‘Polar opposite’ of Women’s Day spirit
Invited by the Greens senator, Abdel-Fattah was the keynote speaker at a Greens' IWD forum.
A senior female Jewish community leader has described Greens Deputy Leader Mehreen Faruqi and extremist pro-Palestinian activist Randa Abdel-Fattah as “the polar opposite” of the spirit of International Women’s Day (IWD), after Faruqi hosted Abdel-Fattah at an IWD event.
Invited by the Greens senator, Abdel-Fattah was the keynote speaker at a Greens’ IWD forum at Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art on March 7.
The Macquarie University academic’s intense hostility towards Israel was on show last year when she led primary-school aged children in chants of “intifada” and “from the river to the sea” during an “excursion” to the pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of Sydney.
In her social-media posts, Abdel-Fattah has called for “the end of Israel” and has stated, “May we see the abolishment of the death cult of Zionism and the end of US empire and finally a world where the slaughter, annihilation and torture of Palestinians is no longer daily routine. May every baby slaughtered in Zionism’s genocide haunt you who openly support or acquiesce through your gutless silence.”
Another social media post read, “To hell with you all. Every last Zionist. May you never know a second’s peace in your sadistic miserable lives.”
In yet another post, Abdel-Fattah wrote: “Congratulations to the people of the Holocaust committing a Holocaust.”
Additionally, The Australian reported that Abdel-Fattah’s four-year $870,269 Future Fellowship grant was suspended by the Australian Research Council after Education Minister Jason Clare ordered a probe into her own claims that she had breached research rules. In Senate estimates, Faruqi claimed the council had succumbed to “racist” pressure in suspending the grant.
Coalition education spokesperson Sarah Henderson has called on Clare to cut her funding. “Australian taxpayers should not be providing $870,000 to an activist academic who has engaged in such appalling conduct.”
Simone Abel, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry’s head of legal, told The AJN, “Randa Abdel-Fattah and Senator Mehreen Faruqi are the polar opposite of the theme of International Women’s Day 2025: ‘For ALL women and girls: Rights. Equality. Empowerment’.
“It’s hard to identify which women they actually stand for. When women of many races, religions and nationalities were raped, kidnapped and tortured, and when girls and women were cruelly murdered by Hamas on October 7, 2023, they turned the other way. They promote cultural unsafety and focus on what divides us rather than what unites us.”
Zionist Federation of Australia CEO Alon Cassuto said, “After nearly 18 months of fuelling division and exploiting the conflict for political gain, it’s no surprise that the Greens have chosen to platform a well-known extremist. However, their recent election failures in Queensland, NSW and Victoria suggest that it’s not just the Jewish community rejecting their extremism, double standards, and agenda of hate.”
Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council executive director Colin Rubenstein said, “No one paying attention to Australian politics should need any further evidence that the Greens have plunged into hateful extremism since October 7, nor of the role played by Deputy Leader Senator Mehreen Faruqi … However, if anyone did need more evidence, the fact that Faruqi hosted Randa Abdel-Fattah … should make it crystal clear that the Greens are now a party which actively broadcasts messages that appeal to Hamas supporters, violent anti-Zionists and antisemites.”
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