AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon has been forced to defend a Sydney Swans tribute to the Bondi terror attack victims before their season-opening AFL match that failed to mention the Jewish community.
Sydney chief executive Matthew Pavlich led a moving tribute to victims, in front of families and first responders, including hero Ahmed Al Ahmed and Rabbi Mendy Litzman from Hatzolah, a Jewish community emergency medical response group, at the SCG before the Swans’ opening round clash against Carlton on March 5.
Unclear: AFL chief Andrew Dillon said he did not know if a Jewish reference was removed from a tribute the Swans held at the SCG for the victims, families and first responders of the Bondi terror attack.Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images
However, AFL great Gerard Healy, a three-time Swans best and fairest in the 1980s and a Brownlow medallist, alleged on SEN on Friday that the word “Jew” or any reference to the “Jewish” community was removed from Pavlich’s speech.
On Friday night, before the Roosters and Rabbitohs NRL game in Sydney, after a moment’s silence held to remember the victims of the Bondi terror attack, the Roosters’ announcer said: “To Sydney’s Jewish community, we stand with you, not just tonight, but always.”
Healy said on Friday: “They’re a bit messy at the moment, I’ve got to say, for something that was so fundamentally magnificent last week to start the footy season, and it was a simple error of … judgment.
“I didn’t pick it up, but the reality was that the word Jew wasn’t mentioned at all on the night … and it’s upset a lot of Jewish people.
“Everyone was honoured on the night, the victims, the survivors, first responders and heroic Ahmed Al Ahmed, everyone that is, except the Australian Jewish communities, who were also indirect victims, many of whom are still suffering, and were looking for specific validation.”
This masthead has reviewed Pavlich’s speech, and there was no reference to the Jewish community.
“We come together this evening to honour those who were injured and to those who lost their lives at Bondi Beach in December. Tonight, we stand with their families and friends united,” Pavlich said.
Dillon conducted a series of radio interviews on Saturday, and failed to clarify if the league had ordered the references be removed. However, he said Pavlich had honoured the victims in his speech.
Pre-game tribute: There was no mention of the Jewish community in a tribute led by Swans CEO Matthew Pavlich.Credit: AAP
“My understanding is there was a script. I don’t know what happened to the script, but what I do know is it was a fitting tribute on the right stage for what was, I said before, a horrific antisemitic attack on the Jewish community,” Dillon said.
“I didn’t see the script, I was on the field as part of that, I thought Matthew did a great job of hosting that. It was an appropriate tribute to the victims of what was a horrific attack on the Jewish community.”
Asked if he would attempt to confirm if a change had been made, Dillon responded: “As I said, I think the tribute was exactly the right forum in front of 40,000 people and a million people on the TV. We worked with the Swans and, again, the feedback that we have got, and not that it’s about the feedback, but it was overwhelmingly positive.”
Dillon continued to dance around the issue when pressed about the AFL’s role.
“What I will start with are the events of Bondi in December last year were a horrific antisemitic attack on the Jewish community and completely at odds with the Australian way of life and values. I will start with that,” he said.
“We, with the Swans, thought that, we would prefer not to be doing it, but actually to have the appropriate forum and the appropriate state was the opening game of the season at the SCG in front of 40,000 people and over a million people on TV to pay tribute to the Jewish victims and their families.”
Pavlich was contacted for comment on Saturday. When the club was contacted, a Swans spokesman refused to acknowledge the speculation, said the club stood by its tribute, and would not comment on the process.
The club spokesman said Swans chairman Andrew Pridham would address the issue in his pre-game address on Saturday night before the clash against the Brisbane Lions at the SCG.
Many members of the Jewish community, including family members who had experienced tragic loss from the Bondi terror attack, were invited into the Swans’ change rooms after their win over the Blues, with the playing group posing in many photographs and signing autographs.
Swans foundation chair and member of the Jewish community, Peter Ivany, spoke about how much the gesture meant to children after the game.
“I was next to them and they were just so happy, they’ve lost their father and they’re under unbelievable difficulties, and the happiness that that gave them, and also the feeling of support that they had … they just felt so appreciated, so understood,” Ivany told the Australian Jewish News after the game.
But Australian Jewish Association president Robert Gregory said it was “outrageous and disappointing” if a specific mention of the Jewish community had been deliberately removed from the tribute.
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