Prof. of Sociology. Researching race, migration, diversity & social inequalities. All views my own, and reflect my research expertise. Also at amandawise.bsky
1/ Non political / non-academic friends - you need to know what is happening in the Australian media right now.
You may not be aware that the South African case arguing Israel's actions in Gaza amount to Genocide began in the International Court of Justice on Thursday. 🧵
I have just watched
@abcnews
report on the 'flour massacre' in Gaza. I am speechless. This was the most disgusting piece of reporting ABC has done so far. Minimizing what happened, repeating Israel talking points, screening unchallenged Regev IDF presser and letting the lies go
4/ Australia? Our national public broadcaster, the ABC, buried a single online report that barely touched on the South African case and reported word for word Israeli talking points dismissing the charges.
1/This is one of the messages in the WhatsApp group. I think power is an important dimension to the discussion of what to leak and what not to leak. I see here the group "Lawyers for Israel" - a group of 250+ lawyers with 6 teams - one of which is Campus Watch.
6/ Israel had its day in court yesterday and the Israeli case was reported briefly in Australian media, if at all. When it was - eg ABC, Age/SMH etc - it just repeated Israeli denials, and made no mention of the substance of the South African case. This is bias by any definition
5/ There is other Australian media though, you say? the Sydney Morning Herald/The Age did not, I repeat, did not, even report on the first day of the ICJ case at all. (Ie the day South Africa presented its claims that Israel is committing, or is at risk of committing, genocide.
9/ Friends, this is our generation's great moral 'moment'. Like 1939, like the last years of South African apartheid. And it is a moral moment because we are facing a looming war - and Australia will inevitably become entangled in it.
8/ The human rights community - scholars of genocide, international law etc are saying that this case is so important the outcome may determine whether the UN itself continues to be a viable entity, whether the Geneva Convention is worth the paper it was written on.
1/ ABC ran three stories related to Palestine this evening. One on the vandalisation of the MPs office, one on the Palestine protesters at the Jerry Seinfeld show. And a feature interview on 7:30 report about the Israeli released hostages.
7/ Why is this a problem? This is, according to every expert in the world, the most important case in a generation that has ramifications for Palestinians, for Gaza's, and import far beyond Gaza.
2/ Thousands of experts and observers around the world tuned into the livestream to listen to the South African case on Thursday setting out piece by piece over 3 hours the claim that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
Stop it. Just stop it. This is the most ill informed piece of fluff passing for journalism. There is NO HATE SPEECH at the encampments or the protests. People are protesting Israel and those who support what Israel is doing. they are not protesting Jews. No one is yelling at or
“There's a conflation of Israel with Jews and Palestinians with Hamas.”
The
#Insiders
panel discusses rising tensions across many Australian university campuses.
#auspol
10/ So this is that moment. Except now we know enough to stand up and stop this unfolding genocide happening.
It is hard for people to see it when we are in it, but please, give it some thought. Even if I am wrong, at worst you have wasted a little time thinking through things.
1/ 🧵 The Murdoch media and some powerful groups want to bring down my colleague
@RandaAFattah
. Make no mistake, this is part of an organised and orchestrated campaign to destroy her career.
Let me show you some of the incredible things she's written over the years.
Let's
🧵1/ Fantastic speech this morning by Peter Slezak at the University of Sydney Gaza solidarity encampment rally. His mother and grandmother survived Auschwitz. Please listen to his words: "What are we saying when we say 'from the river to the sea'". This is a call for equality,
I commend Senator Payman for her bravery and moral compass. There are times in history when you have no option but to break ranks and speak your truth. I'm grateful we have someone in our parliament who will take a stand, at great personal cost, on the need to stay true to
Many of you will have seen the latest smear campaign of my colleague Dr Randa Abdel Fattah in The Australian, and on social media by ECAJ, AJA, Drew Pavlou and others. Here is a statement in solidarity with her and a truthful account of what occurred at the Families for
2/ I also saw on that list many of my colleagues names - none of whom is an anti-Semite. The list of names clearly shows a targeting of my Arab colleagues, my Indigenous colleagues, and my non-Zionist Jewish colleagues. I find this deeply disturbing and deeply racist.
