AFOPA REPORT: Platforming Genocide - The Adelaide Advertiser

Curating coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict by the Advertiser between 8 October 2023 and 9 February 2024

This report analyses the South Australian newspaper The Advertiser and its publication of articles about the Israel-Hamas conflict during the above period. The analysis concludes that The Advertiser is in breach of various standards, including its own code of conduct and the standards of the Australian Press Council. Laws against racial hatred under s18C of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (CTH) may also have been breached.

This report is submitted with a view to seeking a finding about these breaches and in pursuit of a commitment by The Advertiser to adhere to the relevant laws and standards.

Background

The Advertiser and its Sunday stablemate The Sunday Mail are locally published newspapers which claim to be ingrained in the roots of South Australia and its people and committed to providing South Australia’s best news coverage. They are part of the broader News Corporation Australia Group and they draw an indeterminate amount of their news coverage and opinion pieces from the wider group pool. For the purposes of this research paper, references to The Advertiser are taken to include The Sunday Mail. As it is difficult to discern the role of the Editor in selecting, condensing, amending, correcting or rejecting coverage from the wider group pool in the traditional sense of the verb ‘to edit,’ the expression ‘curate’ has been used as a replacement. Curate is taken to mean “to select, organise and present content or information to others” and no offence is intended to the Editor of The Advertiser by its usage.

We sincerely thank AFOPA member, Caroline, for compiling this outstanding report.

Contents of the report:

Purpose

Background

Glossary

Professional & Legal Standards

Methodology & Quantitative Analysis

Sources of Bias in Reporting

Genocidal Language & Intent and War Crimes

Over Reliance on Specific Sources

Loaded Language

Statistics

Story Selection, Placement & Visuals

Lack of Geo-Political Context

Coverage of Pro-Palestinian Protests & Protestors

Findings

Conclusion

Addendum

Endnotes

read the full report here

AFOPA Condemns Adelaide's Advertiser Over Israel Bias

THE ADVERTISER CONDEMNED OVER ISRAEL BIAS

Responding to the latest attack by The Advertiser on pro-Palestine protests in Adelaide, the Australian Friends of Palestine Association (AFOPA), condemns the continued biased reporting by the newspaper as little better than propaganda for Israel. The Advertiser today in an article titled “Ban Placards of Hatred” and an editorial titled “Signs of Hate Have No Place on Our Streets”, continues to depict solidarity with Palestine to be motivated by hatred and antisemitism, rather than outrage at a genocide being conducted by the state of Israel.

The Advertiser is focussed on placards carried at a rally rather than the message and the sentiments of the protesters devastated by seven months of slaughter in the Gaza Strip. These are not extremist placards; genocide is the reality. AFOPA rejects the Premier's contention quoted in The Advertiser, that the posters held by people at the rally are extremist. AFOPA is also incredulous that The Advertiser seems more concerned about the depiction of a dead infant rather than the actual death of 15,000 murdered babies and children in Gaza.

The more than 2,000 people who attended the latest Adelaide Palestine Solidarity rally continue to come out in their thousands to demand justice for Palestinians and an immediate permanent ceasefire in Gaza. These parents, grandparents and children understand that they have a responsibility to demand an immediate and permanent end to a genocide deemed "plausible" by the International Court of Justice.  

Contrary to The Advertiser’s continued emphasis on Hamas as the cause of the war, the horror in Gaza is a consequence of 76 years of savage oppression of the Palestinian people by Israel, 57 years of a brutal military occupation, and a 17-year inhumane siege on Gaza by the apartheid state of Israel. Supporters of Palestine regard our government as complicit in enabling Israel's brutal occupation of the Palestinian people and for failing to meaningfully oppose and condemn the current genocide in Gaza. It is in this sense that politicians are depicted on posters at rallies as having blood on their hands.

The contention of The Advertiser and quoted Jewish leaders, that hearing critical views of Israel makes Jewish people feel unsafe, simply provides a basis for censoring free speech in this crisis. The clear intent is to deflect attention away from the reality of the over 35,000 murdered Palestinians, over 80,000 wounded, and the deliberate starvation of 2 million people. These protests are not protesting against any section of Australian society. It is action in response to the oppression, occupation and genocide of an entire people by a foreign state.

These consistently peaceful protests have brought people together, as they have all over the world, to demand that their government ends its complicity with an apartheid state. The only violence seen in Adelaide in relation to pro-Palestine activism, has been the three violent attacks on the Adelaide University Gaza Solidarity student encampment by Zionist sympathisers. There have been no arrests for violent behaviour, and no violent intent.

The Advertiser article prominently features a photograph of a banner reading "From the River to the Sea Palestine Will be Free” and carries a statement again alleging the slogan is genocidal. This is untrue. The phrase is a vision for peace where all people regardless of race or religion have equal rights, equal freedoms, and equal obligations. It encompasses the principles of democracy, equality and unity from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. The alternative is the current reality, an apartheid state, that privileges Jewish people over non-Jews in every aspect of life. 

The dehumanisation and vilification of Palestinians and the pro-Palestine movement by Israel is reinforced in the local context by the regular and extensive platform given to Australian Zionist groups in The Advertiser, while at the same time demonising the ever-growing pro-Palestine movement.

The Advertiser’s perspective runs contrary to the sentiments of the majority of Australians and completely misrepresents a growing worldwide movement that stands for an end to genocide and a desire for peace.  

