Victorian Labor condemned over anti-Israel motions

Victorian Labor has been criticised after delegates at its state conference backed motions condemning Israel, calling for the release of jailed Palestinian terrorist Marwan Barghouti and declining to criticise Iran’s regime.

Delegates at the Melbourne conference voted for motions accusing Israel of apartheid and unlawful detention of Palestinians. They also opposed the war involving Iran but rejected an amendment that would have condemned the Iranian regime.

The decisions have exposed deep divisions inside Labor over Middle East policy and drawn criticism from Jewish groups and pro-Israel Labor members.

Before the conference, The Australian reported that Jewish Labor co-convener Adam Slonim had moved a motion warning that debate on Israel and Palestine “must not involve language or conduct that dehumanises, demonises, or delegitimises either people or nations”. The motion also called on party members not to “insult, deplatform, demean or treat with disrespect” members of either the Jewish or Palestinian communities.

Slonim has previously warned that anti-Israel motions inside Labor risk demonising Israel rather than contributing to a serious path to peace.

According to The Australian, Mr Slonim said he opposed the motion, titled “Opposing apartheid, unlawful detention and torture in Palestine”, not because he supported every action of the Israeli government or was indifferent to Palestinian suffering.

“Many of us here oppose many aspects of what is going on in this war, and we oppose settlement expansion,” he said.

But he said the motion “presents one side of the conflict as uniquely criminal” while largely ignoring “the role of those who killed my cousin on October 7, the role of Hamas, Palestinian extremism, Hezbollah terrorism, and internal repression”.

Mr Slonim said the motion failed to mention that Hamas and Hezbollah openly seek Israel’s destruction rather than coexistence, or that Hamas governs through “a brutality that no one in this room would tolerate in any other society”.

“We cannot speak of human rights seriously when applying them selectively,” he said.

He also criticised the use of the word “apartheid”, saying “words matter”.

“Apartheid was not merely prejudice or the outcome of conflict,” he said. “It was a legally codified racial system in which people were denied rights, representation, citizenship, movement, employment protections and equal participation under law because of race.”

Mr Slonim said the comparison ignored the fact that Arab citizens of Israel vote in the Knesset and serve as judges, doctors, lawyers, journalists and diplomats.

Barghouti, a senior Fatah figure and former head of the Tanzim faction, is serving five life sentences plus 40 years after being convicted by an Israeli court in 2004 over attacks that killed five people during the second intifada.

His convictions included involvement in the Seafood Market attack in Tel Aviv, a shooting near Giv’at Ze’ev and the murder of Greek Orthodox monk Georgios Tsibouktzakis. He was also convicted of attempted murder and membership of a terrorist organisation.

The Zionist Federation of Australia condemned the motion, with president Jeremy Leibler describing it as “a shocking moral collapse from elements of the Victorian Labor movement.”

“Marwan Barghouti is not a political prisoner. He is a convicted terrorist responsible for the murder of innocent civilians,” Mr Leibler said.

Mr Leibler said the attacks linked to Barghouti included the murder of Greek Orthodox monk Father Germanos Tsibouktzakis, who was shot dead while driving near Jerusalem, and the Seafood Market attack, where Israeli civilians were killed while dining.

“Families were torn apart. Innocent people were murdered in cold blood in restaurants and roadside shootings,” he said. “Attempting to sanitise or romanticise that violence is grotesque.”

Mr Leibler called on Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan to immediately distance herself and her government from any motion supporting Barghouti’s release.

“There must be no ambiguity here. A mainstream Australian government should not be associated in any way with advocacy for the release of a convicted terrorist responsible for murdering civilians,” he said.

He said that at a time of rising antisemitism and growing social division, Premier Allan should make clear she rejected “the glorification of terrorism and political violence by the radicalised factions within her party”.

AIJAC executive director Colin Rubenstein said the conference outcome remained deeply concerning, despite Victorian Labor passing a motion rejecting antisemitism and Premier Jacinta Allan publicly distancing herself from the most extreme anti-Israel motions.

“The outcome nonetheless reflects a troubling strain of ideological extremism within sections of the party,” Dr Rubenstein said.

He said accusing Israel of apartheid was “a deeply inflammatory and unfounded allegation”, while calls for the release of Marwan Barghouti were “equally indefensible”.

He said it was also appalling that the conference had refused to support a motion expressing solidarity with Iranians who had been “murdered, tortured and brutally oppressed” by the Iranian regime because the motion also supported military operations aimed at preventing Iran from threatening Israel, the wider Middle East and beyond.

Victorian Labor has a record of passing strongly antizionist resolutions at state conferences. In recent years, motions have urged recognition of Palestinian statehood, criticised Israeli settlements and called for an end to military ties with Israel.

The latest motions are not binding on the federal government, but they will add pressure on Labor’s national leadership at a time when Jewish community leaders are warning about rising antisemitism and deepening insecurity in Australia.