I just watched Australian channel 9 news (it's my job to watch, read all media , unfortunately) and they used the phrase the "tents were reportedly occupied by displaced people". Just to sow that teeny seed of doubt. Maybe they were just families camping for the summer holidays.
🧵 1/ A on ABC News reporting on Gaza, and on the morning after ICJ ruling on SA vs Israel case in The Hague.
First up: Unlike almost every other major 24 hour news service, ABC Australia did not live stream the handing down of the ruling.
As a sociologist I would usually have something to say about the debate on class in Australia. But there is a massacre happening in Rafah so I'm going to sit this one out. EYES ON RAFAH. Children are burning. I DO NOT CARE if you think you are middle class or working class or
4/ Many, including myself, are alarmed at the cavalier willingness to collaborate with Israeli intelligence. While it might look like an 'innocent' social media campaign, it is not. This is dangerous. This is also 'list making'. >>
I will be speaking at the protest in Sydney tomorrow. If you are in Sydney please join us - Hyde Park North 1:30pm. This is the 18th week of protests. The longest running protests in Australian history. Not that you would know it - media censorship by omission.
#CeasefireNOW
3/ Not once did ABC News or 7:30 report mention what the protests were about, or report news from Gaza from the last two days. Which includes - children having their heads blown off, another tent massacre in a supposed safe zone, another UN commission report that Israel has
1/ Media representation & the Middle East, a 🧵 ABC Radio National pre-recorded interviews with 3 academics for a piece on Hezbollah this afternoon. Two white men, and a Lebanese-Australian academic woman with significant specialist expertise on the topic. Guess which one didn't
Ben, I think, or hope, that you will wake up tomorrow and really regret these tweets. Language matters and is always to be understood in context. Yes 'rat' is an old Labor term. But maybe it is past its use by date. And you must know that you use the term in a heated racist
Unsurprisingly Hamasniks have no idea that when someone is elected as a Labor representative & quits the party but stays in office they have historically been called “a rat”
Some of the pathetic attempts to make it about gender or religion shows both ignorance & delusion
#auspol
@vanOnselenP
Hello Peter. Professor of Sociology here who has spent 20 years studying racism and multiculturalism in Australia. Laura Tingle is right and you are wrong. You're welcome.
6/ Today I saw a picture of a little girl with the top of her skull blown off. Her brains were gone. That is news. Stuff you ABC News. You should be ashamed of yourselves.
@ABCmediawatch
3/
@anthroprofhage
: "Believing in a multi-religious society and critiquing those who work against it is not antisemitism. I will not accept to be put in a defensive position where I have to justify myself for holding and working for such ideals."
5/ Among the many potential harms of this collaboration, is the clear and present danger for Palestinians. It is well documented that Israel has targeted, and detained - and worse- Palestinians for even liking or sharing a social media post.
2/ The story on the Seinfeld show muted the audio of what the protestor was saying which would have contextualised the protest. There is footage of his words all over social media. But they kept in the audio for Seinfeld's response.
4/ And they wonder why people resort to more and more extreme modes of protest to get attention. The media continues to censor news of what is happening, and politicians resolutely refuse to discuss it. I'm not justifying the attack on Josh burns office - i thought it was a low
I stand with
@jaysongillham
who has been targeted for using his music to highlight the human rights of Palestinians. This kind of bullying needs to stop. Without free speech, there is no art.
MEDIA STATEMENT: Jayson Gillham responds to open letter from Melbourne Symphony
I'm sure it is no accident that the antisemitism case against Kostakidis case is launched now so the Australian media and socials are focused on that and not the two massacres that have occurred in Gaza this week. This is deliberate distraction from the genocide
5/ The form of protest is NOT the story. the story is the story! If you are reporting the protests - and you should - you should also report what the protest is about.
