The Albanese Government appointed Israel lobbyist and senior business figure Jillian Segal as Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism. Yaakov Aharon investigates potential conflicts of interest.
During a softball SBS interview two weeks ago, Australia’s Special Envoy To Combat Antisemitism, Jillian Segal, called for an end to the “intimidatory” weekly Palestine protests in city centres.
Taxpayers are footing the bill for the Special Envoy’s advice that our government introduce laws targeting the mass-protests against Israel’s war machine.
But Segal wears many different hats at the same time. As a past president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ), she is aligned to those who are now lobbying the government to crack down on protesters.
Meanwhile, as the longstanding chair of Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce (AICC), perhaps second to the Business Council of Australia as this country’s most prestigious big business lobby, she remains cozy with Israeli bosses and weapons contractors who profit from Israel’s forever war.
Protests at the Opera House October 10, 2023. Source: AAP, Dean Lewins
“The cities should not be utilised for that,” Segal said in the recent interview with SBS News.
“There should be places designated away from where the Jewish community might venture, where people can demonstrate.
“That is not to in any way attack the right of people to express their views, but at some point, [holding protest] every single week becomes intimidatory in the city.”
The Albanese Government announced the appointment of Jillian Segal in July 2024, a role designed to “preserve social cohesion in Australia”.
In Segal’s inaugural conference as Special Envoy she said:
“We see small business owners who have lost their livelihoods to boycotts and vandalism. And all this affects the vibrancy and cohesion of the community … The creation of this role shows a determination by the Government to confront this evil and to ensure that it does not erode the goodness that exists in our society. It will require a national strategy, [and] coordination between communities and all levels of government”.
Fast-forward to today and the role of the Special Envoy is not clear. Nor is it clear how her office funded of staffed or if conflicts of interest and personal investments are disclosed. Her role is something of a mystery. When contacted by MWM, Segal’s office declined to comment.
The AICC declined to comment also. The office of Prime Minister & Cabinet referred questions to Home Affairs, which had this to say:
“The Special Envoys have been appointed as non-statutory Ministerial appointments, and report to and advise the Prime Minister and the Minister for Home Affairs, Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, and Cyber Security.
The Special Envoys views are their own and any communication is attributable to them independently and not the Government.
As non-statutory Ministerial appointments the Special Envoys are not bound by the APS Code of Conduct. They are however, subject to other obligations and requirements including, for example, the Protective Security Policy Framework (PSPF) obligations, and AGSVA requirements as well as the National Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2022 (NACC Act), and the corruption provisions in the Criminal Code Act 1995.”
“Barbarians breach the gates”
The Special Envoy’s recent interview is not to be seen in isolation.
“Our world has changed”, Jillian Segal had said days after October 7. “The barbarians have breached the gates.”
Speaking before a crowd of 10,000, it was one of Segal’s final speeches in her four years as president of the constitutionally pro-Israel peak roof body of the community, Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ).
“We demand that those who burnt the Israeli flag at the Opera House on Monday night and spewed disgraceful antisemitic slogans be identified and dealt with according to the full force of the law”, Segal continued.
Burning the Australian flag – let alone a foreign flag – is not a criminal offence.
When a police investigation found that the antisemitic chants were exaggerated by a doctored video and that no crimes were committed, ECAJ still stood its ground.
Two months ago, ECAJ made a submission to the Senate, proposing reforms to the Criminal Code 1995 on the basis that, if the suggested reforms were already in place, those at the Opera House could have been charged.
The reform would create the new crime of threatening violence against groups including on the basis of race, religion, nationality, or political belief.
Segal’s name appears on the bottom of each page of ECAJ’s submission, given her active role as an immediate-past president.
Dr Max Kaiser from the Jewish Council of Australia told MWM:
“We are deeply concerned about the Special Envoy abusing her position to lobby for Israel, oppose protests that support Palestinian human rights, and paint all Jews as supportive of Israel’s actions. Law and order crackdowns will only breed division, increasing Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism, and ultimately make Jews less safe.”
Segal and the Settlements
One of Segal’s many other roles is chair of the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce (AICC).
The AICC describes itself as “Australia’s pre-eminent international Chamber of Commerce and one of the country’s most prestigious and active national business organisations,” with over 1,000 member companies.
The AICC’s Israeli associate, the Israel-Australia Chamber of Commerce (IACC), is chaired by Major General Ido Nehushtan, president of weapons contractor Boeing Israel and a former commander of the Israeli Air Force.
The IACC profile on Guidestar, which is the regulating body for Israeli charities, shows that the organisation is funding Israel’s illegal settlement program. Up to 35% of funds are going to areas which Israel calls the Judea and Samaria region, the Northern District, and Jerusalem District (also known as ‘Greater Jerusalem’).
Judea and Samaria is Israel’s name for most of its settlements in the West Bank.
While the Northern District includes areas inside Israel’s internationally recognised borders, it also includes the illegally occupied Syrian Golan Heights.
The Jerusalem District also includes areas inside Israel’s borders, but continues to illegally expand into the Jerusalem Governorate of Palestine.
In July 2024, the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel had created a two-tiered legal system of racial domination in the West Bank, and had segregated Palestinians from Israeli society.
