Councillor Abelson

Rabbi pans Sydney mayor’s anti-Israel ‘boycott’

A Sydney mayor has refused a personal invitation to attend the annual Great Synagogue Law Service, citing Israel’s “illegal” actions in the West Bank, which he says “will cause endless ­terrorism across the globe, includ­ing here”.

Peter Abelson, the Mayor of Mosman on Sydney’s lower North Shore, has in return been accused of anti-Semitism by the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, which said he was not effectively representing Jewish residents in the area.

“Thank you for your invitation to the Great Synagogue Law Service for 2017. I will not be attending,” Dr Abelson wrote to the synagogue’s rabbi, Benjamin Elton, earlier this month.

“I should express my deep personal concern about the gross and illegal occupation of the West Bank which creates intense international division and bitterness and, unresolved, will cause endless terrorism across the globe, including here.”

Writing in response to Dr Abelson, NSW Jewish Board of Deputies chief executive Vic Alhadeff said: “We are appalled that you would refuse to represent the Jewish constituents of your ward because of your views on the Israel-Palestine conflict.”

Mr Alhadeff’s letter accused the mayor of anti-Semitism, citing the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition, a section of which defines the term as “holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel”.

Read the full article by Sam Buckingham-Jones at The Australian.