I have been singing the praises of Indigenous former Australian Olympic champion Nova Peris for a while now, as she continues to champion the rights of the Jewish people as a fellow indigenous people – something that goes against the prevailing false narrative perpetrated by all and sundry.
And Nova has done it yet again, this time posting the following on her social media platforms today:
Jewish people are not colonizers—Israel is their homeland. To deny the Jewish or Israeli connection to the land of Israel is akin to denying the massacres that happened in Australia against us Aboriginal peoples. Both narratives are rooted in deep histories of suffering, resilience, and cultural survival. The Jewish connection to the land dates back thousands of years, including significant events like the conquest by the Babylonians in 586 BCE, which led to the destruction of the First Temple and the exile of many Jews. Later, in 70 CE, the Romans destroyed the Second Temple, marking the beginning of the Jewish Diaspora. After the Roman conquest, the Romans renamed the region “Palestine” as a means to erase the Jewish presence and ties to the land of Judea and Israel, similar to how Australia was once named “New Holland” during European colonisation in an attempt to redefine the land.
Despite centuries of exile and foreign rule, including the Ottoman Empire’s control from the 16th century until World War I, the Jewish people maintained their spiritual and cultural ties to the land. To deny this connection is to overlook a rich history of perseverance, just as denying the massacres and dispossession of Aboriginal people seeks to erase our profound relationship with our ancestral lands and the traumas we’ve endured. Both peoples have faced conquest, displacement, and efforts to erase their presence, yet they have endured and continue to fight for recognition and justice.
The Holocaust would never have happened if there had been no diaspora of Jews in other lands caused by thousands of years of conquest and expulsion. The Jews come from the ancient Kingdoms of Judea and Israel, and their return is not a colonialist act, but a restoration of their presence in their historical homeland, for which they had been yearning over the centuries.
The beauty of this – besides its simple clarity – is every word of it is true.
And when this truth comes from such a prominent Indigenous Australian as Nova is, it is a huge headache for those Israel-haters who are doing their darndest to hitch their wagon to the Indigenous Australian cause.