Antisemitism envoy Jillian Segal is part of a network of ‘special envoys’ launched by key pro-Israel bodies and the US State Department. Cathy Peters and Wendy Bacon investigate.

Civil liberties and Palestinian supporters are calling for the sacking of the Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism, Jillian Segal, after her latest ‘Priorities’ report accused them of using ‘human rights’ to hide their antisemitism.

Foreign agency. Antisemitism Envoy Jillian Segal a US tool for Zionists

by Cathy Peters and Wendy Bacon

Segal’s Priorities ‘roadmap’ appears designed to increase the pressure on all levels of government as well as the forthcoming final report of the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion in December.

Segal is an active player in an international network coordinated by key pro-Israel Jewish bodies as well as the US State Department. Indeed, if it had not been for pressure from the US government, Segal might not have the job at all.

Segal is one of 32 Special Envoys in North America, Europe, South America, Israel and Australia.

The position of the US Special Envoy to Combat and Monitor Antisemitism was established in 2004 when New Jersey Republican congressman Chris Smith, who has a history of advocating for Israel and a record of accusing organisations including UN bodies of rampant antisemitism, successfully pushed to pass legislation creating the position.

The State Department then lobbied allies to appoint Envoys.

Following the US lead, the European Union appointed an Envoy in 2015, followed by Canada, Greece, the Organization of American States (OAS) and the UK. Israel’s envoy is part of its Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In 2021 Smith, by then a strong Trump supporter, successfully pushed for an amendment which strengthened the position of US Special Envoy to the level of ambassador, who reports directly to the Secretary of State, is appointed by the President and crucially, can access foreign governments.

The ambassador’s mission is to promote US foreign policy by developing and implementing policies and projects to support action against antisemitism. The office uses the controversial International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition which directly links Jewish people with Zionism and the State of Israel, and conflates criticism of Israel with antisemitism.

Current US Antisemitism Ambassador is far right winger Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun who has boasted about influencing governments and recently described his office as supporting Trump’s policies by having 250,000 visas cancelled to keep campuses ‘safe’, interfering in foreign educational curricula and initiating prosecutions of what he describes as ‘hate crimes’.

This is echoed in Segal’s ‘Priorities’ which include compulsory training for Home Affairs staff responsible for certain visa applications and a task force to review existing visas.

Initially reluctant, the Labor Albanese government finally appointed Segal in July 2024.

Her appointment followed a period of intense lobbying from the US State Department which was not covered by Australian media.

FOI releases show that In May 2024, the then US deputy antisemitism envoy, Aaron Keyek travelled to Australia and met with officials in Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Attorney General’s Department to put pressure on the Albanese government to appoint an envoy.

He also met with Co-Chair of Labor Friends of Israel Deborah O’Neill.

The crunch came with an ultimatum regarding a meeting of special envoys in Argentina in July 2024 to sign US drafted global guidelines to counter antisemitism. A former senior US official told JNS,

“We were all diplomatic about it, but we told Australia, essentially, ‘it’s going to be glaring.’ We didn’t want to repeat the situation where one of our closest allies didn’t stand up to one of the top foreign-policy priorities when it comes to human rights that the United States is pushing internationally… So we told them that they could

only attend if the delegation was led by a special envoy.”

Australia jumped and DFAT sent a cable on July 4 to the US State Department saying the appointment of an envoy  who would report directly to the Prime Minister was imminent.

Jillian Segal was appointed on July 9, just ten days before the meeting in Buenos Aires which she attended. According to that cable, she had already approved the guidelines and

her tickets were booked before she was even appointed.

Australia’s Ambassador to Argentina was permitted to sign off on the Guidelines which refer to the IHRA definition as a key tool for fighting antisemitism, as a result of Segal’s hasty appointment.

US State Department works with World Jewish Congress (WJC) – Special Envoy and Coordinators Network

In 2019 the New York based WJC – the central governing organisation of Jewish organisations, which ‘defends the Jewish state of Israel’ – established the Special Envoys and Coordinators Combating Antisemitism (SECCA) Network which coordinates ‘responses to antisemitism …’ Segal’s work is partially dictated by this body.

Since her appointment, Segal has worked closely with SECCA. In July last year, the US Special Envoy in the State Department Ambassador Rabbi Yehuda thanked her for hosting an online forum.

In her first fifteen months, Segal took five trips overseas costing $85,000 and in May this year she travelled to Geneva to sign another SECCA joint declaration.

The 15th meeting of SECCA was held last month in Dublin organised by the WJC in partnership with the European Commission.

The conference aimed to look at ways to implement strong measures to ‘confront online hatred and turn government promises into concrete action’.

It heard reports from delegates from 28 countries including Australia and included visits to the European headquarters of TikTok and Meta which included representatives from the WJC’s Technology and Human Rights institute (TECHRI) which focuses solely on lobbying governments, international bodies, and tech companies on policy, monitoring and control within the digital realm.

Maram Stern, WJC Executive Vice President & SECCA Co-Chair spoke at the forum emphasising the need to urgently enforce ‘practical solutions’ to antisemitism. She linked the October 7 Hamas attack to a worldwide surge in antisemitism rather than to the worldwide revulsion with Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

Segal spoke via video at the Dublin conference urging stronger institutional accountability, education and enforcement against antisemitism. Referring to the Royal Commission (which heard many unchallenged allegations of antisemitism in what some commentators saw as a concerted effort to demonise pro Palestine groups and supporters), she noted that its proceedings had brought into focus, “concerns about antisemitism in universities, cultural institutions, and healthcare”.

