Media Report 2025.07.02

FPM Media Report Wednesday July 2 2025
At least 30 dead in Israeli strike on internet cafe in Gaza popular with journalists
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-01/israel-attacks-gaza-cafe-internet-killing-journalist/105480502

By Maddy Morwood with wires
In short:
An internet cafe in Gaza frequented by journalists was targeted by the Israeli military, killing at least 30 people including Palestinian photojournalist Ismail Abu Hatab.
At least 227 journalists have been killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023, according to the UN Human Rights Office, and it remains the deadliest place in the world to be a journalist.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Reporters without Borders both allege that Israel is directly targeting journalists in Gaza.
A seafront cafe in Gaza known for its public internet connection frequented by journalists, media workers, activists and students has been the target of the latest deadly strike by the Israeli military.
Warning: This story contains images and details that may distress some readers.

Gaza’s civil defence agency said that at least 30 people — including women, children and multiple journalists — were killed and dozens more injured in an Israeli strike on Al-Baqa Cafe.
One of the few businesses to continue operating during the war, the cafe was a popular gathering spot for those seeking internet access, phone chargers and a place to work.

“The place is always crowded with people because [it] offers drinks, family seating and internet access,” eyewitness Ahmed Al-Nayrab told AFP, recalling a “huge explosion that shook the area”.
“I saw body parts flying everywhere, and bodies cut and burned … It was a scene that made your skin crawl.”
Among the dead was 32-year-old Palestinian photojournalist and film director Ismail Abu Hatab.
Gaza war is now the ‘worst ever conflict’ for journalists
Palestinian photojournalist Fatima Hassouna was “Gaza’s eye”. Her death marks another journalist killed during the Israel-Gaza war, which has now become the “worst ever conflict” for journalists.
Ismail Abu Hatab was known for curating photo exhibitions detailing the horrors of life in Gaza, including the immersive photography exhibition Between the Sky and the Sea, which was recently shown in Los Angeles.
He was previously injured in an Israeli air strike while working at the Al-Ghafari tower in November 2023, he said in an interview last year to NDTV World.
Well-known Palestinian journalist Bayan Abu Sultan was also among the dozens injured at the cafe, multiple media outlets confirmed.

At least 227 journalists have been killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023, according to the UN Human Rights Office, which condemned what it called the Israeli military’s pattern of killings of journalists in Gaza.
Israeli military attacks reportedly killed 18 journalists in May 2025 alone, it added in a statement.
“Gaza remains the deadliest place in the world to be a journalist.”
The Palestinian Journalist Syndicate confirmed that more than 220 journalists had been killed in Gaza since the war began.
Monday’s strike came amid the latest offensive of the 20-month war, which started when Hamas militants entered Israel on October 7, 2023, killing more than 1,200 people and taking a further 251 hostage.
Israel’s subsequent military assault has killed more than 56,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to the Gaza health ministry.
‘Killed for trying to have internet access’
Since the war began, the Gaza Strip has experienced at least 10 partial and full communication and internet outages, limiting the flow of information to and from Gaza and preventing journalists from reporting.
Between June 10 and 21, the Gaza Strip experienced a complete internet outage and widespread mobile phone interruptions, which the Palestinian Telecommunications Regulatory Authority described as “systematic targeting”.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Reporters Without Borders (also known as Reporters sans Frontières or RSF) both allege that Israel is directly targeting journalists in Gaza, something which Israel denies.
“Israeli forces have done everything in their power to prevent coverage of what is happening in Gaza, and have systematically targeted journalists who have taken tremendous risks to do their jobs,” RSF campaign director Rebecca Vincent said.
Palestinian journalist Gathi Sabbah, 65, last month told The Journal that some public internet access points or cafes had become targets for Israeli drones.
“You might be killed for trying to have internet access there,”he said.
“Even going to a cafe carries real risk to our lives,” he told Palestinian journalist Hana Salah at The Journal.
“Many people have lost their lives just by being there, even though they were civilians.”
Gaza’s government media office said it condemned “in the strongest terms the systematic targeting, killing and assassination of Palestinian journalists” by Israeli forces.
In May, Palestinian photojournalist Fatima Hassouna was killed in an Israeli air strike just one day after she found out a documentary about her life in Gaza was to premiere in Cannes.
Approached for comment by AFP, the Israeli army said it was “looking into” the reports of the attack at Al-Baqa Cafe.
ABC/wires
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Benjamin Netanyahu, ‘the one person who wants this war to continue’, may make a Gaza deal
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-02/benjamin-netanyahu-hamas-gaza-ceasefire-deal-donald-trump/105480516

