Federal Government Fails to Condemn Antisemitic Nazi Rally in Naarm-Melbourne

A most shocking display of antisemitism occurred out the front of Parliament House in Naarm-Melbourne on 20 December 2024, which involved 20-odd neo-Nazis rallying upon the steps before it, and this included prominent National Socialist Network (NSN) figure Joel Davis delivering a diatribe against the local Jewish community and Jewish people in general.

As can be seen in a short clip of the event that The Noticer posted on X, the black clad white Australian men were all wearing masks, except for Davis, who instead was sporting some heavy duty sunglasses, and they positioned themselves in a line across the steps at around 6.30 pm on the Friday evening, while a few of them held aloft a banner reading, “Jews Hate Freedom”.

Davis then asserts over a loudspeaker that the action has been sparked due to “the Jews” having demanded that the Allan government legislates to curb protests and expand hate speech laws, he suggests, to stop criticism of the Jewish community. He adds that both the Liberals and Labor are complicit in progressing this agenda.

And as the neo-Nazi continued on his tirade against “the Jews”, he began to invoke antisemitic stereotypes that prevailed in Germany early last century.

This is not surprising. Antisemitism is a particular prejudice that developed in Europe. The neo-Nazis on the steps were Anglo Australian men, who adhere to a white supremacist doctrine that claims Jewish people are oppressing them. And to top the display off, Davis then led the neo-Nazis in a call and response chant that comprised: “Freedom for the White Man – The Jews Must Go”.

This display occurred during a political climate that has the government identifying that the Australian community is in the grips of a wave of antisemitism and a media storm to accompany it.

Yet, unlike other incidents that have sparked broad bipartisan condemnation for being antisemitic, even when there have been grounds to question this assertion, this display of clear Jewish hate has fallen under the radar.

“White man fight back”

A police warrant was executed at 29-year-old Davis’ home on Monday 23 December, and, as he was not there, the police entered the premises of their own volition and seized a number of items, including electronic devices, clothing, sunglasses and a banner.

Victoria police officers then paid a visit to another residence, attempting to track Davis down but to no avail. However, the well-known neo-Nazi then presented to a police station and turned himself in at around 7.40 pm last Monday evening.

“The man was interviewed in relation to grossly offensive public conduct, Racial and Religious Tolerance Act offences and offensive behaviour,” Victoria Police News reported on Christmas Eve.

“The man was released whilst a brief of evidence is prepared and the proposed charges are submitted to the Director of Public Prosecutions for approval, as required under the Racial and Religious Tolerances Act legislation,” the posting further outlined.

Victoria police also condemned the protest action as antisemitic.

The laws that Davis was responding to during his tirade are a suite of antiprotest measures that have since become known as “social cohesion” laws that the Allan government announced for Victoria on 17 December in response to a recent arson attack on a synagogue.

The social cohesion package includes fresh protest bans against face masks, attachments devices, such as glue, rope, chains and locks and flags and symbols related to terrorist organisations. 

Further, there is to be the introduction of a ‘social cohesion pledge’ that organisations seeking government funding must take, along with new laws to ban protests from places of worship.

In terms of the strengthening of hate speech and antivilification laws these were tabled in parliament in late November, under the Justice Legislation Amendment (Anti-Vilification and Social Cohesion) Bill 2024. These new laws include two new serious vilification criminal offences, which broaden the scope as to the attributes captured by these crimes.

A broad diverse movement

Having attended numerous pro-Palestinian demonstrations over the past year, Sydney Criminal Lawyers can clearly state that the sort of antisemitic sentiment being delivered by the neo-Nazi at the recent protest in the southern city has never been witnessed at any of these rallies for Palestine.

No one at these protests ever makes prejudicial slurs about Jewish people or “the Jews”. No one at these protests is propagating the antisemitic stereotypes that underpinned the Holocaust, as occurred at the Nazi rally. Such displays of antisemitism are impossible at these demonstrations simply due to the fact that there are numerous Jews standing in the crowd.

The pro-Palestinian movement recognises a distinction between Jewish non-Zionists and Jewish Zionists in their condemnation of Israel, the Israeli military and those following the setter colonial Zionist doctrine that aims to establish a Jewish state on the lands of Palestinian people, which has led to the 15-month-long genocide in Gaza.

Indeed, Zionists and supporters of Israel are not all Jewish, and therefore, condemnation of Israel and Zionism does not solely target people adherents of the Jewish faith. In the United States, there are more white Christian evangelists that support Zionism than there are Jewish people who support that political doctrine. 

If anything at the pro-Palestinian demonstrations taking place on Gadigal land, the point has been made that it was European prejudices that spawned the antisemitism that led to the Holocaust. And that is condemned.

And the neo-Nazi demonstration in Naarm-Melbourne last week might just be the most overtly antisemitic display since a small group of outsiders, who were not a part of the broader pro-Palestinian movement demonstrating outside the Sydney Opera House in early October 2023, were heard to chant “Fuck the Jews”.

This prejudicial statement did not breach the threshold to comprise the criminal offence of hate speech, but what would have was the statement “Gas the Jews”, which was widely reported as having been chanted at that rally, due to the fact that the Australian Jewish Association, a Zionist organisation, distributed doctored footage over social media that portrayed that this had happened.

NSW police confirmed last February that an independent analyst found there was no evidence to show that the criminal statement had been chanted.

But the fact that the AJA was distributing doctored footage does reveal that there are people attempting to distort public opinion on such matters.

Selective condemnation

PM Anthony Albanese rightly condemned the arson attack on the Adass Israel Synagogue of Melbourne in early December. He’s also labelled it antisemitic and terrorism prior to the outcome of the official investigation.

Suggestions being propagated that link the attack to the pro-Palestinian movement fall away when it’s noted that the orthodox sect that worships at the targeted synagogue is apolitical and doesn’t support Zionism or Israel, as those calling for an end to the genocide in Gaza know the distinction between Jewish people who don’t support Zionism and those that do.

Albanese, however, went on to condemn the torching of a car in Sydney’s Woollahra a week later as antisemitism, despite it being accompanied by anti-Israel messaging, whilst the torching of a school bus that belonged to an Islamic school in Yerta-Adelaide at that time, was widely discussed due to the radio silence the PM deemed to provide it, despite its occurring in the same broad constituency.

The Australian prime minister has neither made any comment about the clear public display of antisemitism performed by the white supremacists standing before Victorian parliament that invoked old European antisemitic tropes, as they openly attacked people over their religion.

In playing its cards like this, federal Labor is propagating the conflation of considering anti-Israel and anti-Zionist sentiment, which is a political opposition, with antisemitism, which is prejudice against Jewish people because of their beliefs.

This serves to deflect criticism of the Israeli state because to criticise the political entity is to suddenly condemn Jews in a similar manner to the Nazis.

And if the firebombing of the Adass Israel Synagogue of Melbourne has any link to the violence of the Gaza genocide, it’s this dangerous conflation that has led it to be a target, because the Jewish worshipers at that site do not support Israel’s massive attack upon the Palestinians of Gaza and nor the doctrine that promotes Israel to violently dispossess multifaith Palestinians from their lands.