Greens ‘in total denial’
At the election the Greens' four lower-house seats were reduced to one.
Communal leaders are lamenting that new Greens leader Larissa Waters hasn’t steered the party away from its anti-Israel stance.
In a media conference, the Queensland senator who replaced Adam Bandt after he lost his seat of Melbourne, stated, “We stand firm always on social justice and human rights … whether that’s a free Palestine, whether that’s peace and human rights. Globally, we will always be there, calling out atrocities, calling out a genocide.”
Waters added, “I know a lot of wonderful Jewish voters who are backing the Greens because they don’t want a genocide either.”
Stating that the Greens “have not learned a thing from the resounding rebuke they recently received from voters”, Executive Council of Australian Jewry president Daniel Aghion said, “They are still acting as judge and jury in their outrageous statements accusing Israel of genocide and other crimes, when no one has been tried and convicted. The Greens have a new leader, but are still parroting the same old extremist messages.”
On Waters’ claim of Jewish support, Aghion noted, “We have observed that the very small number of Jewish supporters they used to have are leaving the party, or have been excluded, because of the antisemitism that has become institutionalised within the Greens party in recent years.”
Observing that the party “seem to be in total denial that their hate-filled rhetoric cost them at the election”, Zionist Federation of Australia CEO Alon Cassuto said, “If the Greens are serious about fixing their extremism, they need to address the rampant antisemitism in their ranks, unequivocally condemn terrorist organisations without qualification, and publicly acknowledge that their rhetoric and behaviour over the past 18 months has actively fuelled a breakdown in our social cohesion.”
Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council executive director Colin Rubenstein stated, “With her comments, the new Greens leader has shown that the party has learned little from their disastrous election result – that the Australian public rejects their politics of division and hatred and promotion of extremism.”
At the election, the Greens’ four lower-house seats were reduced to one, but their primary vote, at around 12 per cent, broadly reflected their 2022 result, and they retained their numbers in the Senate.
Since the Hamas atrocities of October 7, 2023, the Greens have refused to condemn Hamas, listed by Australia as a terrorist organisation. Greens MPs have appeared at anti-Israel demonstrations, former leader Adam Bandt called for the expulsion of Israel’s ambassador and Senator Mehreen Faruqi, who remains deputy leader, led a Greens walkout from the Senate, chanting, “Free, free Palestine”.