Monique Ryan defends her record
She said amid rising antisemitism she has a deep concern for the wellbeing and welfare of the Jewish community and rejects any suggestions to the contrary.
The principal of Bialik College has written an open letter to local MP Monique Ryan criticising a statement she made about Gaza which failed to mention Israeli victims of Hamas atrocities.
Jeremy Stowe-Lindner told the teal MP he was writing as principal of the only Jewish school in her Kooyong electorate.
He was responding to a Facebook post in which Dr Ryan wrote, “We have no greater responsibility than protecting our children. As a paediatrician, I find the human suffering in Gaza intolerable. I join my medical colleagues from around the world in calling for a humanitarian pause so that aid can reach people in desperate need.”
Stowe-Lindner said in his letter that her use of the word ‘intolerable’ is apt.
“The blindness of the apparently ethical to the suffering of one side is indeed intolerable. [Y]our reference to the suffering only in Gaza is unacceptable,” Stowe-Lindner wrote.
He suggested that a reference to the suffering of the families of 1400 Israeli civilians on October 7 “who were murdered, raped and beheaded would be appropriate too”.
Ryan said the letter misrepresents the positions she’s taken.
“As I have said in Parliament, I unequivocally condemn the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel, I call for the hostages to be released, and I reject antisemitism in the strongest possible terms. I urge anyone with doubts about my record to read my speech in Parliament and see my strong voting record on Israel, which is the same as the Coalition’s,” she said.
She said amid rising antisemitism she has a deep concern for the wellbeing and welfare of the Jewish community and rejects any suggestions to the contrary.
On October 8, Ryan said on her social media channels that Hamas had made the road to a two-state solution much harder.
“Is that all you have to say? Much harder?” Stowe-Lindner wrote in his open letter.
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