Bell, Bondi and the Bullies
https://x.com/MaryKostakidis/status/2012328880116552008
Bell, Bondi and the Bullies
'Tired of being bullied and shouted at if you don’t follow the line? That is what this moment feels like. A former High Court justice with a lifetime of defending minorities and protest is being treated as a problem, a Palestinian‑Australian writer has been scrubbed from a festival program in the name of “cultural sensitivity”, and now that the battle over who will lead the Bondi Royal Commission is effectively lost, the real fight is shifting to what she’s allowed to look at and what she’s allowed to call antisemitism.'
'Defining antisemitism: the flashpoint where Bell’s tenacity will be tested
Underneath all this sits one deceptively simple question that could blow up the whole exercise: how will the Commission define antisemitism?
On campuses and in parliament, the fight over the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition has already shown how explosive this is. Critics warn that some of IHRA’s examples blur the boundary between criticism of Israel and hatred of Jews, chilling legitimate speech about Israel, Zionism and Palestinian rights, while supporters argue it captures the realities of modern antisemitism and gives institutions a clear tool to respond.
Bring that conflict into a Royal Commission and you have a perfect flashpoint:
· If Bell endorses or closely mirrors IHRA, many Palestinians, academics and civil‑liberties advocates will see it as a green light to equate their political speech with bigotry, accusing the Commission of hard‑wiring censorship into its own brief.
· If she deliberately narrows the definition – making clear that robust criticism of Israeli policy or Zionism is not, in itself, antisemitic – some Jewish organisations and conservative politicians will frame that as minimising or excusing antisemitism.
Either way, the definition will become a lightning rod. It will shape which incidents “count” as evidence, which testimonies are treated as central or peripheral, and what kind of recommendations are politically survivable – and it will offer yet another pressure point for those who want to discredit the Commission’s work: attack the definition, and you undermine every conclusion built on it.'
substack.com/inbox/post/183
posted by Satish Sharma at
11:27
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