASIO’s opinion that HWMW had “demonstrated a higher level of loyalty to Israel than to the Australian government” was justified, as he’d “demonstrated loyalty to Israel which is incompatible with his obligations as a security clearance holder”, and this conflicts with the requirements of the ADF protective security policy framework.

“We are satisfied the materials reasonably support and justify ASIO’s opinions the applicant’s divided loyalty and his failure to provide full and frank disclosure of his CSG training activities and contacts in Israel are not compatible with his obligations as a security clearance holder,” the 20 February ART findings set out.

“We are also satisfied information we have found to be correct in respect of the applicant’s conduct reasonably supports ASIO’s opinion the applicant is vulnerable to influence or coercion to enable acts of espionage or foreign interference” by the Israeli intelligence service, the ART members further concluded.

Therefore, the ASIO decision to strip the army reservist HWMW of his NV2 security clearance due to his loyalty to Israel was found by the tribunal to be the correct decision.