TEHRAN – When Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese faced Canberra cameras on Tuesday to announce the expulsion of Iran’s ambassador, he looked like a judge who will give a verdict on what English speakers call the Kangaroo Court.
Kangaroo Court is a very biased, fake trial. In such a process, the outcome is determined in advance, proving that the defendant’s innocence is ignored and evidence that the defendant is not given an appropriate opportunity to make a defense.
Albanese justified his decision by claiming that Australia’s Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) concluded that he was responsible for two “anti-Semitic attacks” that took place last year. He said what was attacked was “an extraordinary dangerous act of attacks organized by foreign countries” in order to undermine social cohesion in Australia.
Despite these serious charges, Albanese presented no supporting evidence. In particular, earlier this year, Australia’s federal police said 15 people reported anti-Semitic incidents across the country. This allowed the government to rush for new laws targeting pro-Palestinian protests, but it was organized by organized crime figures and not anti-women were expected.
Albanese also argued that it was likely that Iran had “directed more attacks,” and declared its intention to designate Iran’s most powerful military troop, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard (IRGC), as a terrorist organization.
Are Iranians anti-Semitism?
The first official Iranian reaction to the expulsion and the accompanying accusations came from a spokesman for Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Speaking at weekly press conferences, Esmaeil Baghaei announced that Iran would take retaliatory measures and dismiss anti-Semitism as a “Western phenomenon.”
“If you look at history, Jewish persecution because of their religion is a matter rooted in Europe, and it is them who must be held responsible for their historical past.
When contacted by the Tehran Times, Homayon Yaha Najafardai, the Jewish representative of Iranian parliament, confirmed the statements of the spokesman on anti-Semitism. “The Jews have lived in Iran for at least two to five hundred years,” he said. “While Jewish populations have been expelled and killed in places like Europe, we have been able to live with other Iranians for centuries without being discriminated against because of our religious beliefs.”
The pharmacist, Sameya, represents around 10,000 Jews living in Iran. The country’s constitution requires representatives of religious minorities, and one seat in the parliament is reserved for members of the Jewish community.
He said the Iranian government claims it is unbelievable to attack anti-Semitism abroad. “Every day I see Iranian authorities treat Jews with respect and do their best to ensure our community is comfortable and practice religion. I think Australia’s claims are ridiculous.”
Parliamentarians cited certain provisions for the Iranian Jewish community as an attractive indicator of respect given to religious minorities by Iranian politicians. For example, Jews have their own designated schools and can also send their children to schools attended by primarily Muslims. “In some parts of Iran, our schools have few students,” he explained. “But the government still provides the necessary budget to run even if there is only one student in a class in a city with a shortage of Jews.”
He also described systems that promote religious adherence among university students. If Jewish students are accepted into universities in urban areas without a community, the government will help promote transfers to cities with a larger Jewish population. “We need access to kosher food and synagogues,” pointed out Sameya. “This is why most Iranian Jews can complete their education in Iran. Our doctors, engineers and artists all graduated from top universities in Iran.”
Regarding their treatment in the wider society, Sameya believes that conditions have been continuously improved over the past century, especially over the past 40 and a half years. “At the end of the day, Iranian Jews are Iranians. We are one with Muslims, Christians, Zoroastrians. No one treats us differently because of our religion.”
Links to Australian Mossad
Australian information and security ratings regarding West Asia are not independent. They are sourced primarily from the American and Israeli institutions, namely the CIA and Mossad. However, this was not necessarily the case.
Under Prime Minister Edward Go Whitlam (1972-1975), Australia sought to diagram the more neutral and independent path in the region. His government was critical of Israel’s occupation since 1967, deemed it a barrier to peace and worked to strengthen diplomatic and economic ties with Arab countries. However, this independent trajectory stopped before it fully developed.
In 1975, Mossad informed the Australian security agency ASIO that it had discovered a Palestinian assassination plot against Australian figures. Among the targets targets were Bob Hawk, then president of the Australian Union Council and a passionate critic of Whitlam’s stance on Israel, who became prime minister in 1983.
Details of the alleged conspiracy were revealed in a declassified Cabinet paper in 2007. Palestinian ambassador Ali Kazak has dismissed the claim as Mossad propaganda designed to inflate Palestinian credibility and ASIO budgets. No evidence was provided to prove that the plot was true. Nevertheless, the incident has become a tool for Mossad to move Canberra away from the Palestinians and establish himself as a key security partner in Australia. This dynamic has persisted and has been used in the media recently, discouraging Australia from recognizing the Palestinian state at its upcoming UN General Assembly. “What did Mossad do for us? They just kept countless Australians safe,” the Australian wrote.
The plan to recognize the Palestinian state in September, along with some of Australia’s largest anti-Israel protests, has made Israeli leaders extremely angry. Last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu named Australian Prime Minister Albanese “a weak politician who betrayed Israel and abandoned Australian Jews.”
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araguchi appeared to agree with Netanyahu’s assessment for a totally different reason. In response to the expulsion of Iranian ambassador in Canberra, Aragut wrote to X: “I don’t have the habit of joining a cause with wanted criminals, but Netanyahu is one thing. When you involve Netanyahu, he is like him.”
During the recent anti-Israel protests in Sydney, protesters carried a poster of Iranian leader Ayatollah Khamenei, carrying images of Iranian generals and scientists killed during Israel’s war with Iran in June.