Call to expel extremist from ALP
'There is no place for antisemitism in NSW Labor. I’m deeply concerned at the reported remarks and I’ve asked the party office to urgently review the application.'
NSW Labor leader Chris Minns has asked his party’s office to “urgently review” the membership application of a left-wing extremist who once wore a badge declaring “Death to Israel” and “Curse on the Jews”.
The Australian reported on Tuesday that NSW Labor conference documents revealed Jay Tharappel, a former University of Sydney tutor who is close to controversially sacked lecturer Tim Anderson, was granted party membership this year.
Tharappel has praised North Korea as “egalitarian”, is a supporter of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and has spread propaganda justifying Russia’s war against Ukraine on social media. It is not known if his political affiliations were disclosed in his Labor Party application, The Australian said.
In the wake the report, a meeting has been called within the party.
Minns said, “There is no place for antisemitism in NSW Labor. I’m deeply concerned at the reported remarks and I’ve asked the party office to urgently review the application.”
In an email to ALP NSW general secretary Bob Nanva obtained by The AJN, Labor Israel Action Committee (LIAC) secretary Byron Danby said Tharappel “should not be allowed to remain a member”.
“I urge you to suspend his membership of the NSW ALP and refer this matter to the NSW Internal Appeals Tribunal for review and ultimately expel this individual and ensure that they are banned from ever rejoining our party,” he said.
Labor MLC and deputy chair of the NSW Parliamentary Friends of Israel Walt Secord “wholeheartedly supported a review” into Tharappel’s membership.
“Pending that, his membership should be suspended immediately,” he said.
NSW Jewish Board of Deputies president David Ossip and CEO Darren Bark also wrote to Nanva on Tuesday to express concern at Tharappel’s “appalling record of support for the world’s most repressive regimes and recognised terrorist organisations as well as his sympathy for invidious conspiracy theories”.
“In recent years, Mr Tharappel attacked local Jewish communal organisations for their calls to proscribe the entirety of Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation and alleged that Israel has ‘spent the last decade aiding al-Qaeda & Islamic State’. He has also used social media to post other material offensive to the NSW Jewish community, including questioning the number of victims of the Holocaust,” they said.
“Mr Tharappel’s views are repugnant, divisive and have no place in our peaceful, multicultural society. Mr Tharappel does not deserve membership of the NSW Labor Party and we strongly urge that he be expelled as a matter of urgency.”
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