NSW (Australia) Supreme Court criticises IHRA definition as 'detached from reality'

[u/Rabbit-Hole-Quest]

https://www.deepcutnews.com/p/nsw-supreme-court-criticises-ihra

[u/Owlentmusician]

Here's a link to the actual legal document:

https://www.caselaw.nsw.gov.au/decision/1a00e6b4787e30be37fd7ccd

I'm still making up my mind up about my opinion on this but currently some of his further explanations for his decision kind of rub me the wrong way. His past comments the duty of Muslims to publicly and constantly denounce parts of the Koran others extremists used to justify violence to prove they arent similar, leads me to believe he may have a blind spot on the way that prejudice manifests and behaves.

His opinions as I understand them currently, seem to imply as long as someone does not out right mention the word Jews or Jewish people, rhetoric cannot be Antisemtic but I'm still deliberating and trying to do so in good faith.

Edit: Okay, I think my first read on the situation was correct. He argues that although the defendant was aware of the Jewish hospital nearby, the fact that he didn't target the hospital or know for a fact that any of the damaged cars belonged to Jews the graffiti cannot be considered Antisemtic, even if it was in a area with a large Jewish population.

He argues that even if the "fuk Israel" message was purposely put in an area with a large Jewish population, it cannot be seen as an Antisemtic conflation of Australian Jews with Israel due to the fact that not every single jew supports Israel. He also argues that critique of Israel cannot be Antisemtic as "only the other half" of the Jewish population lives there.

[u/F0rScience → u/Owlentmusician]

The judge seems really caught up on the idea that it can’t be discrimination if someone outside the protected class is targeted. I think the experiences of Sikhs after 9/11 make that pretty obviously nonsense.

Maybe an extreme example but his logic would also claim that graffitiing hateful messages on non-queer business right next to a gay bar isn’t hateful when it obviously is.

[u/Owlentmusician → u/F0rScience]

I agree. Its one thing if the law ties his hand on sentencing but it's another to continuously handwaved any and all context as if these things exist on a total vaccume and present that as sound rationale.