These are key areas where we’ve seen false claims of antisemitism and lawfare used against academics, artists and healthcare workers.

Segal wasn’t the only Australian who spoke. Her close partners from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (EJAC), Peter Wertheim, EJAC co-CEO, called for ‘more proactive regulation of technology companies and effective legal avenues for people harmed by online content’ while ECAJ president and WJC vice president, Daniel Aghion emphasised the importance of ‘active special envoys, sustained government engagement and coordination between Jewish organisations.

Before the conference started, it emerged that one of Dublin’s prestigious hotels had refused to accommodate the SECCA delegates and alternative accommodation and a conference venue had to be found.

This went unreported until Maurice Cohen, chairman of the Jewish Representative Council of Ireland, told a pre-conference event that the 4-star Herbert Park Hotel in Dublin which had taken the SECCA booking for 70 rooms in April this year had abruptly cancelled this booking after a meeting with the conference organisers and the hotel’s general manager.

Cohen was asked by the hotel manager whether the event had any ties to the Israeli Defence Force. He told Fox News Digital, “I was completely taken aback by that question. I said,

“What would the IDF have to do with a conference on antisemitism?’”

It was revealed that the hotel’s general manager subsequently consulted the hotel owners before the cancellation was made.

This was immediately characterised as a major antisemitic event by the organisers.The World Jewish Congress published an opinion by Maurice Cohen on 14 Oct. titled, “Ironically, an Antisemitism Conference Falls Victim to Jew-Hatred.”

Although the Herbert Park Hotel refused to make public comment, it’s clear it chose not to be associated with an event that had any ties to the IDF. The links between SECCA and support of Israel and members of the IDF are strong. SECCA representatives work with pro Israel organisations who have key personnel directly connected with the Israeli state and past and present members of the IDF.

Conflating this refusal with antisemitism, is yet another example of how peak pro-Israel Jewish organisations continue to deceptively link antisemitism to protest actions such as the Herbert Park Hotel boycott.

One of the major organisations participating in the SECCA conference in Dublin was the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) which is based in the US and has spread internationally. Its advisory board members and its CEO are directly linked to Israel.

CAM works globally to pressure governments to not only endorse the IHRA definition of antisemitism but to enforce it. It reported that it was recognised as a “trusted US State Department partner” at the SECCA conference where it reiterated the coordinated push to get governments to enforce the IHRA antisemitism definition –  a point which was emphasised by The US Special Envoy Ambassador Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun.

As previously reported by MWM, CAM also has strong links with the IDF.

The J50 forum is a body founded by Israel’s foreign ministry that includes 50 Jewish organisations internationally. It held its third meeting in Jerusalem in September and published its hardline and contentious Declaration on Zionism and Antisemitism which stated unequivocally that “Zionism is part of Jewish identity” and defined anti-Zionism as a form of antisemitism when used to “marginalize or deny Jewish self-determination”.

Daniel Aghion spoke and his presentation summarised ECAJ’s work since Bondi. He offered some unguarded and frank insights into the way in which this organisation mobilised around the Royal Commission:

“It has been a massive exercise over the last year. The Jewish community has spent millions of dollars, and many millions more in pro bono legal and non-legal work. This was to make sure that our voice is heard properly, both inside and outside the Commission, and to ensure that the Commission has run as well as it can.”

MWM asked ECAJ about whether any of ECAJ’s large government grants had been used on the Royal Commission work but got no response.

On November 19, the Israel-based Jerusalem Post Group’s first Asia-Pacific Summit, will be held in Sydney. It will feature many Israeli speakers including Israel’s president Isaac Herzog’s wife Michel Herzog online, the Israeli ambassador to Australia, former senior IDF members as well as President of Zionist Federation of Australia, Jeremy Liebler.

The focus is on countering hostility to Israel and building business links, something which many Australians do not support, not because they are antisemitic but because they are anti-genocide.

Then 10 days later, the 2026 CAM conference for mayors and councillors will be held in Sydney. These events reinforce the global messaging of SECCA, WJC and J50.

They are designed to add extra impetus for calls to impose Segal’s agenda leading up to the first anniversary of the Bondi massacre and prior to the release of the Report of the Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion in December.

Segal’s overreach into all aspects of our civil life

is not just angering human rights activists and those who are unfairly being labelled as antisemitic but large sections of Australian society who increasingly do not support Israel and do not want to be policed at the service of this rogue state.

PM Anthony Albanese buckled to pressure in creating the position of antisemitism envoy and made a striking error in appointing the Israel lobby’s choice, Segal, to that position.

As anger grows about her appointment, it’s time to reassess the legitimacy of the position itself in light of the facts surrounding its creation. We have existing anti-discrimination legislation and strong National Anti-Racism Framework guidelines that are yet to be implemented.

Bending to US, Israel and the local Israel lobby’s demands will only intensify public anger.

https://michaelwest.com.au/foreign-agency-antisemitism-envoy-jillian-segal-a-us-tool-for-zionists/

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