By Middle East correspondent Eric Tlozek
Since the October 7 attacks in 2023, the prevailing view in Israel has been that Benjamin Netanyahu never wanted a ceasefire in Gaza.
The prime minister himself has said repeatedly that anything less than “total victory” over the militant group Hamas is unacceptable.
Cabinet colleagues have confirmed Netanyahu’s stance, and he has rejected agreements that stipulate an end to the war.
Netanyahu’s opponents have accused him of continuing the fighting to distract from his long-running corruption trial and unresolvable tensions within his far-right and ultra-orthodox governing coalition — something he denies.
But even “the one person in the world who wants this war to continue”, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, may soon need to make a deal.
A large group of protesters gather, some with pictures and banners with Hebrew written on them.
Protesters in Tel Aviv rallying against Mr Netanyahu’s government demand the end of the war and the immediate release of hostages held by Hamas. (AP: Ariel Schalit)
US President Donald Trump is fuelling hopes of an imminent agreement, saying that he wants the Gaza war to end.
Buoyed by the recent ceasefire with Iran, he told reporters last Friday he thinks a deal could be struck “within the next week” and posted on his Truth Social platform on Sunday: “MAKE THE DEAL IN GAZA. GET THE HOSTAGES BACK.”
Previously, his administration has been the only thing capable of pressuring Netanyahu’s government, as evidenced by his demand that Israel stop attacks on Iran and the signing of the second Gaza ceasefire just prior to Trump’s inauguration.
Military gives Netanyahu a way out
Importantly, the Israeli military is saying it has met the aims of the most recent offensive in Gaza, which has left even more of the strip destroyed and Palestinians forced into around 18 per cent of the land, according to the UN.
“In the near future, we will reach the lines we defined for the current phase within the framework of operation ‘Gideon’s Chariots’. From there, operational options will be developed and presented to the political echelon,” the IDF chief of staff, Eyal Zamir, said on Friday.
“We will continue to act with determination in order to achieve the two main objectives of the war — the return of the hostages and the defeat of Hamas.”
Lieutenant General Zamir reportedly told the Israeli cabinet that intensifying the operation further would risk the hostages.
Israeli commentators see this as a signal from the military that Netanyahu can choose this moment to tap out.
Palestinians inspect a huge pile of rubble after an Israeli strike on a residential building.
There is not much left to destroy in Gaza.
Even staunch allies, like Germany, have expressed horror at the humanitarian crisis produced by Israel’s attempts to dismantle the United Nations aid system.
The other option being floated is that Israel could send soldiers back into Gaza City, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have sought shelter from the IDF’s advance.
Already, increased Israeli strikes are hitting Gaza, reportedly killing 67 people on Monday.
“The intensified operations are seen as part of a broader strategy to exert military pressure on Hamas amid ongoing ceasefire negotiations,” the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth wrote.
This option is also possible, given Netanyahu has previously been willing to continue escalating in the face of international and domestic pressure, despite the likely cost.
June has been the deadliest month for the IDF in Gaza the past year, with 20 soldiers killed, including seven in one attack on an armoured personnel carrier.
It’s one of many factors making the Israeli public increasingly in favour of ending the war.
Netanyahu and Trump to discuss ceasefire
Netanyahu, fresh from a supposed victory over Iran, has indicated he is now willing to place a higher value on the Israeli hostages who remain inside Gaza than the war aim of destroying Hamas.
A senior Israeli minister, Ron Dermer, will be in Washington DC, this week to discuss the potential ceasefire.
Next Monday, Netanyahu is due to meet Trump at the White House.
US officials said Trump would press for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and would discuss plans about the return of the remaining hostages.
According to an Israeli official, Trump and Netanyahu would also discuss Iran, Syria and other regional challenges, Reuters reported.
At present, Israel’s government says it has accepted the current US proposal for a 60-day ceasefire, which includes the release of half of the remaining hostages in exchange for Palestinians detained by Israel.
Hamas has offered multiple times to release all of the hostages, but only if Israel guarantees the war will end.
It has often accused Netanyahu of being the main obstacle to reaching a deal.
Trump’s f-bomb is one missile that could sway Benjamin Netanyahu
Photo shows Netanyahu in a suit at a podium with his hand raisedNetanyahu in a suit at a podium In his first comments since the alleged ceasefire between Israel and Iran was announced, the US President let rip, and Israel’s PM heard him loud and clear.
There is some suggestion that Hamas could allow Israeli troops to remain in unpopulated parts of Gaza during the ceasefire period, softening its requirement for a total Israeli withdrawal.
However, the group’s other demands have not shifted much in recent days and it is saying it “will not go to a deal under the current conditions”.
“Halting the aggression and opening the door for relief aid to Palestinians in the Strip are two non-negotiable conditions,” Hamas leader Mahmoud Mardawi told Al Jazeera.
Mardawi also said the group would not consider disarming.
“The resistance’s arms are directly linked to ending the occupation and are not subject to negotiation,” he said.
Without significant US pressure and movement from both Hamas and Israel, this chance might be lost, like many others before it.
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Israel to review attack on Gaza beachside cafe after 24 Palestinians killed
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/israel-to-review-attack-on-gaza-beachside-cafe-after-24-palestinians-killed/7i02xov5w

