Bandt promotes Free Palestine event with blank map of Israel
Greens’ leader Adam Bandt has promoted today’s Melbourne rally march, “Stand with Gaza”, featuring a red-coloured graphic of an unnamed Israel.
Responding to the X post, the president of the Zionist Federation of Australia Jeremy Leibler posted “if it wasn’t clear what “from the river to the sea” means, the map on this flyer you are promoting confirms that it means the eradication of the Jewish State. Shame on you.”
AIJAC executive director Dr Colin Rubenstein added: The Australian Greens have sunk to a new low.
Their leader has now implicitly endorsed calls for the destruction of Israel. This puts the Greens completely outside mainstream political discourse and debate.
It is bad enough that they demand premature recognition of a non-existent Palestinian state and effectively deny Israel any right to defend itself.
They also level a litany of baseless and defamatory allegations against Israel that could even come straight out of Hamas.
The inclusion of a map of ‘Palestine’ including the entirety of Israel, makes very clear what the march organisers mean when they call for a “Free Palestine“. The organisation behind the march,”Free Palestine Melbourne,” also has a history of anti-Israel extremism and antisemitism that goes far beyond calling for a Palestinian state.
It is absolutely appalling that a Member of Parliament in this country could behave in this way, let alone the leader of a prominent political party.
Mr Bandt should immediately dissociate himself from this event and organisation.
Furthermore, he should make a full and unequivocal apology not only to the Jewish community, but to all Australians.
Leibler also called for an apology.
He wrote to Adam Bandt: “The Australian Jewish community is extremely concerned that you are allying yourself with an antisemitic group that mocks victims of terror and calls for the destruction of Israel.
Your promotion and endorsement of the rally organised by “Free Palestine Melbourne” includes a poster which features a prominent map for a State of Palestine that completely replaces the State of Israel – it erases Israel. This is blatantly contradictory to the Greens’ purported support for a two-state outcome.
And to make this map real would require removing the Jews of Israel and destroying the State of Israel. Following October 7, one can only imagine how.
I also understand that this same organisation, “Free Palestine Melbourne,” denies the antisemitic massacres of October 7 as “propaganda”. That much is clear because it proudly encourages its supporters to deface posters that call for the return of Israeli civilians who have been taken hostage by Hamas, by literally labelling these posters as “Zionist propaganda.”
To be clear, you are associating yourself with a hateful organisation that yearns for the destruction of Israel and mocks the victims of terror by Hamas, a designated terror organisation. I trust you understand that this has an enormous impact on the Jewish communities of Australia – because by your participation, you legitimise this antisemitism.
Your continued association with this group will be read in no uncertain terms as an endorsement of its activities and its antisemitism, which will no doubt be virulently expressed on the ground on the day of the protest.
Australia is far better than this. We expect far more of each other, let alone of our political leaders. We all know antisemitism to be the most foundational racial hatred. You must do better and you must call it out.
I urge you to apologise and immediately distance yourself and the Australian Greens from this group and each other group which shares in their hateful and antisemitic fantasies.”
I’m so glad Jeremy Leibler didn’t mince words. It’s simply shocking that the leader of an Australian political party, or indeed any MP, would go to this length.
No good saying, ‘shame on you’, for Bandt has no shame. No shame, no context, no depth, no knowledge of history. He’s a scourge on our society and our Jewish communities.
Something is rotten in Australian politics when the leader of a political party can perform a stunt that impliedly endorses the genocidal chant for the destruction of Israel and the murder of its Jewish inhabitants without universal condemnation. That he shamelessly engages in such extreme and racist conduct says more about his character and morality than the hopeless cause he espouses.
The Greens have adopted a “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” policy with regard to Hamas. It failed to mention the terror group in its 2021 Gaza policy after it fired thousands of rockets at Israeli civilian targets and Bandt made no mention of Hamas on Bandt’s Twitter account after its 7 October atrocities. It took him 3 days after 1,400 Israelis were murdered, women raped, babies burned, missiles fired and hostages taken to condemn violence on both sides and blame Israel, the occupier when it retaliated. On that basis, it’s a stretch expecting him to behave like a mensch and apologize for any error of judgment or sheer stupidity on his part.