Australian Press Council Censures Arabic-language Paper for Publishing Virulent Attacks Against Jews

The Australian Press Council has censured an Arabic-language newspaper, An Nahda, for publishing “violent attacks on Jews as a group” including the infamous blood libel.

The Council acted on a complaint by the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies against three articles published in September, 1985 by the newspaper which is the organ of the Syrian National Socialist Party here. It deemed them to be “anti-Semitic, disparaging and belittling of Jews and calculated to incite racial hated.”

The Press Council monitors all branches of the press in Australia and adjudicates complaints. Its Adjudication No. 294 relating to An Nahda, cited as one example of “a number of wild and unsubstantiated allegations” the paper’s assertion that “in most parts of the world” the Jews have “boldly embarked upon kidnapping Christian men and children and slaughtering them to obtain their blood for the purpose of kneading it with the unleavened bread of the Passover celebration.”

The Press Council noted: “The articles contain extreme and generalized statements about ‘Judaism’, ‘Jews’ and ‘the Zionist movement.’ The editor emphasized that two of the articles had been reprinted from Lebanese papers and reflected the strong and bitter feeling generated by the conflict with Israel. These feelings are understandable but they in no way justify the violent attacks on Jews as a group, some of which are couched in the classical language of abhorrent anti-Semitism … There is no place for such material in the press of this country.”

Graham de Vahl Davis, president of the Jewish Board of Deputies, commended the Press Council for its ruling. “An Nahda, by publishing these calumnious libels has threatened not only harmonious communication between Australian religious and ethnic communities, but has dredged up the ugly specter of physical violence against the Jews,” he said.