In a statement to AFP regarding an attack that killed 24 Palestinians, Israel’s army said it had struck “several Hamas terrorists in the northern Gaza Strip”.
The Israeli army said Tuesday that it launched a review into a strike on a seafront Gaza cafe it says targeted militants, but which rescuers said killed 24 people.
In a statement to AFP regarding the incident, the army said it had struck “several Hamas terrorists in the northern Gaza Strip”.
Gaza’s civil defence said at least 24 Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded in Monday’s strike on the Al-Baqa cafe, a prominent venue along Gaza City’s coastal promenade.

An army spokesperson said that “prior to the strike, steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians using aerial surveillance”.
“The incident is under review,” he added.
The cafe and restaurant, which had so far survived more than 20 months of war and intense bombings on the Palestinian territory, had become a gathering spot for those not displaced by the conflict.
“There’s always a lot of people at that spot, which offers drinks, spaces for families, and internet access,” said Ahmad al-Nayrab, 26, who was walking on the nearby beach when he heard a loud explosion.
Israel acknowledges Palestinian civilians harmed at Gaza aid sites, says ‘lessons learned’
“It was a massacre,” he told AFP.
“I saw bits of bodies flying everywhere, bodies mangled and burned. It was a bloodcurdling scene; everybody was screaming.”
An AFP photographer said Palestinian journalist Ismail Abu Hatab was among those killed in the strike.
Israeli restrictions on media in Gaza and difficulties in accessing some areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by rescuers and authorities in the territory.
Qatar, which has mediated between Israel and Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, said on Saturday a “window of opportunity” had opened for a potential Gaza truce following a ceasefire between Iran and Israel.
So far, no concrete signs of renewed talks have emerged.
‘It is killing people’: Why the UN says the new Gaza aid system is inherently unsafe
Israel launched its campaign in response to Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Of the 251 hostages seized during the assault, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 56,531 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
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The Age letters
https://www.theage.com.au/topic/the-age-letters-1rf

Israel’s wins
In the recent brief war between Israel and Iran, Israel, having recognised the existential threat posed to it by Iran’s public race towards nuclear weapons and rapidly expanding ballistic missile arsenal, destroyed Iran’s air defences and killed almost the entire upper echelon of Iran’s military, IRGC and nuclear scientists, whose purpose is the total demise of Israel. It also destroyed Iran’s air force, its defences against air attack, more than half of its missiles and missile launchers, elements of its nuclear weaponisation program, and many of the regime’s institutions of oppression.
Then the US inflicted major damage on the rest of Iran’s nuclear weapons facilities, once Israel made Iran’s skies safe for it. Israel intercepted at least 90 per cent of the hundreds of missiles and all but one of the roughly 1000 drones Iran fired at Israel. While Israel suffered some damage and deaths from Iran’s attacks on civilians, it was far less than Israel had feared. So to suggest, as Amin Saikal does, (Opinion, 1/7) that the war demonstrated Israeli miscalculation and Iranian strength simply defies belief and ignores fact.
Stephen Lazar, Elwood

Crisis in Gaza
In our lives we have seen few situations as awful as Gaza. Israel’s blockade of adequate food, water and medical supplies for several months has led to infants and children becoming severely malnourished. Desperate people seeking limited food from the only provider, which is controlled by Israel, come under lethal fire. The images cause us to recoil in horror as we observe the suffering of the hungry and frightened children, and the anguish of their parents. No history, no previous grievous acts, justifies the continuation of this abhorrent war and blockade.
Andrew & Marie Trembath, Blackburn
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SMH Letters
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/in-the-ideal-place-to-flaunt-wealth-what-do-you-expect-20250701-p5mbjr.html

Gaza peace efforts

Thanks for the editorial (“Out of rubble of Iran, renewed hopes for a Gaza ceasefire”, July 1). While you’ve given a good overview of a complex situation, attempting to balance the horrors of the initial Hamas attack with the continuing horror of Israel’s deliberate, careless slaughter of tens of thousands of innocents, a fair balance also requires noting the deliberate use of starvation of children as a weapon of war. If this doesn’t meet the definition of genocide then that definition needs to be reviewed. Kevin Fell, Cooks Hill

By his own account, US President Donald Trump covets the Nobel Peace Prize. Like him or loathe him, brokering a ceasefire in Gaza would no doubt advance his cause. What would seal the deal is a well-thought-out plan for what happens next. At this stage only the brave or foolhardy would expect him to commit to a long-term program of reconstruction in Gaza. Tom Knowles, Parkville (VIC)

