Progressive Except for Jews

Philip Mendes presents his report Progressive Intolerance: The Contemporary Antisemitism Landscape in Australia (Centre for Independent Studies, January 2026), followed by open discussion.

The report is available at: https://www.cis.org.au/publication/progressive-intolerance-the-contemporary-antisemitism-landscape-in-australia/

Since October 2023, there has been an unprecedented outbreak of antisemitic hatred within Australian society. This report draws on multiple existing Australian Jewish community and wider studies to identify the key manifestations of and leading sources of antisemitism, particularly within what might be called "progressive" sectors of society such as universities, trade unions, human rights bodies, civil society movements, the arts and the media.

The rise of antisemitism is attributed to the longer-term influence of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, and its binary targeting of not only all Israeli Jews, but also the vast majority of Australian Jews who support the continued existence of Israel, as the political enemy. Consequently, although political antizionism and racist antisemitism are not inherently linked, many antizionist groups and individuals employ hatred of Jews as a legitimate tactic within their wider antizionist campaign tool kit.

More generally, pro-racist progressives deny or minimise the extent and impact of antisemitism in Australia, and use blaming the victim techniques (more typically employed by the conservative or far right against disadvantaged communities) to deride Jews as an undeserving group who are responsible for their own suffering.

This increasing convergence of antizionism and antisemitism dictates that an effective anti-racist response, particularly within universities and other "progressive" institutions, will have to unravel prejudiced intersecting assumptions about Israel, Zionism, and the Jewish collective in Australia.

Professor Philip Mendes is the Director of the Social Inclusion and Social Research Unit in the Department of Social Work at Monash University. He has been researching the complex relations between Jews and the political left locally and globally for more than three decades. He is the author or co-author of 14 books including The New Left, the Jews and the Vietnam War, 1965-72 (1993), Jews and Australian Politics (co-edited with Geoffrey Brahm Levey, 2004), Jews and the Left: the Rise and Fall of a Political Alliance (2014), and Boycotting Israel is Wrong (co-authored with Nick Dyrenfurth, 2015). He is the author of the report Progressive Intolerance: The Contemporary Antisemitism Landscape in Australia (2026).  His newest book, Jews, Arabs, Socialism and Nationalism: An Historical Overview of Australian Left Attitudes to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, 1943-2026, is planned for publication in 2028.