Climate 200-backed candidate Zoe Daniel is quizzed why she signed a letter accusing Israel of maintaining an ‘apartheid regime’.
Climate 200-backed Goldstein candidate Zoe Daniel has told Jewish voters she is “not a risk”, after she was asked to publicly explain why she signed a controversial letter accusing Israel of maintaining an “apartheid regime against Palestinians”.
At a supporters’ event for Ms Daniel on Sunday in Melbourne’s southeast, a woman in the crowd who said she was Jewish questioned Ms Daniel as to why she did not condemn what was written in the open letter signed by dozens of journalists last year.
“For those of you who are part of the Jewish community, I want to say this to you, I am not a risk to you, I am safer than most people I would think in terms of someone who has empathy, who will listen, who will learn and genuinely engage with the Jewish community,” Ms Daniel told the attendees at the Bentleigh Bowls Club.
“My signing of the letter is no defence of terrorism coming out of the Palestinian territories, nor is it an innate criticism of the government of Israel, it is a narrow criticism of the government of Israel in relation to what was happening at that time.
“It is certainly not a broad criticism of our Jewish community.”
The former ABC journalist has refused to take her name off the controversial letter but the woman said to the audience, “If she (Ms Daniel) had integrity she would take her name off the letter.”
Ms Daniel conceded, “some people will not vote for me because of this letter”.
Read the article by Sophie Elsworth in NT News.