1/11 The story of one project, two grant schemes - UK ESRC & Australia's ARC. Impacts Australian researcher productivity and international competitiveness
@ARC_Tracker
#SaveAusUnis
8/ At the same time, real harm is, and has for a long time, been done to Palestinian colleagues and their allies - and this has largely occurred in secret, and by people who hold power of some kind - large donors, people of influence in various professional spheres etc.
6/ I've been trying to work out how to approach this leak. I have respectful differences in opinion (like all social movements) regarding how much to share - and whether 'raw data' is shared. I am trying to listen at the moment to understand a bit more.
14/ I've had to learn that peace must always be pursued at the same time as, not as a replacement for, questions of justice. Sometimes harmony can be oppressive, a silencing force. A multicultural society needs both the impulse of peaceful co-existence, and a striving for justice
10/ I can't tell you the number of academics I've spoken to recently who say they support Palestine but fear speaking up because they are so afraid of the blow back, of losing their jobs or being targeted with complaints to the Vice Chancellor.
7/ I would say that sharing on social media of all names in that group on social is not something i would advocate for. There are real neo-Nazis out there who do willing harm to Jewish people, and also to Muslims. The latter is often forgotten in these discussions.
9/ As an academic who has studied many societies living under oppressive regimes (from Myanmar to East Timor, to Nazi Germany), self censorship out of fear for reprisals is always a key feature. Sunlight is so important and in a democracy we must support it.
11/ The privilege of speaking up vs not speaking up is another conversation. Everyone needs to examine their own conscience on that. Personally I have spoken up because i cannot in good conscience let my Palestinian, Arab, and Indigenous colleagues stick their necks out alone
Hey
@SaraSalehOz
- in case you weren't aware you have a high school class year group named after you. '7S' for Sara Saleh. My daughter's school has selected an awesome set of role models for their new year 7s this year. 💪
Heads up regular Sydney protest attendees, next Sunday 11 August rally starts at Town Hall not Hyde Park. 1pm. Never been? Now's the time to join the thousands who take to the streets in Sydney every weekend
Wow, so Albanese associates the terror alert with the (now disbanded peaceful) 'Little Palestine at Albos' camp outside his office? And the bar he sets is 'It is not normal to have people in occupations for months outside electorate offices'. Seriously?! If you want to 'lower
13/ I recognise the danger of speaking for me is much less - I'm a non-threatening, conflict avoidant menopausal White lady. I honest feel sick doing this, and normally run from conflict. I was brought up in a long line of pacifists. But...
12/ I wrote my honours thesis on South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, my PhD on East Timor, I have spent my career writing about and trying to understand all forms of racism (including anti-Semitism), multiculturalism, and anti-colonisation movements.
Anyone who supports ‘israel’ in any way must be protested / boycotted / shamed / ostracised / must never know a moment of peace.
Unfunny ‘Seinfeld’ said these brave protesters won’t make a difference but now more people know about his gross trip to fantasy death camp Calibre 3
Our government needs to establish a special humanitarian visa for Gazans with family links in Australia. 11,000 visas went to Ukrainians in 2022. What explains the lack of humanity for those escaping Gaza? The only explanation is racism. Visas now!
I can confirm this chilling effect is real, and agree IHRA has no place in our universities. As one example, i recently had a pair of students say to me they are frightened to speak freely in class on Palestine because they 'don't want to get into trouble'. Colleagues at
Our university campuses are witnessing a chilling trend: legitimate criticism of the state of Israel and its policies is being silenced under the guise of combatting antisemitism.
