Newsflash; Greens politician isn’t anti-Semitic but…

Those cuddly fools at Murdoch’s Australian. The paper has spent the last months (and years) finding any way possible to smear individuals who back Palestine. It’s failed miserably, of course, as the rights of Palestinians has never been more understood globally.

Last week Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon was forced to write a letter stating she wasn’t anti-Semitic but on Saturday a response continued the smears:

NSW Greens senator Lee Rhiannon is correct when she says that one can criticise Israel without being anti-Semitic (Letters, 2/9).

It is, however, hardly surprising that when she regularly criticises Israel and never gives the country the benefit of any doubt, that some people might well misunderstand her motives.

Rhiannon and other extremist elements within the Greens have frequently indulged in intemperate and ill-informed attacks on Israel.

The NSW Greens state conference, for example, recently passed a proposal by “consensus” to “boycott Israeli goods, trading and military arrangements, and sporting, cultural and economic events as a contribution to the struggle to end Israel’s occupation and colonisation of Palestinian territory”. This radical policy, now official NSW Greens policy, is not only at odds with the policies of both main parties and the majority of Australians, it is also at odds with the policy of the federal Greens which voted against a similarly worded proposal at its last conference.

Rhiannon’s denial that she harbours any anti-Semitic sentiment should be accepted and respected but she would do well to reflect on whether any of her own statements in relation to Israel have been so intemperate that a false impression of her motivations has been given.

Bill Anderson, Surrey Hills, Vic

Text and images ©2024 Antony Loewenstein. All rights reserved.

Site by Common