Attention:

 

CEO and Trust of Sydney Opera House

The Honourable John Graham, NSW Arts Minister 

Clementine Ford is performing at All About Women at the Sydney Opera House as part of International Women's Day this March. As concerned community members, we wish to express our strong, urgent concern that Ms Ford is being provided a platform by the Opera House, a globally recognised icon and state government organisation.

Events over the course of 2023 have underscored the profoundly negative impact that dis/misinformation, vilification and hate speech is having on our democracy, social cohesion, and public discourse.

We are of the view that Clementine’s very public communications since the 7 October Hamas massacre has had a significantly negative impact on social cohesion and public discourse in Australia. Antisemitic incidents have increased by 738% since October 7 (source: https://www.ecaj.org.au/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/ECAJ-preliminary-report-antisemitic-incidents-since-Oct-7-attack-1.pdf

As community members, it is our position and that of our signatories that Ms Ford’s content has been a direct and harmful contributory factor in this hateful climate. 

Clementine's social media content since 7/10 includes casting continued doubt on the horrific gender-based violence committed against Israeli women and children. She also continues to vilify Jewish Australian women, calling them "enthusiastic supporters of a murderous regime", "pathetic", "disgusting" and "fucking basic and gross". Ms Ford also continues to dox Australian Jews and businesses owned by Jewish Australians, directly inciting verbal harassment, boycotting and resulting in threats of violence. She encourages her followers to boycott and harass Jewish business owners in Australia. This is racially motivated harassment.  

We wonder if Clementine's content was instead targeted at Australian women belonging to other minority groups would Sydney Opera House still deem her a suitable speaker? And if said groups expressed their distress and offence to your board, would you also choose to ignore their concerns? 

To have Clementine perform on a world stage at Australia's most iconic venue (now also known for hosting a mob on its steps chanting "F*** the Jews") is a gross violation of the rights and safety of our community. It is a further insult and of great distress to us that you platform a purported feminist who also publicly denies the sexual atrocities committed by Hamas to hundreds of Israeli women. That you have given her a public role for International Women's Day is truly unthinkable.

Clementine Ford also famously posted in 2020 that "Honestly, the corona virus isn’t killing men fast enough." Again, this is distasteful, offensive and hypocritical. 

As she has demonstrated repeatedly, Clementine's behaviour is at direct odds with the values of the Sydney Opera House, the integrity of International Women’s Day and indeed the values that make Australia a socially cohesive, safe and inclusive country. 

We respectfully ask the Sydney Opera House leadership to urgently take measures it considers addresses the above in light of the facts presented above.