That's why we've contributed to a submission to the Commission of Inquiry into Antisemitism at
ANU was ahead of the game here on how the IHRA definition fundamentally threatens academic freedom. Other universities need to resist. And those that have adopted it should repeal it from all policy. It is dangerous and has no place in our universities
Labor Sentator Fatima Payman gives a powerful speech on Nakba day. She is strong and fierce and right. I am furious at her white Labor colleagues who stay silent. It shoudl not have fallen to Senator Payman to stick her neck out alone. She will cop an endless stream of racist
A vigil for Gaza's lost children. If you are in Sydney tomorrow evening from 5pm onwards, please stop by Town Hall. there will be 1000s of candles for the thousands of children lost. Throughout the evening their names will be read out one by one. Because they are not numbers.
Another academic colleague missing, presumed killed by Israel. I hope Deans of Law and Law academics everywhere take note and feel some sense of anger at this.
🚨One of the legal figures in Palestine, Professor Dr. Hamdi Baroud, Professor of Commercial Law and former Dean of the Faculty of Law at Al-Azhar University -Gaza has been missing for days following the Israeli army’s incursion into Hamad city in Khan Yunis-southern
#Gaza
Strip.
Today in north
#Gaza
, home after home flattened.
I was next to a young boy as a strike whistled above us. He froze, eyes wide open. It hit nearby & he just stood there, paralysed by fear.
What’s left for children here? Constant displacement, among constant unimaginable horror.
The chant "From the River to the Sea ..." is the movement’s aspirations for peace and equality for everyone, regardless of background or religion. Yet Zionists have the effrontery to tell us that, actually, we mean something different.
How dare they tell us what we mean?
If you are in Sydney, join us today 1:30pm Hyde Park North. We are still making history. These are the longest continuously running protests in Australian history. We have been on the streets without a break for 21 weeks now. Thousands upon thousands of us
#sydneyprotests
Many Palestinians want a one state solution. A secular multifaith democracy with universal franchise, and equal rights for all. Israel wants a one state solution based on apartheid and ethno religious supremacy. I know which one fits with my idea of universal human rights
Well done to
@Channel10AU
for reporting just now on the global day of action protests being held around the world. Brief reporting but you did a good job. Shout out to the news editors who made the decision to run the story.
@ARC_Tracker
These ARC deadlines are an equity issue for those with school aged children. Many academic parents have to take annual leave mid-dec to end Jan for school holidays.I know of one talented female applicant with 4 kids under 12. How can she compete on an equal footing?
2/ If you are a white bloke academic talking head in the IR space, insist that if they interview you they must also interview (and air) a person from that country, or background. Better still, say, 'thanks, I'd love to, but you should really speak to 'X' first.
Wow, this is quite some read. If you want insight into the 'Palestine exception' in the newsrooms of major broadcasters in the West then take a look. It rings very much true from what I hear happening in Australia at the ABC, and at the BBC.
CBC has whitewashed Israel’s
I have seen Zain from time to time on Instagram. Being a cat person, anything Palestine and cats will pop up. I just saw this other day - the clip of him with his little sister and the kitten on his shoulder dreaming about people from abroad visiting after the war. He was killed
There are many decent rank and file members of the Labor party who believe Senator Payman represents the values of the party they joined and represent. Good for them. Labor, ignore at your peril.
We stand with Senator
@SenatorPayman
! Your support for recognition of Palestine represents party policy and the strong views of most Australian Labor Party members and voters. Federal Government needs to listen, not silence you!
Next Sydney protest dates. Non-Muslims, it's Ramadan so please help out and show up to support the movement. many families who are fasting may find it too much to get into the city and march in the afternoon heat.
@Mondoweiss
@MiddleEastEye
9/If you are one of the few people that think the most pressing concern in the middle of a genocide is to have my colleague sacked and erased from public life, then that says more about you than about her. I recommend you stop your racist tone policing. Stop trying to censor the
Imagine being more “disgusted” by protests against war crimes and genocide than actual war crimes and genocide.
Where was the concern for social cohesion when white supremacists marched through the streets of Melbourne & Ballarat? Your outrage re racism seems selective, Premier?