The world’s top court ordered member states to “abstain from entering into economic or trade dealings with Israel concerning the Occupied Palestinian Territory or parts thereof which may entrench its unlawful presence in the territory.”
The Australian Government position has long been that Israel’s occupation of these territories is illegal. Last week the government “expressed concern” about Israel’s stated intention to conquer new land in Syria as a ‘buffer zone’, while doubling the settlements in the Golan Heights.
However, concerns about international law and the case against Israel for plausible genocide in the International Court of Justice did not prevent Segal from hosting the AICC’s annual summit on October 30, 2024, which was co-sponsored by their Israeli counterpart.
Segal addressed Australia’s business elite with pitches that they invest in Israel’s “innovation ecosystem”, while the warmongering country’s battle-tested cybersecurity businesses took centre stage.
Israel boycotters vs Israeli bosses
It is not hard to see why the AICC may find itself diametrically opposed to supporters of Palestine.
The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement strategically targets certain corporations and companies because they support Israel’s violations of international law in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and the apartheid regime of the Israeli state.
Companies may be strategically targeted by BDS because of their involvement in the Israeli defence and cybersecurity industries, or because they operate in the illegal West Bank settlements. These targets are a central rallying point for the global Palestine solidarity movement, according to BDS Australia co-founder, Cathy Peters, who spoke to MWM.
“Calls for and actions on BDS against the apartheid, genocidal Israeli state have skyrocketed particularly in the last 15 months within all Palestine advocacy.”
“… The pro-Israel lobby in Australia has responded to BDS in precisely the same way as dictated by Israel by developing concerted strategies to attempt to discredit it and label it as antisemitic.”
However, in her role as then-president of ECAJ, Jillian Segal labelled BDS “a display of discrimination and double standards”.
To combat BDS, Segal suggested governments and institutions adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism, which could become a legal framework for courts to lean on.
Pledge social cohesion, or else
In its tradition of giving the game away, the far-right Australian Jewish Association welcomed Segal’s appointment as Special Envoy by urging she undertake
“Important projects for combating antisemitism [including] wider adoption and actual implementation of the IHRA working definition on antisemitism and the introduction of laws to combat the anti-Jewish BDS movement.”
We are beginning to see how Segal’s ‘national strategy’ is shaping up.
Last week, the Victorian government announced its intention to curb the right to protest. It could soon be a crime to protest with face masks, chains, or near places of worship, effectively granting Segal’s wish of banning protest in city centres.
Most draconian of all is the ‘social cohesion pledge’, which organisations will have to sign to qualify for government grants.
The Shadow Minister for Home Affairs, Senator James Paterson, had announced a similar position at ECAJ’s annual conference several weeks before.
“No hate preacher or extremist organisation will be given taxpayer’s money for social cohesion,” Paterson said.
The audience, which included Segal, gave a standing ovation.
Shadow-banning BDS
Pro-Israel lobbyists have successfully pushed anti-BDS laws around the world and in 38 American states, leaving Australia’s lobbyists arguing that we are lagging behind.
According to Israeli legal scholar, Eugene Kontorovich, who co-wrote many of the anti-BDS laws, the key is not to ban BDS itself but to ban the use of public money going to supporters of BDS.
The Texan victims of 2017’s Hurricane Harvey were required to apply for government aid by signing a form that read:
“By executing this Agreement below, the Applicant verifies that the Applicant: (1) does not boycott Israel; and (2) will not boycott Israel during the term of this Agreement.”
A Kansas public school did not hire a teacher because she refused to sign a similar form. A court not only ruled in the teachers favour, but declared the anti-BDS law unconstitutional. In response, the law was amended but not repealed.
Iron Dome
AICC’s business is a body corporate, meaning it is membership based. The directors are not necessarily paid a salary, but they are accountable to the members who are also shareholders and owners. However, AICC does require their members to pay fees. MWM is not alleging that Segal or AICC profit from trade with Israel.
Segal also declined to comment.
The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet also declined to comment as to their awareness of Segal’s other roles, and whether they posed a conflict of interest.
Albanese and Segal opened 2022’s AICC annual summit together, followed immediately by a presentation on Israel’s Iron Dome defence system.
Antisemitism on the rise
Antisemitism is undoubtedly on the rise across the political spectrum.
The IHRA definition of antisemitism, beloved and pushed by Jillian Segal and her associates, labels the conflation of Jews with Israel as antisemitic. However, Segal herself has built a career on the conflation of Jews with the founding ideology of the so-called Jewish state: the ideology of Zionism.
Is this beneficial for social cohesion when Israel has been found to be plausibly committing genocide?
Will the pro-Israel lobbyists who have Jacinta Allan on speed dial, who laundered the genocide on the 6pm news, be approved to receive further government grants after signing the social cohesion pledge?
And was it beneficial for social cohesion when Segal herself called Palestinians and their supporters “barbarians at the gates”?
One thing is clear: by lobbying in alignment with Israel’s messianic crusade, Jillian Segal is reflecting the business interests of her AICC members.
Report conflates Australia’s ‘wave of antisemitism’ with Israel war critics
Yaakov Aharon is a Jewish-Australian living in Wollongong. He enjoys long walks on Wollongong Beach, unimpeded by Port Kembla smoke fumes and AUKUS submarines.