Author of ECAJ antisemitism report shared content calling Palestinians “bloodthirsty hyenas”
Researcher’s reposts “unashamedly hateful”, says APAN
The longtime author of a report into Australian antisemitism has come under fire for sharing anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian content on social media.
Julie Nathan, research director at the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ), has been the lead author of ECAJ’s annual Report on Anti-Jewish Incidents in Australia since 2013.
In the preamble of the latest report, released on December 3, Nathan accuses the “anti-Israel movement” of exhibiting “anti-Jewish racism” by “calling for the end to Jewish national self-determination in Israel [and] making false analogies between Nazism and Zionism”, and of becoming “the handmaid of medieval Islamism”.
It is Nathan’s social media presence, however, that has critics questioning the report’s credibility.
In October 2024, Nathan retweeted a video of far-right figure Douglas Murray claiming that Muslims in western countries only protest Israeli atrocities against Palestinians because “the only thing they care about is their hatred of the Jews”, calling him “insightful”.
In February, Nathan retweeted a post describing a group of Palestinians as “like a pack of salivating bloodthirsty hyenas” and stating “Hamas = Gaza and Gaza = Hamas”. That post has since been deleted from Nathan’s X account.
Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN) President Nasser Mashni said the “unashamedly hateful and racist” posts were “a shocking indictment on ECAJ and Ms Nathan”.
“Nathan’s posts and ECAJ’s refusal to admonish or counsel her should give cause to serious questions being asked as to the author and the report’s credibility and impartiality,” Mashni said.
Announcing the latest edition of the report last week, ECAJ – which the Jewish Council of Australia has called a right-wing Zionist group – claimed that “antisemitic incidents in Australia remain at historically high levels, at almost five times the average annual number before October 7, 2023”.
The report claims to have recorded 1,654 “anti-Jewish incidents” between 1 October 2024 to 30 September 2025. The vast majority of incidents cited in the report include expressions of hatred or acts of violence towards Jewish people, including praise for Adolf Hitler, calls to repeat the Holocaust, or the expression of common antisemitic tropes.
However, the report also lists anti-Israel protests, demonstrations against weapons manufacturers and banners reading “Zionism is genocide” as examples of “antisemitic” conduct.
The report makes no distinction between these two types of behaviour, often listing them together. Nor does recent media coverage, including by the ABC, question or explain the report’s conflation of Palestinian solidarity with Nazi glorification.
This is despite revelations in October that the NSW government significantly overstated the number of antisemitic incidents in the state to justify the passage of laws restricting public protest earlier this year.
The Muslim Vote, a political movement that endorsed several independent pro-Palestinian candidates at May’s federal election, objected to media outlets “repeating ECAJ’s statistics without interrogation”.
“ECAJ’s statements are designed to overwhelm public perception and to create the illusion that Palestinians and their allies are a threat while Israel destroys Gaza with impunity,” the spokesperson said.
“When the media accepts these claims without scrutiny, they participate in the sanitisation of state violence and genocide.”
The Muslim Vote pointed to the report’s inclusion of western Sydney cleric Sheikh Wesam Charkawi – for calling the October 7 attacks “an act of resistance” at a rally in 2024 – as evidence of “a desperate attempt to suppress any voice that names Zionism as the force responsible for the ongoing destruction of Palestinian life”.
NSW Greens MP Jenny Leong – who is accused of antisemitism in the report for saying “long live Palestine, free, free Palestine, from the river to the sea” at a rally – said the report’s “spurious claims of antisemitism” distracted from Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.
“The community sees these accusations for what they are: pathetic, disingenuous attempts to discredit and silence those with the courage and conviction to speak out against a state that has committed apartheid and occupation for 77 years with the backing of so-called liberal democracies like ours,” Leong said.
Mashni – who the report cites for wearing a t-shirt with the phrase “From the river to sea Palestine will be free” – echoed those sentiments.
“The role of the media is to critically examine and verify any information they report on. To effectively address antisemitism, such reports and their findings must be accurate and impartial,” Mashni said.
“To parrot a partisan report uncritically is to do a disservice to the community and journalism.”
ECAJ did not respond to questions.
MSM doesn’t examine has lost it’s objectively & ability to report facts it’s controlled by the Zionist narrative
“Researched”. Utterly gross.