The Watermelon Defence Fund is an Australian charity founded in 2024 by lawyer Bernadette Zaydan.
They claim their purpose is to “assist activists and the marginalised facing legal/police action.” I assume “marginalised” doesn’t include Jews, given The Watermelon Defence Fund’s associations with antisemites. For instance, they crowd-funded money to support Melbourne obstetrician Miranda Robinson, who made blatantly antisemitic comments. And they seem to be fans of Free Palestine Printing, who I have shown to be pro-terrorism and highly antisemitic.
This is problematic enough and should be enough to have them investigated to lose their non-profit status. But it gets worse.
You see, they also recently engaged in blatant antisemitism.
Clearly, pointing out times Jews were expelled from countries over the last thousands of years has nothing to do with hating Israel. It has everything to do with hating Jews.
The evidence against the Watermelon Defence Fund is clear. Their actions, from supporting individuals who engage in antisemitism to their own vilifying content, demonstrate a serious breach of public trust. The Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) has the power to revoke their non-profit status for “unlawful discrimination, hate speech, vilification, or other behaviour inconsistent with public trust.” It’s up to us to make sure they are aware of this. You can contact the ACNC directly and report your concerns.
Dressing up antisemitism as “activism” doesn’t make it less poisonous – it just makes it subsidised by the taxpayer. If the ACNC means what it says about “serious misconduct,” this fund’s registration should be on borrowed time.
