Jewish groups are furious over “hatred-inciting” comments accusing Israel of “genocide” made by the lead organiser of the Greens’ campaign in Melbourne’s most Jewish electorate.
David Jeffery, a staffer for Greens candidate Steph Hodgins-May in the seat of Macnamara, said deaths in the Gaza Strip were “genocide”, and used the hashtags “#F..kFacism” and “#NoPrideInGenocide” in Facebook posts.
Alex Ryvchin, co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, told The Australian Mr Jeffery’s “appalling comments represent the lowest form of activism”. “The comments betray a complete contempt for the sovereign rights of the Jewish people and an ignorance of fact and history … which can serve to incite hatred,” he said.
Mr Ryvchin urged Ms Hodgins-May “to consider whether she wishes to be associated with a person of Mr Jeffery’s temperament and intellectual capacity”.
Zionist Federation of Australia president Jeremy Leibler said the sentiment from Mr Jeffrey’s comments was not unique in the Greens.
He said Ms Hodgins-May withdrew from a Jewish community debate in 2016 because it was co-hosted by a pro-Israel organisation, and pointed to Julian Burnside, the Greens candidate in Kooyong, who has previously supported the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel.
Read the article by Elias Visontay in The Australian.