Exclusive: pro-Israel WhatsApp group boasts campaign win against Grace Tame
The group also claims to have contributed to Adelaide University’s decision to cancel Francesca Albanese’s appearance
A pro-Israel WhatsApp group says it contributed to a public campaign that has seen Grace Tame lose speaking engagements, according to messages seen by Deepcut.
A “news update” posted in the Pen Power Australia WhatsApp group, in which pro-Israel activists organise mass email campaigns targeting critics of Israel, said that the former Australian of the Year “has had all her speaking engagements cancelled for 2026 ... We contributed!”.
Tame has been the target of sustained attacks by right-wing politicians and media following her speech at a Sydney protest in February against the visit of Israeli President Isaac Herzog.
Australia’s pro-Israel political and media establishment were quick to seize on Tame’s “globalise the intifada” remark during the speech, with former right-wing prime minister, Tony Abbott, calling her an “unworthy recipient” of the nation’s highest honour.
Writing for Crikey last week, Tame said she was up against a “well-oiled, well-funded political propaganda machine whose aim is to frighten everyone into complicity by maligning its critics”.
She wrote that her “livelihood has been completely destroyed” in the month since the protest, after a “concerted smear campaign against me”.
Targeting Grace Tame
WhatsApp messages seen by Deepcut confirm the co-ordinated nature of the pro-Israel campaign against Tame.
Three specific email campaigns targeted Tame’s appearances at International Women’s Day events in Sydney and Bendigo, and the No to Violence conference in Hobart.
Tame spoke at all three events, but told the No to Violence conference that she had no further speaking engagements this year.
“This is my last presentation of the year and it’s only March,” she said.
A busy WhatsApp group
The “news update” in the WhatsApp group also celebrated successful campaigns against UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese’s video appearance at Adelaide University, Shia Muslim mosques mourning the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and Palestinian DJ Sama’ Abdulhadi’s performance at the WOMADelaide festival.
On the three fronts, pro-Israel activists appear to have scored victories. Adelaide University cancelled the event with the high-profile UN official; Multicultural Affairs Minister Anne Aly cancelled a $670,000 grant for a mostly Afghan Shia Islamic community centre in Melbourne; and Abdulhadi’s visa was denied at the last minute earlier this month.
Deepcut previously reported on Pen Power Australia’s dual campaign targeting Abdulhadi’s WOMADaleide performance – one aimed at WOMADelaide organisers to pull the invitation, and another to Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke to have her visa denied, with the latter proving successful.
Pen Power Australia has sent more than 26,800 letters targeting critics of Israel, including 5,642 letters in February, according to the update.
Who are Pen Power?
Pen Power Australia is a “co-ordinated letter-writing movement” that is “mobilising supporters to challenge anti-Israel narratives and demand accountability”. That was how it was described in an op-ed earlier this month by its co-ordinator, John Grimwade. Writing on Christian Zionist website The Daily Declaration, Grimwade said the idea for the group was born in May last year.
“Pen Power Australia writes to government departments across all three tiers, mainstream media, and non-government organisations. It also directs letters to publishers, entertainment venues, music promoters, professional bodies, and companies whose decisions shape public norms,” he wrote.
“One major effort involved nearly 3,000 letters calling for a Royal Commission into the Bondi terror attacks, assisted by like-minded groups in the United Kingdom and the United States,” the op-ed read.
The effectiveness of the group’s activities poses questions surrounding the influence of pro-Israel campaigning on governments and institutions – a point highlighted by Tame in her Crikey article, in which she accused the prime minister “and his government” of being “corrupted by lobbyists and [being willing to] do anything to protect them”.
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