[1][2][3][4] Politicians and Jewish community leaders described the incident as motivated by antisemitism and a desire to target Australian Jews, while others defended it as a form of whistleblowing.
[12] In December 2023, certain members of the J.E.W.I.S.H creatives and academics group and another group called Lawyers for Israel participated in an organised letter writing campaign, encouraging the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) to terminate the employment of Antoinette Lattouf due to her criticisms of Israel.
"[1] Several high-profile public figures shared the material on social media, including the children's artist Matt Chun,[21][22] Macquarie University academic Randa Abdel-Fattah,[23] and writer Clementine Ford.
[30] Frost stated that she had shared the contents of the WhatsApp chat with a single individual about whom she was writing a story in confidence, and that she was "shocked" at its subsequent dissemination, saying the leak put her and many others at risk and that she "deeply regret[ted]" the fact that it had been made public.
[23] Other politicians such as the Liberal Party Senator Dave Sharma and the independent MPs Allegra Spender and Zoe Daniel also condemned the publication of the list.
[40] Indigenous Australian academic Marcia Langton criticised the "ongoing persecution" suffered by members of the leaked group.
[41] One of the founders of the doxxed group called the doxxers aim to "‘expos[e]’ and purg[e] ‘Zionists', aka any Jews who didn't denounce Israel to be evilest [sic] of them all", to be reminiscent of Soviet antisemitism.
[8] Also writing for The Conversation, Hugh Breakey commented on ethical issues regarding sharing the names of all the people in group as only some had targeted pro-Palestinian activists, though stated that revealing the WhatsApp group's activities could be in the public interest, as they "made pro-Palestinian creatives fear their careers were unfairly jeopardised".
[3] Bernard Keane, the political editor from Crikey, opined that while members of the group who were unaware of the targeted campaign against pro-Palestinian activists were doxxed, sharing the details of the people who had conspired to jeopardise the employment of pro-Palestinian figures was justified, also stating that portraying the WhatsApp group "as merely an innocuous support mechanism is misleading".