Does Trump really have any idea of what is involved in arranging a “ceasefire” as he claims he can do during this obscene Middle East war? Get the hostages home (maybe), bomb Iran (tick) and persuade Netanyahu to stop killing Palestinians (nah). Here’s an idea instead: Hamas will release the remaining hostages the moment Netanyahu steps down from the presidency and faces trial for corruption. Worth a try … Nola Tucker, Kiama
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Glastonbury is just the latest front in joyless Left’s culture war
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/glastonbury-is-just-the-latest-front-in-joyless-lefts-culture-war/news-story/60a520fa44b1e8953236ceb3d9d67b7f

Zoe Booth
One of my most vivid memories of a music festival is Australia Day, 2011. I was 16, surrounded by sweaty, chemically enhanced bodies in the Boiler Room at Sydney’s Big Day Out. I’d taken the Greyhound two hours from Newcastle and blown most of my hard-earned waitress wages on a $200 ticket and a wildly impractical outfit that consisted of short shorts and a bikini top. I can still hear my dad’s voice, his typical humour ringing through: “where’s the rest of that?”
There I was, a teenager thrilled to be playing adult, with no parents, no teachers, just music, noise and freedom. Raving to South African hip-hop duo Die Antwoord, whose transgressive style and trash-glam aesthetic mirrored South Africa’s version of our bogans. Yet despite being proud Afrikaners, no one suggested their show be boycotted or cancelled for being white “settler colonialists”.
No one mentioned apartheid or genocide, and no flags were waved, aside from the Australian flag, which often was draped around the sunburnt shoulders of a drunk girl or tattooed on to the chest of a burly bloke.
These days I’m still wearing short shorts but little else remains the same. The Australian flags are gone; you’re likelier to see a Palestinian one, but more on that later.
Big Day Out, like so many festivals, has folded.
Gone are the days of doing anything remotely fun or celebratory on January 26. In fact, gone are many festivals in general. While demand was so high that in 2011 the organisers added another show on January 27, by 2014 ticket sales had tanked and Big Day Out, like many festivals, folded. Then came the Covid pandemic, which gutted live music and the arts.
But something deeper has shifted. Even before Covid, the arts quietly were being taken over by the most joyless enforcers of the woke Left who drained everything of its fun and libertine spirit.
Take Glastonbury. Last week marked its 55th year. The festival’s founder, farmer Michael Eavis, launched it in 1970 with £1 tickets and free milk for festivalgoers. He chose Worthy Farm at Pilton – his family’s working dairy farm – as the venue, saying at the time: “There’s a kind of euphoria down here. It’s away from the awful realities of life. It’s a nice place.”
I doubt he imagined that, 55 years later, this supposed haven of peace and euphoria would become the stage for death chants and terror flags. But that’s exactly what happened.
Last weekend, punk rap duo Bob Vylan led the crowd in a chant of “Death to the IDF”. It was followed by Kneecap, a Northern Irish rap trio named after an IRA torture tactic and known for peppering its sets with anti-Israel slogans. One of Kneecap’s members recently was charged with a terror offence after waving the Hezbollah flag on stage and shouting “Up Hamas, up Hezbollah”. I can only imagine how Haim – a delightful pop trio of Jewish sisters with an Israeli father – must have felt performing alongside them.
Apologists for this reprehensible and deeply un-fun behaviour will try to tell you it’s simply about criticising Israel’s military, but don’t let them fool you; they don’t just mean the IDF. They mean Zionists: Israelis and Jews. After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, we saw some Ukrainian flags in the crowd but no acts shouting “Death to Russia” or “Death to the Russian army”.
Right now Glastonbury is in the spotlight but soon it will fade – replaced, no doubt, by the next controversy. And judging by the current trajectory, it’ll likely be another one where Jews are made to fear for their physical safety.
We know this isn’t new. The arts have been festering in their own ideological swamp for years. Fahad Ali – yes, the one under police investigation for tweeting “F. k sanctions, I want Zionists executed like we executed Nazis” – also was behind the 2022 Sydney Festival boycott. The crime? A $20,000 sponsorship from the Israeli embassy. He and the Palestine Justice Movement Sydney claimed, among other absurdities, that the donation made the festival unsafe for Arab and Palestinian artists.
After witnessing musicians shouting for death on stage, this looks even more ridiculous now. But as a result of their woke tantrum, more than 100 artists pulled out, 10 per cent of the program vanished and the festival banned all future foreign government sponsorship. So much for claims that the arts are underfunded. I guess these Israelophobes would prefer no art to art made with the help of dirty Israeli money.
It’s not only music and theatre. After a humble trivia night at our local pub, my fiance ended up on Sky News after we were threatened by a woke wannabe comedian turned trivia host. The moment he strutted out in a Bernie Sanders T-shirt and started ranting about everything from Elon Musk to Israel, we knew any hope of levity was gone. To make an unfunny night even worse, this Israel-obsessed trivia host took to Instagram to mock my fiance about losing family in the Holocaust.
just how ‘hateful’ the left has become
Sky News host Rita Panahi says Glastonbury has come to symbolise just how “hateful and
Since October 7, even Nazeem Hussain, one of Australia’s best-known Muslim comedians, has pivoted from jokes to lectures about white Australia and Israel.
Historically, Jews have funded and shaped the arts. Without Jewish artists such as Leonard Bernstein, George Gershwin, Steven Spielberg, Franz Kafka and Philip Roth, we wouldn’t have the cultural backbone of modern Western art.
Jewish Australians have done the same here. Despite making up just 0.46 per cent of the population, they have contributed hundreds of millions to the arts. Frank Lowy alone has given more than $350m. Marc and Eva Besen founded the TarraWarra Museum of Art. Jeanne Pratt backed Monash’s theatre program. John Gandel funded Museums Victoria. Naomi Milgrom gave Melbourne its MPavilions. These are the names behind the National Gallery of Victoria, the Melbourne Theatre Company and more.
The Romans understood that shared public spectacles – festivals, games – built social cohesion. Events such as the Ludi Romani or Saturnalia brought everyone together across class and creed. But as Rome declined, so did Romanitas, the civic pride of being Roman.
Today, the West feels much the same: drained, brittle, ashamed of itself. What once brought us together has become yet another front in the culture war.
Zoe Booth is a content director at Quillette.
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Netanyahu to visit White House as US presses for ceasefire
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/netanyahu-to-visit-white-house-as-us-presses-for-ceasefire/news-story/35e226f8f14cb98215b4c55a71e83218

