Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) CEO Sasha Roytman has hit back at critics of the Australian Mayors conference with an opinion piece in the Jerusalem Post titled “When Fighting Antisemitism Becomes Controversial, It’s Already Antisemitism”. The article appeared shortly after more than 300,000 people attended protests across Australia last Sunday calling for an end to the genocide in Gaza and sanctions on Israel.
Roytman claims that CAM’s success in attracting hundreds of Mayors and councillors with its all-expenses-paid invitation has led to “the summit itself [becoming] the target of attacks, with critics scurrilously delegitimizing what is essentially an anti-hate event.”
Thousands of Australians have signed letters to Councils urging them not to attend the Summit due its far right agenda, and links to companies and individuals that promote, fund or trade with Israel.
“It has now become abundantly clear that the campaign urging a boycott of the upcoming summit is not simply political activism – it is, in truth, antisemitism,” Roytman wrote. He clearly states that for CAM, “Anti-Zionism is antisemitism.”
Amongst CAM’s critics are the Jewish Council of Australia which this week stated “In reality, it is a pro-Israel political junket designed to push a one-sided political agenda, silencing legitimate criticism of Israel by conflating it with antisemitism.” It urged anyone who had accepted an invitation without understanding this to pull out now.
Yesterday, the Deputy Leader of the Greens Senator Mehreen Farqui called for a boycott of the Summit.
ASU members for Palestine and many other groups are also calling for a boycott.
Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/DNzEnVg5Ndz/
CAM adapts IRGC allegations to suit its pro-Israel agenda
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced that the Iranian ambassador would be expelled after ASIO, working with foreign partners and international agencies, said it had “credible evidence” that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps was the hidden organiser behind fires at a Melbourne synagogue and Sydney restaurant last December.
CAM seized the opportunity to link the Mayors’ summit agenda to ASIO’s findings.
In an article on its website, CAM again complained about the “smear campaigns … delegitimising its core purpose” which was to allow municipalities “the support they vitally need” to learn how to “counter Jew Hatred”.
“When arson attacks target Jewish synagogues and businesses, it is not a moment for hesitation — it is a time for action. The upcoming summit underscores an urgent truth: confronting antisemitism is not political—it is a public safety imperative.”
Shortly after publishing this article, CAM’s CEO and ex-IDF commander Roytman issued a media release connecting Australia’s allegations against the IRGC with a broader “pattern of malign activity”, He called for “global intelligence services, and law enforcement agencies to urgently investigate the role of foreign subversive actors, especially the Iranian regime, in orchestrating and financing antisemitic violence and anti-Israel demonstrations across the globe.”
Palestine Action Group convenor, Josh Lees said in response to the allegation about IRGC funding anti-Israel protests, “It’s a ludicrous suggestion without foundation and an insult to hundreds of organisers of small and big protests taking place around the world every day.”
CAM states that the alleged actions of the IRGC are not just attacks on Jews but on the “safety, sovereignty, and democratic integrity of nations worldwide”. “Every responsible leader and agency must immediately investigate, expose, and counter this threat,” says Roytman.
“CAM stands ready to work with governments, security agencies, and civil society partners to confront this emerging threat head-on”.
Despite widespread scepticism in Australian social media about the Albanese’s government’s dramatic announcements this week, CAM neatly slotted them into its broader narrative of ‘Western Civilisation against the Forces of Evil’.
This is the broad and ominous right-wing political agenda that CAM and many of its speakers, including those with a record of Islamophobia, will promote at next week’s conference. Whether a protest or arson attack, it’s all antisemitism. At a local level, the take-home tools will include a Municipalities Index to monitor activity using CAM’s so-called ‘gold standard’ IHRA definition of anti-semitism.
Providing some cover for this agenda is the Chair of the Summit organising Committee, respected businessman David Gonski. MWM sent questions to Gonski last week but has received no response or acknowledgement from him. Yesterday, UNSW told us to send them to the media office I have done - but still no response.