Click here for PDF of the statement

AFOPA & Community Organisations Condemn Australian Government on Rafah

Community groups representing thousands of South Australians appalled at Foreign Minister’s response to Rafah massacre in Gaza

The Australian Friends of Palestine Association (AFOPA), SA’s Palestinian Community organisation Glimmer of Hope, Health Workers for Palestine Adelaide, Adelaide Sisters Association and the Islamic Society of South Australia condemn this morning’s statement by Australia’s Foreign Minister, Penny Wong about the Israeli massacre of over 45 people in Rafah. Minister Wong has repeated Israeli propaganda that blames civilian deaths on Hamas rather than the brutal actions of the Israeli military.

Israel dropped a 2000lb bomb on people sleeping in their tents in an Israeli designated safe zone. Children were burnt to death and scores injured with no prospect of medical assistance, because Israel has destroyed almost all of Gaza’s medical facilities and killed hundreds of medical and aid workers.

Even Israel’s staunch allies, Canada and France have managed to convey outrage at the massacre in Rafah and have demanded an immediate ceasefire.

The Australian Government has failed to endorse the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) call for an end to the Israeli attacks; it has failed to endorse the ICJ finding that Israel is committing a plausible genocide in Gaza. Minister Wong has barely shifted from previous meaningless and pathetic requests of Israel that it should refrain from its behaviour.

Israel is acting beyond International Law. The only way to get Israel to stop its behaviour is to boycott it, divest from it, and sanction it.

We demand the following:

• That the Australia Government issues an unequivocal condemnation of this latest Israeli attack on Gaza and calls for an immediate and permanent ceasefire

• That unfettered humanitarian aid immediately is allowed into Gaza

• That our government imposes sanctions on Israel

• That our government recalls the Australian ambassador to Israel and expels the Israeli Ambassador to Australia

• That Australia establishes an arms embargo on Israel and all defense materiel produced in Australia is banned from being sent to Israel

• An end to the occupation and apartheid.

AFOPA Condemns Vice Chancellors Seeking to Ban Student Encampments

MEDIA ALERT                                                                     

9 May 2024        

AFOPA CONDEMNS VICE CHANCELLORS SEEKING TO BAN STUDENT ENCAMPMENTS

Australian Friends of Palestine Stands with Adelaide University Students

The Australian Friends of Palestine Association (AFOPA) condemns the Group of Eight Australian universities (G8) who are seeking to ban protestors from university grounds by also seeking to criminalise the use of the phrases ‘intifada’ and ‘From the River to the Sea’.

While Adelaide University Vice Chancellor Peter Hoj and his G8 colleagues are concerned about words, these principled students are concerned that their university may be complicit in a genocide that the International Court of Justice has found to be plausible.

Australian universities, including Adelaide University, have military and defence ties that contribute to Israel’s war machine. This war machine has obliterated the lives of over 35,000 people including 15,000 children, while Israel deliberately starves 2 million people.

The students are asking Adelaide University to disclose funding and research ties with Israeli weapons companies and to divest from all weapons manufacturers that feed Israel’s wars.

The term ‘intifada’ in Arabic means ‘shaking off’ and has been used by Palestinians to refer to resistance against their oppression by their occupier - Israel. Palestinians have been brutally oppressed in their homeland since 1948 and held under cruel military occupation since 1967. Israel has perpetrated an inhumane siege on Gaza for 17 years. Under international law, the occupied have the right to resist their oppressors.

The phrase ‘from the river to the sea’ has been weaponised by Zionists to mean the destruction of Israel. This cannot be further from the truth. The phrase is a vision for peace where all people, regardless of race, colour or religion, have equal rights, equal freedoms and equal obligations. It encompasses the principles of democracy, equality and unity from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, historical Palestine. And what more can we ask of our young people than to call for and strive for these values?

The alternative is the current reality - an apartheid state that privileges Jewish people against non-Jews in every aspect of life: political, legal, economic and social, harshly controlling every aspect of their lives.

AFOPA calls on universities to stop pretending that this is about the safety of Jewish students, but rather about the protection of their profitable ties with Israel.

AFOPA also calls on universities to demonstrate solidarity with their students who are pleading for justice for Palestinians amongst the ongoing atrocities in Gaza and the horror of the occupation.

 ENDS

Book Launch Report: The Radical Jewish Tradition

Report on the Adelaide launch on 27 April 2024 of the book

The Radical Jewish Tradition

Report by Andy Alcock

 This event was officially supported by the following groups:

• Australian Friends of Palestine Association SA (AFOPA SA)

• Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom SA (WILPF SA)

• Graham F. Smith Peace Foundation

• Independent & Peaceful Australia Network SA (IPAN SA)

• Stay Human Project

77 people attended the event and we raised over $1200 for emergency medical and food aid for Gaza through Human Appeal (Australia) - the aid group recommended by AFOPA SA. This is a very positive outcome from an event that showed very clearly that there are “righteous” Jews who oppose Zionism and the crimes it has committed against the people of Palestine over many decades.

 The key person of the afternoon was Janey Stone – one of the authors of The Radical Jewish Tradition – who gave a very compelling speech about the book which also demonstrated her compassion for and solidarity with the Palestinian people.

AFOPA’s Mike Khizam gave a very good speech and we had a great musical contribution from Helen Lawrie and Phil Davies of the Stay Human Project. And the whole afternoon was ably chaired by AFOPA Chairperson, Christa Christaki.

And we are very grateful for all those who from the various peace and solidarity groups who assisted to help set up for the event & stack furniture and clean up afterwards.

 The key messages of the afternoon were:

•  There are many progressive Jews who have a history of fighting for social justice and freedom.

• Progressive Jews do not approve of Zionism.

• Criticising genocide is not antisemitism.

• From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!

 A very big thank you to all who helped to make this event so successful.

 I thought the whole event was a very positive action in solidarity with the people of Palestine.

Thanks to our intrepid photographer - Aussie Kanck