Melbourne lawyer Josh Bornstein. Photo: Supplied
A prominent Melbourne lawyer whose identity was stolen by neo-Nazis, and was then targeted by a senior Islamic State recruiter in response, says extremist attacks will not stop him from speaking out on human rights issues.
Maurice Blackburn partner Josh Bornstein's identity was first stolen by a US-based white nationalist group last month, which used his name to register as a blogger with online news website Times Of Israel.
The group published a number of articles penned by Mr Bornstein, before posting an article on April 9 which vilified Palestinians and called for their "extermination".
"It's a vicious, racist diatribe against the Palestinian people," Mr Bornstein told Fairfax Media on Friday.
"Since I was a very little child, I have been a strong and vocal opponent against racism in all it's forms. It's a disgusting document".
Mr Bornstein believed the race-hate group targeted him because of his outspoken views on asylum seekers and his strong support of racial vilification laws.
He is well-known from publishing articles, including in The Age, promoting human rights and has criticised the Israeli government's treatment of Palestinians, including during the 2014 conflict in Gaza.
The industrial and employment lawyer faced a storm of condemnation on social media over the fake article and Times Of Israel soon realised it had been hoaxed and published an apology.
But other versions of the article were circulated, and on April 29 Mr Bornstein was threatened by pro-Islamic State Twitter user Australi Witness.
Australi Witness was this week linked to a terrorist attack on an anti-Islamic cartoon event in Garland, in the US state Texas, after he tweeted about the event.
The Perth-based man, whose Twitter accounts are routinely shut down, tweeted: "Australian Zionist John Bornstein has written an article demanding murder of all Muslims. This Shaytan (devil) needs to pay."
Australi Witness, who has told Fairfax Media he is aged in his 20s and was born in Australia, also appeared to try and find Mr Bornstein's address.
Rita Katz, of the US-based SITE Intelligence Group, said Australi Witness held a "prestige" position in online jihadi circles and was part of a group that looked for targets for other extremists to attack, and recruited for Islamic State.
The saga continued on Wednesday, when somebody registered a fake twitter account under Mr Bornstein's name and posted that Arabs were "inferior", "subhuman", and "vermin", and called for their extermination.
The user also paid Twitter for this message to be "promoted", meaning it would be shown to more people.
Mr Bornstein said Twitter quickly took the account down when notified.
He said the ordeal demonstrated how vulnerable people were to identify theft in the cyber age, but maintained he would not be dissuaded from any of his work.
"It's a very unpleasant process but I've been fortified by the extraordinary support from my colleagues and friends, the kindness of strangers, and the authorities," he said.
"I think I'm still going to be writing articles and doing my best to assist people in legal cases. That's who I am, that's what I do; that's my real identity."
A spokesman for Twitter said the company reviewed all "promoted tweets" before they were posted and was investigating how the racist message attributed to Mr Bornstein made it through that process.