2/ And then there is the exquisite '11 Words for Love' collab between Randa and Maxine Beneba Clark
@slamup
Here she is talking about it on ABC Life Matters
Thank you for your leadership on this
@jewishcouncilAU
Separating antisemitism out from other forms of racism goes against all informed scholarship on the topic. Antisemitism can only be adequately understood as a phenomenon that is part of and related to a whole matrix of
MEDIA RELEASE: We are concerned about yesterday’s report of the government’s impending appointment of a pro-Israel advocate as a special envoy on antisemitism. The treatment of antisemitism as distinct from other forms of racism undermines the important work being done across
Israel airstrikes just killed Professor Nasser Abu Al Nour, Dean of the Faculty of Nursing at the Islamic University of Gaza, along with 7 members of his family, sheltering in their home today.
May they rest in peace🙏
1/ The call to appoint a special antisemitism envoy is part of an international campaign to outlaw criticism of Israel. There is a concerted astroturfing campaign and we need to resist this. Academic freedom of speech is sacred and the proposals being made are dangerous. Here is
I cannot overstate the damage these politicians are doing to their beloved 'social cohesion' and the prospects of legitimate action against antisemitism.
They're directly legitimising and emboldening violent attacks on these university students, whose conduct has been exemplary.
The
#Nuseirat
massacre will go down in history as one of the most appalling examples of disdain for Palestinian life in one of the most well-documented and boasted about genocides in history.
Although it can't be of any solace for the Palestinian people enduring genocide, the
@Mondoweiss
@MiddleEastEye
10/ Because when you 'do the work' you will understand that censoring Palestinian voices has long been a central mechanism of erasure and dehumanisation. It is a long standing part of the Israeli hasbara (propaganda) toolkit designed to enable both 'slow' and 'fast' genocide.
I am glad the ABC is finally reporting with some moral clarity. And I'm glad our politicians are finally speaking some kind of truth about Israel's disregard for international law. But I just feel so terribly sad that none of them listened to the cries of Palestinians and their
.
@latingle
spot on yet again:“it has taken the killing of foreign nationals, including Australian Zomi Frankcom,rather than the killing of countless Palestinians, to apparently tip governments over into straight outrage.”
One of the most disturbing aspects of this sorry saga is that journalists at Chanel 7 follow well known far right accounts (like Aussie Cossack) and report their views as if they are reliable sources. This speaks volumes for how low Ch7 has sunk. Their news room really needs a
#BREAKING
🚨 Seven releases statement after naming wrong person as Westfield Bondi Junction attacker: “The mistake was human error. It was escalated immediately and rectified. Seven sincerely apologises for the error.” |
#6NewsAU
5/ And while I am here - the same applies to you interviewing all an endless line of white talking heads to talk about the future of Palestine and almost never interviewing an actual Palestinian expert.
4/Coming of Age in a War on Terror. Very on theme right now.
"We now have a generation – Muslim and non-Muslim – who has grown up only knowing a world at war on terror, and who has been socialised in a climate of widespread Islamophobia, surveillance and suspicion."
4/ ABC Australia, you need to do better. Representation matters. I remember when Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew died a few years ago and being gobsmacked that ABC lead coverage with white blokes despite there being numerous Singaporean academics in Australia they could have
I've team up with
@electric_wicky
to bring you the Uzzy "Freedom and Equality" T shirts. All profits will be donated to the 'Unicef Children of Gaza' appeal 🍉. For those who can, please purchase to help support those who are struggling and spread the word! Link in my Bio! ❤️
PROTEST **12PM** SUNDAY 2 JUNE
Sydney Hyde Park
Stop the genocide! Sanction Israel now!
This will be a big protest. If you have never been to one, or haven't been in a while this is the week to join us on the streets. Your voice matters. Please. We cannot see any more starving
@Channel10AU
And a warning to people on this thread: I don't accept any anti-semitism on here. And I will block racism and Islamophobia. Please refer to the Jerusalem Declaration for the difference between legitimate criticism of Israel and anti-Semitism.