Donald Trump is to host Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House for talks next Monday as the US presses for a ceasefire and hostage deal between Israel and Hamas.
The visit comes as the US President steps up his push on the Israeli government to broker a ceasefire and hostage agreement and bring about an end to the war in Gaza.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said earlier that Mr Netanyahu had “expressed interest” in a meeting with Mr Trump and that both sides were “working on a date”.
“This has been a priority for the President since he took office, to end this brutal war in Gaza,” Ms Leavitt told reporters in a briefing.
“It’s heartbreaking to see the images that have come out from both Israel and Gaza throughout this war, and the President wants to see it end.”
Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer will also hold talks at the White House this week, after Mr Trump said he hoped for a truce in Gaza within a week, and called on Israel to “make the deal in Gaza”.
“I know that Mr Dermer is in Washington this week to meet with senior officials here at the White House,” Ms Leavitt told reporters.
Mr Netanyahu’s visit will be his third to Washington since Mr Trump returned to power in January.
The war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of 1219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Palestinian militants seized 251 hostages during Hamas’s attack on Israel and of these, 49 are still believed to be held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.
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JIHADI CLERIC ‘BREACHED RACE HATE LAW’
https://todayspaper.theaustralian.com.au/infinity/article_popover_share.aspx?guid=13e4638d-e0d7-4b6d-8ad0-88e6d6e8c6fe&share=true

