Why one of Australia’s best-known Aboriginal activists is taking a stand on Israel
Nova Peris is an Olympic gold medalist, former parliamentarian, and well-known advocate for her people’s equality – and she’s bucking many on the left to support the Jewish state
MELBOURNE — Nova Peris is used to being stopped and recognized across Australia. An Olympic gold medalist, a former member of Australia’s Parliament, and one of the country’s highest-profile Aboriginal Australians, she’s packed a lot into her 53 years. Yet, in recent months, Peris, who runs the Nova Peris Foundation dedicated to empowering Australia’s First Nations People, has found her time increasingly dedicated to supporting Israel.
While Peris has long been a prominent advocate for Aboriginal Australians, the recent conflict in Israel has added a new dimension to her activism. On October 14, 2023 — exactly one week after Hamas terrorists slaughtered 1,200 people in southern Israel and kidnapped 251 to the Gaza Strip — Australia held a referendum to change the country’s constitution.
The referendum proposed establishing an Indigenous Voice to Parliament, which would advise on policies affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Despite widespread public debate, the referendum was resoundingly defeated, with 60% of Australians voting against it. Peris, as one of the highest-profile faces of the advocacy campaign, was devastated.
“I cried for weeks after the referendum, and until today I am still trying to process how 60% of the country could turn their back on Aboriginal people,” Peris told The Times of Israel.
As she processed the loss of the historic referendum, Peris turned her attention toward the Jewish state.
“I saw some of the imagery that Hamas had recorded [on October 7] and I thought it was unbelievably shocking, beyond evil. So jarring,” she said.
“I began to think: How do I sit back comfortably in Australia, where so many people voted in a referendum to silence Aboriginal people and have not seen our struggle which is so real, but where the people who have supported us so strongly are Jewish Australians,” she said, listing prominent Jewish lawyers who have won seminal cases on behalf of Aboriginal land rights such as Jeffrey Sher and Ron Castan.
“I thought, all these people that have been there for us, supporting us with litigation, and now Jewish people are being kicked to the curb. I said, let me get my head around what’s happened to our Jewish friends,” said Peris.
Peris was horrified by the infamous protest, just two days after October 7, outside the Sydney Opera House, where a mob chanted “Fuck the Jews” and burned an Israeli flag.
No one was arrested at the protest and still no one has been charged, but a Jewish man with an Israeli flag at the scene was arrested “for his own safety,” according to police.
The anti-Israel sentiment in Australia has not shifted. This week, former justice minister Ayelet Shaked was barred from entering Australia, where she was slated to address a conference organized by the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council.
Shaked, who was granted a visa during a visit two years ago, was now denied a visa because she might “incite discord,” The Australian reported — noting that the act used to prevent her entry stipulates that people may be barred if it is believed that they may “vilify a segment of the Australian community, or incite discord in the Australian community or in a segment of that community.”
With justice for some
Back on October 9, 2023, Peris was struck by the lack of law enforcement at the virulently anti-Israel rally, which came in contrast to the experience she had with police after she was subjected to an online hate crime and attacked on Facebook for being Aboriginal in 2016.
After Peris responded compassionately to the racist social media poster, her message went viral and more than 30,000 Australians signed a petition asking for law enforcement to arrest the perpetrator. Peris never reported the matter to the police, but unsolicited, they still contacted her directly asking if she wanted to proceed with charges.
“I said, ‘Knock yourselves out.’ They arrested him and he got a summons to court — I didn’t have to do anything. I just had to give the police officer permission to arrest him,” said Peris.
The man was eventually sentenced to an eight-month suspended jail sentence, fined, had to write Peris a letter of apology, and was banned from all social media.
“I’m sitting there, and I scratched my head thinking: How did no one get arrested at that protest?” she said.
Since October 7, Jewish people in Australia have experienced an alarming increase in antisemitism, including assaults, graffiti, threats, doxing, and boycotts of Jewish-owned businesses. Peris thinks the police could be doing more.
“I’m disgusted and appalled at the lack of law enforcement action,” she said.
After months of advocating for Israel and standing up against antisemitism, Peris traveled to Israel for the first time in March 2024. It was an extremely meaningful trip and she visited kibbutzim that were invaded on October 7, met with families of hostages, and shot a video with thousands of views discussing her unwavering support for Israel with Nate Buzz, a fellow non-Jewish Australian, at Masada.
“How do people say that Jews are the colonizers?” she said when reflecting on her trip. “I saw Hebrew written 3,000 years ago in the City of David. Truth is fundamental to [Jewish] existence; I couldn’t sit silent on this in my capacity as someone who has a voice in Australia — particularly as an Indigenous person.”
Meeting with the families of hostages, some of whom are still in Gaza, made a big impact on Peris. Peris showed The Times of Israel a bracelet that she has worn every day since her trip, more than seven months on.
“This is a band that was put on my wrist by Yarden Gonen, whose sister Romi is being held hostage [in Gaza]. I told her I wouldn’t take it off until Romi is released,” she said.
Peris, a deeply spiritual person, found the trip eye-opening and emotional.
“Every day we cried not only because of the beautiful history of Israel that was so resilient in the shadow of death but because it’s incredible to think how Jewish people survive throughout all the atrocities and still get up and keep going,” she said.
A leftist with outspoken support for Israel
As a former member of Parliament who was elected to represent the Labor party, Peris is unusual in her outspoken support of Israel among members of her left-leaning party, from which in the aftermath of October 7, some Aussie Jews have resigned.
At a recent October 7 commemoration event in Melbourne, Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of the Labor party was heckled by Australian Jews. While Peris demurred on directly criticizing Albansese, she had some advice: “As a leader [in times of crisis], it’s like driving a bus. The bus driver must take control, or the bus is going to crash,” she said.
She also maintains a belief that the Labor party in Australia, in contrast to other countries, is still broadly supportive of Israel.
“In the [Australian] Labor party there are a lot of people who are very supportive of Israel, but only 30-40% pop their heads up. The rest keep quiet, which is sad,” said Peris, who has been forthright about her support of Israel and recently became a patron of the newly created Australian Labor Friends of Israel.
While Peris is rock-solid in her support for Israel, it has not been without controversy. She recently resigned as the co-chair of the Australia Republic Movement over her co-chair’s stance on Israel, a move that was widely covered in the Australian press.
When asked about this and other backlash she has faced, she shrugged it off.
“The people that are really close to me, they know me well enough to know that I wouldn’t take a stand on this if there wasn’t a high degree of truth to what I’m saying. For me, I just cannot for the life of me sit back and see young Jewish kids being attacked the way that they are. Every single kid in this country should be able to live a life of freedom,” she said.
Peris’s support of Israel has found a warm embrace from Australia’s Jewish community. She was recently invited to be a keynote speaker in Sydney in front of an audience of 12,000 people who were holding a solemn vigil to commemorate the first anniversary of the October 7 massacre. The event was attended by a cabinet minister representing the government, Australia’s opposition leader, and many other members of Parliament and dignitaries — but the crowd’s biggest cheer of all was reserved for her.
“When I walked out on stage, there were two big screens. An image went up on either side of me showing me standing at the [site of the] Nova Festival [near Kibbutz Re’im in Israel] and I got a standing ovation for five or six minutes. It wouldn’t stop. People were just cheering. I was really overwhelmed with that. It was humbling,” she said.
