Indy Media Watch

Sydney Indymedia has been an anti-Semitic trough for some time. This article on Melbourne Indymedia (and reposted from Sydney which was mercifully offline at the initial time of writing) makes some excellent observations.

Recently there have been posts on Sydney Indymedia with titles such as ‘Hitler was not wrong about them’, ‘World Bank run by Jew Wolfowitz’ and ‘Israel women slave trade soars’. The content of the ‘articles’ promotes hatred of world Jewry and hatred of the citizens of Israel. Some of the language used to describe Jews and attributes of Jewish people include that (Jews) ‘celebrate death and murder with blood rituals.’ That (Israeli’s) ‘are disgusting murdering scum’ and that Jews are ‘Zionist nazi cunts.’

It's true, I've seen them and avoided linking to them.

The most consistent contributor of Anti Semitic hate mail is an individual who goes by the name of Faruque Ahmed.

Why am I unsurprised?

It is amazing that Sydney Indymedia has not been shut down or prosecuted for allowing race hate material on their site. This call has been made because we want to solve this problem without resorting to the courts or government interference. By allowing Anti Semitic materials to remain on Sydney Indymedia the following possibilities may occur. The Jewish Board of Deputies will sooner or later find out about this situation. They are rightly very concerned about Anti Semitism and will probably launch legal action. The end result will be that Sydney Indymedia will come under great scrutiny by the mainstream media and government. This is the goal of the Anti Semites who post to Sydney Indymedia. This will then ‘prove’ the mythological power of the ‘Jewish lobby’ and how ‘Jews control the media’ thus becoming a self fulfilling prophecy. It is also very likely that the identities behind the Anti Semitic posts are White Supremacists using Arab sounding names and feigning concern for Palestinians to further their Anti Semitic agenda. Their goals are Fourfold. One, to promote Jew hatred. Two, to shut down Left wing websites by creating a furore. Three, to promote the myth that Jews are all powerful and Four, to further damage relations between Arab speaking peoples and Jews.
...
Therefore we are issuing this call.

We ask that all supporters of these organisations: International Socialist Organisation, Democratic Socialist Party, Socialist Alternative, Socialist Equality Party, Communist Party of Australia, The Socialist Party, Socialist Alliance, The Spartacist League, Barricade Books, Jura Books, Black Rose Books, Industrial Workers of the World, Anarcho-Syndicalist Federation, Anarcho-Syndicalist Network, Rebel Worker as well as all independent Socialists, Communists, Anarchists, Autonomists to support the following.

“We are opposed to the Sydney Indymedia Collective allowing Anti Semitic posts to remain on Sydney Indymedia. We believe that this promotes hatred of Jews and goes against the principles for which we stand. We believe that Sydney Indymedia and all members of the World Indymedia Network should in future delete Anti Semitic posts as they promote racial hatred which is antithetical to our aims.”

And then they started fighting about it...