Court upholds complaint by nation’s peak Jewish body
James Dowling
Muslim preacher Wissam Haddad is defiant in the face of a Federal Court ruling that he knowingly breached racial hatred laws, upholding a complaint by the ­nation’s peak Jewish body that he broadcast anti-Semitic rhetoric to his congregation and online.
Judge Angus Stewart on Tuesday ruled that Mr Haddad had breached section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act in a series of lectures and sermons asserting that Jews were “vile” and “treacherous” people made in the month after the October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks.
Mr Haddad, who legally changed his first name to William more than 20 years ago but who is also known as Abu Ousayd, was not in court as Justice Stewart presented a summary of his judgment at 12.30pm. He arrived seven minutes after the verdict against him had been announced.
“I have found that the series of lectures titled ‘The Jews of Al Madina’ conveys disparaging impu­tations about Jewish people, and that in all the circumstances were reasonably likely to offend, insult, humiliate and intimidate Jews in Australia,” Justice Stewart said.
“They make perverse generalisations against Jewish people as a group.
“Mr Haddad sought to justify the imputations on the basis that he was teaching tafsir, but the expert witnesses on Islamic theology from both sides agree that neither the Koran nor the Hadith teach that Jews have an inherent negative quality as a people.”
Mr Haddad or speakers at the Al Madina Dawah Centre in southwest Sydney have called Jewish people “descendants of pigs and monkeys”, recited parables about their killing, and said people should “spit” on Israel so its citizens “would drown”.
“Mr Haddad will maintain that his sermons – delivered in the context of religious instruction and based on scriptural references – were never intended to insult any group in Australia on the basis of their ethnic identity,” the cleric’s lawyer, Elias Tabchouri, said outside court on Tuesday.
“He maintains he has the right to quote religious scripture, as all parties do, the court has found he has that right. Further to that, the court has found that simply criticising what the Israeli nation has done in Gaza is not anti-Semitic, and that position has been affirmed by the court. We’ll make no further comment.”
Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief Peter Wertheim said he would call Mr Haddad back to court for potential contempt should he breach court orders against him, saying the outcome “vindicated” community ­action against anti-Semitism.
“When it became evident that the responsible authorities in Australia could not, or would not, act to protect vulnerable members of our community from hate mongering, threats and violence, we decided we had no alternative but to take action ourselves so as to defend the safety and honour of our community,” he said outside court.
“That decision has been vindicated by the judgment that has just been handed down. It confirms that the days when Jewish communities and the Jewish people can be vilified and targeted, with impunity, are a thing of the past.
“This case was not about freedom of expression or religious freedom. It was about anti-­Semitism and the abuse of those freedoms in order to promote anti-Semitism.
“If the 300 ancestry groups and 100 faith communities living in Australia today were all free to vilify one another in the way Mr Haddad vilified the Jewish people, the door would be wide open to chronic racial and sectarian strife of the kind that has devastated other countries, and the peace and harmony we have generally enjoyed in Australia would be ruined for everyone.
“Common decency should dictate that free speech and freedom of religion do not include the right to racially vilify other people. Common decency should tell us that that is where to draw the line.”
He said the verdict indicated current federal criminal anti-vilification laws were insufficient.
“The original proposals for prosecution were never tested. Those prosecutions were never brought,” he said.
“So we don’t know whether stronger laws are needed, but if the authorities believe that those laws were not sufficient to prosecute in a case like this, or in the case of the Opera House steps and the chanting of ‘F..k the Jews’ and much worse, then clearly the laws are in need of reform.”
Justice Stewart upheld the argument of ECAJ lawyers that Mr Haddad’s speeches were the “racist project” of a self-proclaimed “masjid (mosque) shock jock” indiscriminately targeting those of Jewish faith and ethnicity. He ordered the speeches be removed from social media and Mr Haddad pay for the cost of proceedings.
Most notably, he granted ECAJ’s application for a muzzle order on Mr Haddad that would find him in contempt of court should he racially discriminate against Jewish Australians in the future.
He ordered Mr Haddad not facilitate “words, sounds or images (being) communicated otherwise than in private, which attribute characteristics to Jewish people on the basis of their group membership and which convey any of the disparaging imputations identified as being conveyed by the lectures”.
Justice Stewart found criticism of Israel and Zionism was not inherently anti-Semitic.
Mr Haddad’s barrister, Andrew Boe, conceded last month that Mr Haddad may have been a “bad preacher” whose sermons were clumsily constructed.
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TRUMP’S BID FOR PEACE IN GAZA
https://todayspaper.theaustralian.com.au/infinity/article_popover_share.aspx?guid=109f91ad-dc02-4283-973e-848b26a8ddb1&share=true

