Sydney student site bans anti-Semitic group

SYDNEY (JTA) – A Sydney-based, student-run Web site banned a group of anti-Semitic and anti-Israel commenters.

The commenters posted their remarks on www.boredofstudies.org, a portal run by students for students who are sitting in their final year exams at school.

Deenu Rajaratnam, a spokesman for the organization that runs the Web site, told JTA that the entire group had been deleted last Friday.

“In no way do we endorse anything of that nature,” he said.

One of the threads began with a post about finding synagogues in Sydney and included a post explaining how to make a Molotov cocktail. On another thread, titled “F— Israel”, one blogger wrote: “Yea bro, let’s f—ing Holocaust them.” Another wrote: “Kill all da f—-ing Jews. Hate every single one of them … hope Iran nukes them.” One student wrote that "the people of Israel are an infectious disease, a plague on the world" and urged supporters to “remove and execute the inhabitants."

The bloggers who made the offensive comments had been banned from the site and moderators have been warned about permitting offensive material, Rajaratnam said.

"The most concerning aspect of this appalling material is that it was able to be published," said Vic Alhadeff, CEO of the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies.

Still, Alhadeff applauded the publishers "for acting responsibly and deleting this group. It is clear that vigilance is needed. All Internet publishers should exercise care to prevent such damaging material appearing on their sites and to remove it immediately if it appears.”