AFL DRAFT STAR THE TARGET OF VILE ABUSE
A YOUNG AFL player has been targeted in a stream of vile antiSemitic abuse on social media.
Harry Sheezel will be the first Jewish player to enter the league in more than two decades and was expected to be taken within the first five picks at Monday night’s AFL draft.
But the 18-year-old was on the receiving end of a series of slurs after an article he was quoted in hit social media on Sunday night.
The comments focused on Jewish stereotypes and made light of the Holocaust.
Anti-defamation Commission chairman Dvir Abramovich said the backlash was the “reality of being a Jewish person in Victoria”.
“Australians have to accept the fact that genie of anti-semitism is out of the bottle and that the lid has been taken off the sewer as people who might be our neighbours are pouring their anti-semitic venom and poison on a young man who is simply seeking to play the game he loves,” Dr Abramovich said.
“They paint a very troubling picture, and anti-jewish bigotry takes a firm hold in our daily life and the climate for Australian Jews becomes very dangerous.”
Dr Abramovich said the commentary’s public, online nature was worrying.
“Some of the ugly, hurtful expressions that I have seen shared about Mr Sheezel are not only stoking the flames of intolerance but are recycling age-old blood libels and stereotypes of Jews that would make neo-nazis very proud,” he said.
Sheezel, who has played in the NAB League for premiership team the Sandringham Dragons, kicked 36 goals across the season.
He will be the first Jewish player to enter the AFL since Ezra Poyas was drafted by Richmond in 1999.