The campaign against Israel Folau has now, in my opinion, gone too far. This is no longer a campaign against what he said. It is now a campaign against him, the man, almost a hatred of him. And a campaign that is desperate to drag in his wife as well.

The pressure against Israel has resulted in GoFundMe shutting down his fundraising page where he was hoping to collect AUS$3 million to fund his legal battle against Rugby Australia.

That was the wrong thing to do. GoFundMe has allowed itself to get caught up and used as a weapon in that campaign of hatred against Israel.

Those attacking him have criticised him for fundraising for his legal woes when, A, he has enough of his own cash, with reports he is sitting on a property portfolio of $5.8 million, and B, there were more worthy causes on the site, like kids fighting cancer.

Neither of those things should matter to GoFundMe.

For some people, supporting Israel and his religious belief and his right to voice them are very important. I think they’re wrong, but they want to support him financially, and why shouldn’t they be able to?

But GoFundMe is telling them that they can support kids with cancer but they can’t support freedom of religion or freedom of speech, because GoFundMe doesn’t so they can’t either.

And this campaign has also now targeted Israel folau’s wife Maria Folau, who is famous in her own right for being a netball player for both the Silver Ferns and the Adelaide Thunderbirds.

She is now also in trouble for Instagramming her support of her husband. Bearing in mind, and this is important, she didn’t support what he said, she supported his fundraising.

And there’s a big difference there. You can support the man, or the principle, without supporting the actual words.

I support his right to fundraising, even though I don’t support what he said, and I condemn his homophobia. So we can’t assume that Maria’s support of his fundraising necessarily means she supports his homophobia, unless she actually says she does, and she hasn’t, so she’s done nothing wrong.

But she’s still being dumped on and dragged into this thing, with the most prominent critic being Austrlaian netball legend and former captain Liz Ellis.

This campaign is going too far, and the problem for these critics is that they will drive rational and level-minded people into supporting Israel because what’s now happening is unfair.

I don’t like what he said, but I like this hatred campaign even less. And if there are others like me, then this campaign to take him down completely might yet backfire