‘President wants to see it end’: Netanyahu locked in for white house talks
Gabrielle Weiniger
Donald Trump is to host Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House next Monday as the Israeli Prime Minister attempts to achieve ­consensus in his government over a ceasefire and hostage deal with Hamas.
The visit comes as the US President steps up pressure on the ­Israeli government to bring about an end to the war in Gaza.
The trip will be Mr Netanyahu’s third to the White House since Mr Trump returned to office in January, and it comes after the US inserted itself into Israel’s war against Iran by attacking Iranian nuclear sites. After brokering a ceasefire between the two countries, Mr Trump has signalled that he’s turning his attention to bringing a close to the fighting between Israel and Hamas. Mr Trump on Friday said “we think within the next week we’re going to get a ceasefire” in Gaza, but didn’t give a reason for his optimism.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Mr Trump and administration officials were in constant communication with the Israeli leadership.
“This has been a priority for the President since he took office, to end this brutal war in Gaza,” Ms Leavitt said. “It’s heartbreaking to see the images that have come out from both Israel and Gaza throughout this war, and the President wants to see it end.”
Mr Netanyahu on Tuesday met senior ministers and aides to discuss a potential ceasefire with Hamas and will reconvene his ­security cabinet on Thursday as he attempts to achieve a consensus among divided ministers.
In meetings on Sunday, the military told security officials it had almost completed its mission: to fully occupy the Gaza Strip and clear out the last vestiges of Palestinian militants.
The cabinet is thought to be discussing various options, including a truce with Hamas, the release of the hostages, and withdrawal of ­Israeli troops from much of Gaza, with the exception of defined buffer zones and corridors designed to prevent any repeat of the massacres of October 7, 2023. Full ­occupation of the Strip is also on the table.
Mr Trump appears to be pushing for a ceasefire and hostage deal, posting on Truth Social on Saturday: “Netanyahu is negotiating a deal with Hamas that will include the release of the hostages.” On Sunday, he added in capitals: “MAKE THE DEAL IN GAZA. GET THE HOSTAGES BACK!!!”
On the same day, Mr Netanyahu said the war with Iran had ­created “opportunities” to free the hostages. Riding high on his ­declared success in the fight against Iran’s nuclear and missile program, the Israeli Prime Minister may see this as an ideal opportunity to strike a deal with Hamas, despite dissenting voices in his cabinet.
Ron Dermer, Israel’s Strategic Affairs Minister and a Netanyahu confidant, was also expected to meet officials in the White House this week to discuss a plan for a ceasefire and a wider peace. Mr Dermer is also expected to discuss a deal that would create formal relations between Syria and Israel.
Jerusalem and Damascus have been holding discussions for months about ending hostilities between the two countries, with Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar saying on Monday his country was looking to expand regional peace treaties to include Syria and Lebanon. Syria and Israel have been bitter enemies for decades and fought three major wars.
There has been no indication whether Mr Netanyahu and Mr Trump have in mind a temporary, limited ceasefire with Hamas, or whether a more permanent peace settlement is up for discussion. However, for the first time, Mr Netanyahu suggested freeing the hostages – rather than eliminating Hamas – was the primary goal.
Speaking at Shin Bet headquarters in southern Israel, he said: “First of all, to rescue the hostages. Of course, we will also have to solve the Gaza issue, to defeat Hamas, but I estimate that we will achieve both tasks.”
Mr Netanyahu’s apparent reordering of priorities comes as he weighs a new election season, his posters lining Israel’s highways. He may conclude a touted victory in Iran and the release of the hostages is a good starting point for his campaign. On Tuesday (AEST), at least 30 people were said to have been killed in an airstrike on a beachfront cafe in Gaza City. Dozens of Palestinians were killed across Gaza, the Hamas-run health ministry reported, as Israel issued evacuation orders in the north and south in advance of “intensified” operations.
At least 58 people were killed, the health authorities said, including those who died in the Israeli airstrike on Al-Baqa Cafeteria, a beachfront cafe in Gaza City once used by activists and journalists. They said a further 11 Palestinians were killed while waiting for food to be distributed, the latest among 500 Gazans reported to have died this way since Israel took over control of aid distribution.
The last Gaza ceasefire was torn up in February after six weeks when Israel resumed fighting. Hamas has previously held out for a permanent end to the war, but is under pressure to either agree to a temporary truce and the release of Palestinian prisoners in return for the hostages, or watch Gaza fall to Israeli occupation once again.
The Times, AFPEditorial
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West Bank settlers turn on Israeli military after attacking Palestinians
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/west-bank-settlers-turn-on-israeli-military-after-attacking-palestinians/news-story/ba13e3d009ff24aabe3d3e8ee26c4254

Dov Lieber
Israeli settlers attack Israeli soldiers in occupied West Bank
Israeli settlers targeted Israeli soldiers in an occupied West Bank riot.
Dow Jones
Israelis from West Bank settlements have attacked Israel’s troops and vandalised military sites in the occupied territory in recent days, after the country’s military took measures to combat assaults on Palestinians.
On Sunday night, a demonstration outside a military installation in the West Bank turned violent with some Israeli civilians attacking security forces, including with pepper spray, the Israeli military said. They also damaged military vehicles and set fire to an electronic installation the army said was used to maintain security in the area.
Video from the scene showed demonstrators holding signs calling a local military commander “a traitor.” This followed an incident on Friday where Israeli troops enforcing a closed military zone outside a recently attacked Palestinian village were ambushed by dozens of Israeli civilians who hurled stones and physically assaulted them, including the battalion commander, according to the military. During the altercation, a teenager among the group attacking the Israeli troops was injured.
The incidents highlight the lack of law and order that has pervaded the West Bank in recent years, as Israelis associated with settlements have frequently attacked Palestinians, often without consequences, and sometimes clashed with Israeli security forces.
The Israeli attackers on Sunday spray-painted “revenge” on the military site, something they often scrawl when committing attacks against Palestinians.
Israel’s government includes far-right lawmakers and ministers who often express sympathy for Israelis who attack Palestinians, but the recent attacks on Israeli security forces received broad condemnation, including from the far right.
“Attacking the security forces, security facilities, and Israeli soldiers who are our brothers, our protectors, is a red line, and must be dealt with the utmost severity,” Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s far-right minister for national security, wrote on X.

