Bondi: Jewish leaders outraged at cartoon in Nine newspapers portraying royal commission conspiracy

A cartoon in the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age newspapers today portraying demands for a royal commission into the Bondi Beach massacre as being orchestrated by political and media forces was slammed as anti-Semitic by leading Jewish figures, including one who was shot in the terrorist attack.

Arsen Ostrovsky, a lobbyist and lawyer shot in the head on December 14, said it was hard to see the drawing by left-wing illustrator Cathy Wilcox “as anything but an unadulterated form of Jew-hatred”.

The cartoon, which was published in Wednesday’s opinion pages in both newspapers, suggests pressure for a royal commission is being dictated by Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who is drawn banging a drum, with the help of media baron Rupert Murdoch, anti-Semitism envoy Jillian Segal, former Prime Minister John Howard, Liberal Leader Sussan Ley and Nationals Leader David Littleproud. A seventh person appears to be Liberal Senator Jacinta Price.

The cartoon repeats a trope about Jews repeated over the centuries that they exercise power across society through their influence over political institutions and media organisations, Jewish leaders said. The Age and Herald are owned by Nine Entertainment Co.

Jeremy Leibler, the president of the Zionist Federation of Australia, said the cartoon could have been published in Der Stürmer, a pro-nazi German newspaper that called for the extermination of Jews as early as 1933.

“Senior people at Nine have some very serious questions to answer,” he said.

Royal commission debate

Ms Wilcox, who said in a 2022 interview that she does not have the same obligation as journalists to be “factual”, did not respond to an email. Neither did Luke McIlveen, Nine’s group executive editor.

The Sydney-based cartoonist has become a popular figure among the left for her satire of Donald Trump, big business, conservative politicians and others. Wednesday’s cartoon supported the Federal Government’s opposition to a royal commission, which is being pushed by senior figures from business, government, the law and sport.

Anthony Albanese has said a judicial-type investigation into the massacre and anti-Jewish violence in general would take too long. Instead, on December 29, he launched an independent administrative inquiry into potential failures by the law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

Jewish leaders are hopeful the pressure will lead the Prime Minister to change his mind, perhaps as soon as this week.

They complained the cartoon trivialised the views of accomplished Australians, from Olympian Dawn Fraser to former Telstra CEO David Thodey, who have called for a royal commission, which would have the power to compel witnesses to give evidence.

“I thought it was so appalling,” said Michael Danby, who was at one point the only Jewish MP in the Federal Parliament. “Just despicable. As if all the people who have different views from her are unthinking or stupid. It really lowers the intellectual standard of the Herald and the Age.”

‘Stooges’

Other critics included David Ossip, the president of the NSW Board of Jewish Deputies, Alex Ryvchin, the co-chief executive officer of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry and Jamie Hyams, the director of public affairs at the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council.

“Particularly after Bondi, how is the board of Nine allowing their publications to become a platform for the promotion of vile anti-Semitic tropes?” Mr Ossip said.

Mr Ryvchin said Ms Wilcox’s message to the 15 victims of the massacre was that they “were slaughtered because of Israel and any deviation from this belief makes one a stooge of the Zionists”.

In the 2022 interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, Ms Wilcox said she was particularly concerned about the environment and treatment of refugees.

“While I don’t have the same obligation as a journalist to be ‘factual’ - to have all the names and figures to hand - my cartoons need to be founded in truth,” she said. “It might be what I think lies beneath the political spin, or stretching someone’s proposition to its logical extreme to expose an absurdity, but if it doesn’t ring true, it probably fails as a cartoon.”

The journalists’ union’s president, Michael Balk, declined to comment.