A human rights lawyer has spoken out about the fear of making a submission to the antisemitism royal commission, warning that silence has consequences too. George Newhouse, a human rights lawyer and former mayor of Waverley council in Sydney, writes that Jews are human beings, Palestinians are human beings, and any position that requires us to forget either truth has already begun to fail.
The Fear of Speaking Out
Newhouse admits he did not make a submission to the royal commission on antisemitism and social cohesion, not because he had nothing to say, but because he was afraid. He works in a sector that speaks often about racism, discrimination, and human rights, yet on this issue he felt the boundaries of acceptable speech narrow around him. To some, he is not progressive enough; to others, he is not supportive enough.
A Quieter Position
Between these demands sits a quieter position that should not be controversial: that Jews are human beings, that Palestinians are human beings, and any position that requires us to forget either truth has already begun to fail. Newhouse argues we must recover the capacity to hold two truths at the same time.
Criticism from Both Extremes
Newhouse has felt criticism from both extremes. There are those who hear concerns about antisemitism as indifference to Palestinian suffering. Others hear concern for Palestinian life as a betrayal of the Jewish community. Both reactions ignore the humanity of the other and make peace harder, making honest speech more dangerous.
Revisiting Assumptions
When David Baddiel's Jews Don't Count was published, Newhouse rejected its premise, thinking it overstated the case. He believed that people committed to fighting racism would recognise antisemitism when it appeared. He now admits he was wrong in that assessment. What has shocked him most is not that antisemitism exists, but that many people who can identify almost every other form of racialised hatred have become hesitant, evasive, or indifferent when the hatred is directed at Jews.
Double Standards
Newhouse notes that we would not accept the reviling of any other minority by reference to its ancestry, faith, cultural memory, or collective trauma. We would not excuse threats against another community because of the actions of a government overseas. We would not tell another minority that their fear is manipulative, their history irrelevant, or their grief politically inconvenient. Yet too often, Jews are asked to meet a special condition before their pain is recognised.
What It Does Not Require
None of this requires silence about Palestinian suffering. It does not require support for the policies of the Israeli government. It does not require anyone to abandon international law, human rights, or the demand that all civilians be protected. But it does require a line.
Defining Antisemitism
Criticism of Israel is not antisemitism. Hatred of Jews is. Holding Jews collectively responsible for Israeli action is. Threatening violence against Jews who acknowledge a religious connection to the Holy Land is. Threatening Jewish schools, synagogues, neighbourhoods, or students is. Treating Jewish safety as a negotiable price of political rage is.
Historical Connection
Jews have prayed toward Jerusalem for millennia. Jewish liturgy, law, memory, and identity carry an ancient connection to the land that Jews call Israel and others call Palestine. That connection does not settle borders. It does not determine the rights of Palestinians, who also have a connection to that land. It does not justify occupation, dispossession, violence against, or the killing of civilians.
The Royal Commission's Task
The royal commission is asking Australia to confront antisemitism and promote social cohesion. Those two ideas belong together. Antisemitism is not only a Jewish problem. It is a test of whether our commitments to equality survive contact with a hatred that is old, adaptable, and sometimes politically convenient.
Silence Has Consequences
Newhouse did not make a submission to the royal commission because he feared the consequences of speaking honestly. But silence has consequences too. Anti-racist politics in our nation must be able to oppose antisemitism without abandoning Palestinians. A serious human rights sector must be able to condemn the killing of Israeli civilians and Palestinian civilians without ranking grief by ideology, race, or religion.
The Way Forward
The way forward is not to demand that people choose which community's fear counts. It is to insist that all of it counts, and to find a way to move forward together in peace.
