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A paid advertisement opposing Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s state visit to Australia has come under scrutiny with doubts raised about the accuracy and consent of some Jewish signatories.

on Monday. It purportedly included about 700 signatures from more than 1000 Australian Jews who signed an online petition against Herzog’s contentious visit. The letter said Herzog was “not welcome”, and hosting him during the war in Gaza “betrays Jewish communities, multicultural Australia and everyone who stands for Palestinian human rights”.

Slade described the inclusion of fake names as a “gross ethical failure” by the Jewish Council of Australia and the newspapers that published the advertisement.

“Spreading falsehoods and lies isn’t the way to go about public discourse,” he said.

“If they (the JCA) had real support they wouldn’t use fake names.”

He questioned how such a mistake could have occurred, describing it as “very distressing” for Jewish Australians.

“If people are putting out an open online petition, targeting an issue causing immense social unrest, they knew full well what they were putting out and its intended purpose and therefore there should have been a system of checks.”

The council said any allegations it had fabricated names on the list were false.

“We have sought confirmation from the email address used to submit Mr Slade’s name, and removed his name from our website. Other individuals who have contacted us share names with our supporters. The fact that some people share the same name is very common in the Jewish community.”

The council said its members had carried out “a number of review processes in a short time frame to delete duplicates, antisemitic and offensive names which were submitted by malicious actors. We deleted a significant number of names through this process.

“Unfortunately, a handful of names with offensive and obscure historical references, and names of real Jewish people falsely submitted by others, slipped through the cracks,” the statement said.

“Some Jewish people were also included in the list who are genuine signatories, but have the same names as others in the Jewish community. The fact that someone shares a name with someone else, which is common in the Jewish community, should not disqualify someone from signing a petition or writing an open letter in their name.”

Источник: https://www.smh.com.au/national/jewish-group-admits-fake-names-published-in-anti-herzog-ad-20260210-p5o125.html