Your ABC just told Jewish Australians where they stand

Sometimes an institution does not need to issue a statement. Its decisions say enough.

The ABC’s decision to give Grace Tame a taxpayer-funded platform, through the podcast Autistic AF with Grace Tame, comes while Australia is in the middle of a serious reckoning over antisemitism. That matters. Timing matters. Judgement matters.

And this decision tells Jewish Australians exactly where they stand.

This is not about autism. It is not about silencing women. It is not even about pretending Grace Tame has not done important work for survivors of sexual abuse. She has, and many people rightly respect her for it.

But none of that should be used as a shield.

The issue is the ABC’s judgment in choosing this moment to promote someone who dismissed questions about Hamas sexual violence on October 7 as “propaganda”, publicly led chants of “intifada from Gadigal to Gaza”, and defended the slogan as a call for “resistance”.

For Jewish Australians, this is not some distant political debate. It lands in a community already worn down by abuse, threats, vandalism, public vilification, and the endless expectation that Jews should calmly explain why chants about intifada might make them feel unsafe.

And still, the ABC made its choice.

The ABC knows the climate in this country. It cannot credibly claim otherwise. Australia is holding a Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion. Jewish witnesses have spoken about harassment, threats, assaults, and the fear that comes with being visibly Jewish in parts of modern Australia.

None of this is theoretical. Antisemitism is being shouted in the streets, sprayed on buildings, pasted on walls, chanted at rallies, and dressed up as social justice.

That is the environment in which the ABC looked at Grace Tame and decided this was the person to promote.

It also knows what happened on October 7. Women were murdered. Families were slaughtered. Hostages were taken. Whole communities were destroyed. Reports of sexual violence were not propaganda. They were not a Zionist talking point.

For a prominent advocate for survivors to speak that way cut deeply because it confirmed something many Jewish Australians have felt since October 7: the rules seem to change when the victims are Israeli or Jewish.

Believe women, but not if they are Israeli.

Believe victims unless their suffering gets in the way of the preferred narrative.

Condemn sexual violence unless the perpetrators are Hamas terrorists.

That is the moral injury here. It is not only what Grace Tame said. It is that the national broadcaster has now rewarded her with a platform.

That is why this feels like a kick in the guts.

This does not come out of nowhere. The ABC is already under scrutiny over its handling of Israel, Gaza, and antisemitism. It has refused to adopt the IHRA working definition of antisemitism, even as that definition has been used by the Royal Commission and is widely recognised as a practical tool for understanding modern antisemitism.

The ABC says its own internal guidance is enough. That may satisfy the ABC. It does not satisfy many Jewish Australians.

The concern is not whether the ABC has a policy document somewhere. The concern is whether the national broadcaster actually understands antisemitism when it does not arrive in its most obvious form.

Right now, the answer looks like no.

The ABC will say this podcast is about autism, not Israel. That misses the point. The issue is not the subject of the program. The issue is the choice of host, the timing, and the complete lack of visible concern for the message it sends to a community already asking whether public institutions see them at all.

A taxpayer-funded broadcaster does not operate in a vacuum. Every host, every commission and every platform sends a message. This one says you can minimise Jewish suffering, dismiss October 7 sexual violence as propaganda, lead chants many Jews experience as threatening, and still be welcomed into the national broadcaster.

So the question is simple: what would someone have to say about Jewish people, Israeli women or Hamas atrocities before the ABC decided that a period of reflection might be appropriate?

The ABC’s defenders often reach for the word independence as though it ends the matter. It does not. Independence is not immunity. It does not excuse arrogance. It does not give the ABC permission to ignore the concerns of a minority community and then expect that same community to fund it without complaint.

This is not a call for censorship. Grace Tame is free to speak. The ABC is free to make programming decisions. And Australians are free to call those decisions disgraceful.

Public institutions should be accountable for the choices they make. The ABC should be asked how this decision was made, what standards were applied, and whether anyone seriously considered the impact on Jewish Australians.

It should also be asked whether it understands antisemitism when it comes wrapped in progressive language.

That is the blind spot.

The ABC would almost certainly recognise antisemitism if it came from the far right. It seems far less willing to recognise it when it arrives through activist slogans, selective compassion, fashionable outrage, and the casual erasure of Jewish victims.

Modern antisemitism does not always announce itself with old symbols. Sometimes it speaks the language of human rights. Sometimes it calls itself resistance. Sometimes it claims to stand with the vulnerable while denying the vulnerability of Jews.

A serious public broadcaster should understand that.

It should also understand that platforming Grace Tame right now, without any visible reckoning or apology to the Jewish community, is not neutral. It is a statement.

Jewish Australians have heard it.

They are not at the centre of the ABC’s concern. Not even close. They appear to sit somewhere further down the list, behind activist fashion, institutional self-confidence, and the ABC’s belief that it knows better than the people it keeps hurting.

The national broadcaster should be better than this.

At a moment when Jewish Australians are asking to be heard, the ABC has made a decision that tells them their pain is negotiable.

That is where Jewish Australians stand.

And that is why this feels like a kick in the guts.

Michael Gencher is the Executive Director of StandWithUs Australia