Lord Mayor shuns roundtable
'After refusing to attend the roundtable ... Clover Moore is now choosing to focus on global issues for which the Council has no expertise and will have no impact'
NSW Jewish Board of Deputies (JBD) president David Ossip has described a City of Sydney motion endorsing boycotts against Israeli companies as “an extraordinary slap in the face to our community”.
The motion, based on a report discussed at Council on Monday night and delayed to next Monday, follows Lord Mayor Clover Moore last week shunning a forum last Thursday at which 21 mayors from across the Sydney area signed a joint statement against violence and antisemitism.
The Council report followed a June 2024 call for a review of its investments and procurement policy, which the Greens at the time called the first step towards adopting a BDS policy. The report endorses a list compiled by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) that includes Israeli companies that operate in the West Bank.
“After refusing to attend the roundtable and support her local community, Clover Moore is now choosing to focus on global issues for which the Council has no expertise and will have no impact,” Ossip said.
He said the report “makes no findings but gives extremists on council the opportunity to continue their campaign of hatred”.
“At best, this is a waste of ratepayers’ time and money. At worst, this is designed to sow even more division while Jewish communities are being attacked,” he said.
Moore reportedly pulled her deputy mayor Zann Maxwell from last Thusday’s roundtable – convened by Waverley Mayor Will Nemesh, Inner West Mayor Darcy Byrne and Liverpool Mayor Ned Mannoun – after organisers refused her demands to give antisemitism and Islamophobia equal weight in the joint statement and to make clear she was the only “Sydney” mayor.
The Great Synagogue, located in the City of Sydney, expressed its “deep sadness and disappointment” at Moore’s snub.
“We have been the subject of a plot to harm our community, our building and our members,” the shule said in a statement.
“We are yet to hear from the Lord Mayor in the wake of the revelations of this distressing incident.
“To see an elected official in a high profile leadership position actively choosing not to participate in creating a constructive and unifying outcome for the entirety of our city paints a disturbing picture for the future of Sydney’s Jewish community.”
While calling on state and federal government to partner with local government in education, cohesion strategies and security, the roundtable statement also stated, “Local government is for local issues, and foreign affairs is not the remit or expertise of Councils.”
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