Leaders condemn anti-Israel vigils set for Oct 7

The CEO of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies (JBD) has compared anti-Israel events planned for October 7 by activist groups to remembering Al-Qaeda on September 11, as two vigils on the third anniversary of the Hamas attacks drew widespread condemnation from NSW Premier Chris Minns, Wollongong City Councillor Ryan Morris, and others.

Those vigils are planned for Sydney Town Hall in the evening, and Wollongong’s Crown Street Mall in the afternoon.

JBD CEO Michele Goldman said that “planning an event on October 7 – to ‘remember the martyrs’ – is like remembering Al-Qaeda on September 11.

“If organisers choose to hold a vigil on this date, they should also acknowledge the Israelis, both Jewish and Arab, the foreign workers and many others who were murdered in the attacks that made the date so significant.

“The fact that this event does not do so is a reflection of the organisers’ bizarre anti-Israel obsession.”

“We expect Council has received assurances that the organisers’ support for resistance does not mean support for the Islamic Resistance Movement.”

Premier Chris Minns said the vigils had left him distressed on behalf of the Jewish community.

“Ultimately, you can’t change history. That was a horrible, violent terrorism event in Israel and it affected a lot of people,” he said.

Mr Minns and Jewish leaders urged organisers to scrap the “offensive” and “obscene” events, but he conceded that stopping them would be challenging.

He said repeated Supreme Court and High Court decisions on the implied freedom of political communication made shutting down static protests “very difficult”, particularly when they are described by organisers as silent vigils.

Australian Jewish Association chief executive Robert Gregory said “October 7 (2023) was the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust – it was a day of mass murder, rape and kidnapping.

“Yet these groups are holding a ‘Vigil for Gaza’ on its anniversary, and telling Israel not to ‘steal the date’.”

A flyer posted on Facebook by organisers of the ‘Vigil for Gaza’ at Sydney Town Hall features red poppy flowers, and the heading “Don’t let Israel Steal the Date”, followed by the sentence: “It’s [sic] genocidal airstrikes began on October 7th 2023.”

A Facebook post promoting it describes the event as a “silent vigil for the victims of the Gaza genocide”.

That event is being organised by Eastern Suburbs For Palestine, Jews Against the Occupation, Palestine Justice Movement Sydney and Coalition of Women for Justice and Peace.

The Wollongong event is understood to be organised by Wollongong Friends of Palestine.

Wollongong City Council said it had received no booking, and would redirect any request to NSW Police.

Wollongong Councillor Ryan Morris described the planned vigil and its messaging as “absolutely putrid”, adding the organisers should “be ashamed”.

According to the Daily Telegraph, a flyer for the Wollongong event said it was to “remembmer the martyrs” and those who “continue to resist”, but the wording was then edited on Wollongong Friends of Palestine’s social media post, to describe the event as a space for “collective grief”, featuring art and music.