Image on Loewenstein’s web site cause for complaint
An informal complaint has been made to the Australian Human Rights Commission by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry following the publication of an image on Antony Loewenstein’s web site.
The offending image
Co-founder of the Independent Australian Jewish Voices, Loewenstein has told his readers that “a regular reader of this site sent this on, exact source unknown, but certainly speaks for itself”.
The image depicts a resolute Prime Minister Julia Gillard, the Australian and Israeli flags and Israeli soldiers dressed as SS soldiers with the message on the poster reading “Australians! Stand firm against Islam and terrorism …with our Israeli allies”.
A spokesman for the Executive Council of Australian Jewry told J-Wire: “This has outraged and created stress for Holocaust survivors and members of the community.”
While this poster is undoubtedly harsh and stridently anti-Israel,and a partial view of it at that, is it such unfair comment that it is beyond the pale? Should our public discussion be constrained by the fact that the pain some people may experience by some sort of image or remark or whatever? It was in this a basis that the Mohammed cartoons were attacked. Should they be censored for that reason? We might as well retain the crime of blasphemy. That is not a feature of a free society with unconstrained debate.
This poster is not racist at all, in my view, it is entirely political in its focus. I feel it is regrettable that our public discussion can be constrained by such informal complaints.
Vivienne Porzsolt
Darlinghurst
SYDNEY