Is this funny?
The Australasian Union of Jewish Students (AUJS) has been shocked and horrified by a doctored image published by Honi Soit, the student-run newspaper at the University of Sydney.
The Australasian Union of Jewish Students (AUJS) is shocked and horrified by a doctored image published by Honi Soit, the student-run newspaper at the University of Sydney, as a “satirical” part of their Welcome Week edition.
The image contained a picture of a blackboard with the words “Should we get the Jews back for what they did to our absolute boy? Yes or No?”.
Beside the sign are two containers for voting of which the “Yes” container is full.
“Absolute boy” is a phrase that refers to Jesus in the context of the handout. When AUJS NSW Political Affairs Director Gabi Stricker-Phelps reached out to the Honi Soit Editors for clarification as to who “absolute boy” referred she was answered with “It’s Jesus you fucking fool.”
“The accusation that Jews killed Jesus is a time-old charge that has been used as a pretext for centuries of discrimination and violence. It’s textbook antisemitism”, said AUJS Public Affairs Coordinator Daniel Elberg.
“This classic example of antisemitism falls under the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism and is alarming in light of the 59% increase in antisemitic incidents nationally in 2018”, he continued.
“This is an instance of a student newspaper openly laughing about taking retribution against Jews.”, said Ms Gabi Stricker-Phelps.
“As a student at the University of Sydney I hope that there will be serious consequences for such irresponsible and reckless writing by the editors of our student newspaper” she continued.
We implore Honi Soit to make a fulsome apology for this antisemitic image and outline how it will ensure content of this nature is never published again.
Honi Soit has a track record of producing material that can be construed to be anti-semitic. However when it comes to anti-Israel invective AUJS and its minders tend to push that under the carpet, only being willing to take on “textbook anti-semitism” publicly as we see in this instance.
Please listen to my last couple of podcasts on my program ‘The Israel Connexion’ on J-AIR (https://omnystudio.com/p/israel-connexion/clips) where I have tackled the vexing issue of on-campus anti-semitism which is largely of the left-wing anti-Zionist variety.