By Jeffrey Loewenstein LL.B - Jeffrey was a member of the Victorian Bar and a one-time Chairman of the Anti-Defamation Commission and member of the Jewish Community Council of Victoria
The Israel lobby demands, and the government folds. This is the current mode of governance in Australia, as reflected by the education minister’s decision last week to change the school curriculum from 2027 to “strengthen the teaching of … antisemitism” – a change that should alarm parents of school-aged children.
The federal education minister, Jason Clare, was provided a pressure-free platform on ABC Radio National last week to announce that students will gain a “more thorough teaching of the Holocaust … [and] Jewish history, as well as the contribution that Jewish Australians have made to Australia”.
Clare referenced the “Antisemitism Education Taskforce” as the brains behind “these changes to the curriculum that was presented to ministers”.
The idea was initially born out of Jillian Segal’s widely-condemned antisemitism plan, released in July 2025, which called for “embed[ding] Holocaust and antisemitism education … in national and state school curricula”. The taskforce, which is headed by pro-Israel businessman David Gonski and includes Segal, is overseeing the execution of the plan with regards to education.
Parents should be horrified to learn that their children will be taught the matters outlined by Clare, in a country which prides itself as being religiously and ethnically diverse, non-denominational (see Section 116 of our Constitution) and with almost 10 million Australians reported as having no religion.
Jews, of whom there are about 120,000 in Australia – including the writer and many others who oppose the Israel lobby’s clear intent to manipulate our education system – will be appalled to see Jews deemed worthy of ‘special treatment’ in educating Australia’s children.
The singling out of Jewish Australians with respect to the ‘contribution’ (whatever that might mean) they have made to Australia does not make Jews any ‘safer’. It clearly tells the other 99 per cent of the country that one group sits above all others. Forget about First Nations and immigrants of different ethnic, cultural or religious backgrounds being recognised as valuable contributors to Australia.
Segal’s intent and plan is patently clear. Her aim is not to address antisemitism, let alone the social cohesion which the Royal Commission has been charged to address. Her agenda, and that of the Israel lobby, is to silence criticism of Israel. Why else push the adoption of the IHRA definition of what constitutes antisemitism – which its author just said has been poisoned to the point of useless?
When Segal says that it is okay to criticise Israel, she speaks with a forked tongue. It would be more apt to retitle Segal’s role from ‘Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism’ to ‘thought policewoman’, as this is precisely how she and her unelected, taxpayer-funded office are operating.
But attempts by Segal and the Israel lobby to indoctrinate Australians into forging a pro-Israel outlook from birth will fail. To the contrary, it will potentially cause real antisemitism by instilling in the minds of Australians that one, small group deserves a privileged status. This breeds resentment, not sympathy.
Is Segal blind to the fact that 79 per cent of Australians do not look upon Israel favourably? Does she truly think manipulating the education system will undo the damage? Surely those who understand the gravity of a genocide know the long-lasting endurance of such crimes in the memories of those who bore witness – and hundreds of millions did, on their phones, daily.
Segal and her supporters will not be able to erase what people have seen Israel do in Gaza. What Zionism is all about in action – death, destruction, injury, starvation, cruelty and colonialism – has been exposed for the world to see.
Australians will not accept what Segal is proposing. Instead, what is being revealed to them is the insidious workings of the Israel lobby as part of Israel’s global PR campaign – and it’s making many in this country, Left and Right, uncomfortable.
One need only look to the recent US elections to see how Israel is now on the nose. The influence of the Israel lobby and Netanyahu in US politics has been called out like never before. Not even tens of millions of dollars poured into pro-Israel candidates (or servants) by AIPAC could save them from defeat. Add to that the large number of American Jews now siding with the Palestinians over Israel.
That Clare, federal and state governments and mainstream journalists in this country still speak of criticism of Israel as being antisemitic begs one to ask: what world are these people living on? Can they not see that the elections in our supposed ‘greatest ally’ have just shattered these gaslighting talking points?
Israel – despite the tireless work of its lobbyists from Woollahra and Caulfield to Washington and New York – has lost the narrative.
All the desperate attempts to skew the narrative have failed. Nothing is working. Not the purchasing of nearly every major media, film and TV production company in the US. Not the purchasing of TikTok. Not strong-arming weak and incompetent western governments into criminalising “hate speech” and labelling protests as “terrorist” activity. Not militarised police forces sent to beat up protesters. Not the front-page spreads in mainstream papers – which fewer people are reading.
And changing our school curriculum won’t solve that palpable and justified anger towards Israel – it will intensify it.
I for one as a parent of a school age child know that these types of changes will result in me working even harder to create a balanced and complete view for my child.
I recall that when our kids were ar school, we could exempt them from the religious (ie Christian) instruction. I wonder if it be the same for this?