Major moment for Harry and the community tarnished by antisemitic rants
18-yr-old Harry Sheezel is on track to be the first Jewish AFL player to be selected in this century at The Australian Football League’s draft tonight.
Harry takes off
But things turned ugly when The Age’s story on the young Hawthorn fan was published on the broadsheet’s Facebook page.
Although most of the comments were encouraging and supportive, many were highly antisemitic, with some invoking the Holocaust.
In The Age, the acting editor published: “It’s disgraceful and disappointing that sewer-dwellers on social media took such a story and turned it into an excuse for vile antisemitic abuse,” he said.
As this is, unfortunately, growing more common, we normally use our discretion to block comments on stories that even mention the religion or race of a person. (The social media companies do not allow us to pre-moderate comments). On this occasion, unfortunately, the story was posted at a busy time – the evening of the state election – and the usual, cautious practice was overlooked.”
The Facebook post included ‘the prolific goalkicker shared his desire to be a positive role model for the Jewish community’.
Co-CEO of The Executive Council of Australian Jewry Alex Ryvchin, told J-Wire: “These sorts of incidents remind us of the hatred, ignorance and malice that exists in our society. It’s easy to think that antisemitism belongs to different times and different places or that our success as Australians protects us from hatred. But as we see in every sector of society – schools, campuses, workplaces, antisemitism remains a fact of life.
What is perhaps most disturbing is how brazen and normalised this sort of vilification has become. Sadly, a moment of immense pride for our community should be in any way diminished, but hopefully, it forces wider society to take notice of this problem and reminds Jews how much work we all have to do to drive this filth from our midst.
HARRY SHEEZEL 😳
Watch the @NABLeague Grand Final here: https://t.co/EMIKsHRtew pic.twitter.com/wB5OfdMU36
— AFL (@AFL) September 16, 2022
Federal Labor MP for Macnamara Josh Burns, said: “Harry Sheezel is a rising star of the football world.
He is a huge talent who I hope will be drafted in the upcoming AFL draft.
It’s very disappointing to see him face a barrage of vile antisemitism.
But Harry should hold his head high as he embarks on the exciting chapter ahead. The community is behind him and we look forward to following his career.”
Harry Sheezel told The Age: “I think I can use myself to be a positive role model for kids to hopefully make the AFL more often,” Sheezel, who does not actively practice Judaism, but is involved in the Jewish community
The Jewish community loves sport, and they’ve got a lot of good, young, talented footballers coming through.”
Insults against an Australian Jewish athlete is not surprising. The ADL survey indicated that at least 14percent of Australians hold antiSemitic views and recent surveys indicate that the percentages are significantly increasing.The UK has significant antisemitism and the BBC has been officially investigated for biased reporting against Israel.An unwillingness by nations to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s Capital can be construed as state-sanctioned antiSemitism as do the relentless UN inquiries of Israel and the challenges to Israel’s existence by trying to bring Israel to the International Court at The Hague and the virulent and hateful propaganda by Amnesty International promote hatred against Jews and Israel.In Qatar Israeli reporters were ignored and insulted.AntiSemitism and antiIsrael propaganda are funded in the billions and widespread throughout the World.Students’s unions in Canada and throughout the Western world are centres of vitriolic hatred against Jews and Israel often with the complicit approval and silence of the university professors and the administrations of the universities.The Western media is generally anti Israel and includes the New York Times which was anti Semitic before the Holocaust,after the Holocaust and promotes anti Israel and pro Palestinian views regardless of the constant terrorists attacks against Israel and the rocket attacks on Tel Aviv during the recent Gaza war.Iran threatens to destroy Israel by a nuclear attack but the UN and the Western media are silent.