Daily raids in occupied West Bank conducted to make life ‘miserable’
Since October 7, Israel’s arrests in the West Bank aim to push out Palestinian youth.
The recent attacks on Palestinian villages went uncondemned by senior Israeli figures.
These include an attack Wednesday night by dozens of Israeli civilians in the village of Kafr Malik, located in the southern West Bank near Ramallah, according to Israeli, Palestinian and United Nations officials.
The Israeli attackers set fire to property in the village, according to Israeli and Palestinian authorities. When an altercation broke out, the army intervened and opened fire on Palestinians who threw stones and shot at troops, according to the military.
Three Palestinians were killed during the incident, according to the U.N. Israel’s military said it detained five Israeli suspects.
Palestinians and rights groups have long complained that Israelis have been able to carry out attacks on Palestinians and that they haven’t had protection from the Israeli military, whose soldiers are sometimes present during the attacks.
Many areas of the West Bank are off-limits to Palestinian security forces, and Israel’s military is charged with protecting civilians there.
Israeli military officials say they try to prevent attacks against Palestinians but are constrained by a lack of resources.
Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 Mideast war. Palestinians and most of the world say the territory is occupied by Israel and Israeli settlements there are illegal. Israel considers the West Bank to be disputed territory and most of the settlements to be legal.
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Charities call for end to deadly new Gaza aid system
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/9005968/charities-call-for-end-to-deadly-new-gaza-aid-system/

By Olivia Le Poidevin
More than 170 non-governmental organisations are calling for a US- and Israeli-backed food aid distribution scheme in Gaza to be dismantled over concerns it is putting civilians at risk of death and injury.
More than 500 people have been killed in mass shootings near aid distribution centres or transport routes guarded by Israeli forces since the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation started operating in late May, according to medical authorities in Gaza.
The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to get supplies into Gaza, largely bypassing a UN-led system that Israel says had let militants divert aid.
The United Nations has called the plan “inherently unsafe” and a violation of humanitarian impartiality rules.
As of early afternoon in Geneva on Tuesday, where the joint declaration was released, 171 charities had signed onto the call for countries to press Israel to halt the GHF scheme and reinstate aid co-ordinated through the United Nations.
“Palestinians in Gaza face an impossible choice: starve or risk being shot while trying desperately to reach food to feed their families,” the statement said.
Groups signing it included Oxfam, Doctors Without Borders, Save the Children, the Norwegian Refugee Council and Amnesty International.
In a response, the GHF told Reuters it had delivered more than 52 million meals in five weeks and said other humanitarian groups had “nearly all of their aid looted”.
“Instead of bickering and throwing insults from the sidelines, we would welcome other humanitarian groups to join us and feed the people in Gaza,” the GHF told Reuters.
The NGOs accused the GHF of forcing hungry and weak people to trek for hours, sometimes through active conflict zones, to receive food aid.
The Israeli military acknowledged on Monday that Palestinian civilians have been harmed at aid distribution centres in the Gaza Strip, saying Israeli forces had been issued new instructions following what it called “lessons learned”.
Israel has repeatedly said its forces operate near the centres in order to prevent the aid from falling into the hands of Palestinian Hamas militants.
Australian Associated Press
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Letters Canberra Times
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/9004790/act-governments-health-levy-a-tax-on-another-tax/

Where is moral clarity?
The anti-Israel chants at the Glastonbury music festival were offensive. Nobody would question that. And politicians, police, and festival organisers have lined up to condemn them.
But meanwhile, in Gaza, people are being killed while queuing for food. Aid workers and journalists have been targeted again and again.
None of this is to excuse hate speech. But we should ask: “Why do chants at a concert provoke more political energy and moral clarity than the killing of besieged, starving civilians?”
Surely we can hold both actions to account?
Fernanda Trecenti, Fitzroy, Vic
TO THE POINT
A TOUGH CALL
Mokhles Sidden asks why Israel’s vaunted intelligence services can’t locate the hostages (Letters, June 26). They probably do know where the hostages are. But they also know the hostages are surrounded by Hamas terrorists who will murder them if Israeli soldiers approach.
R Webb, Griffith
IRANIANS ARE VICTIMS
I feel for the Iranian people who have been lied to and brainwashed by their government. Iran’s leaders have been living in a fantasy land. They got trounced in 12 days, and now the innocents are paying the price. Those egotistical maniacs shouldn’t be trusted to man a zebra crossing.
Des Parkin, Norseman, WA
WHO’S ON FIRST?
The place that some call Israel, others call Palestine and some call the Levant was settled by homo erectus about a million years ago. Homo sapiens arrived about 100,000 years ago and the Hebrews about 3500 years ago. No religion or tribe can claim it is exclusively theirs. There will be no enduring peace until it becomes a secular democracy.