Islamic Council of Victoria walks back president’s ‘legitimate resistance’ comments

The Islamic Council of Victoria (ICV) has partially walked back comments made by its president Adel Salman after he said the Hamas attacks in Israel on October 7 were “legitimate acts of resistance”.

In an ABC radio interview on Wednesday morning to explain why the ICV does not want to attend Premier Jacinta Allan’s iftar dinner, Salman said the attacks had to be seen in the context of a conflict that has continued for 75 years.

Victorian Islamic Council president Adel Salman.Credit: Jason South

“What we don’t denounce, very clearly, is legitimate acts of resistance and for the Palestinians to rise up on October 7 and say we are no longer going to tolerate this siege, this occupation, that is legitimate,” he said on Wednesday morning.

After criticism from Jewish lobby groups, the ICV put out a statement on Facebook on Wednesday afternoon partially walking back some of Salman’s comments.

“The ICV condemns the killing of innocent civilians on October 7. Just as we condemn the killing of innocent civilians by Israeli forces before and after October 7,” the statement said.

“The comments by President Adel Salman … about legitimate resistance are in reference to the right of Palestinians, like all peoples, to resist their occupation, and must not be read as legitimating the killing of innocent civilians.”

President of Zionism Victoria Yossi Goldfarb said Salman’s comments would incite antisemitism.

“The Islamic community, and indeed the broader Victorian community, deserve better leaders. It is inconceivable to think that government leaders engage with this man at all,” he said.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin said the comments “demonstrated the sick and depraved mindset of pro-Palestinian activists”.

Salman told The Age the ICV statement was not issued because of the criticism from Jewish groups, but rather due to the “misreporting” of his radio interview.

Gaza health officials say almost 30,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel’s military campaign began in response to Hamas’ October 7 attack. More than 1400 Israelis have been killed, according to Israeli tallies.

The ICV president was speaking after more than 70 Muslim community groups and organisations signed a letter on Tuesday calling for the premier’s annual iftar dinner to be cancelled due to the Gaza conflict.

That number had swelled above 110 on Wednesday afternoon, with signatories including Tarneit’s Melbourne Grand Mosque, one of the largest in the country, and the Australian National Imams Council. Regional organisations and university clubs were also among the signatories.

The Age contacted several Muslim organisations about the issues surrounding the iftar dinner boycott, but did not receive responses.

Environment Minister Steve Dimopoulos, speaking on behalf of the government on Wednesday, said the premier’s dinner would not be as “grand and not as big” as previous years. Several hundred people have attended the gala in its previous iterations.

“The more important thing for us at the moment – and it has been the last few months – is to wrap our arms around the community,” Dimopoulos said.

“We’ve done that with mental health support. We’ve done that with a whole range of other supports. Many of my colleagues in the Victorian government went to the mosque open day, to their local mosques, on Sunday. We’re reaching out to the Muslim community and showing our love and our thoughts at this time.”

Greens leader Samantha Ratnam called for this year’s dinner to be scrapped altogether.

“To push ahead with an event amid such suffering and frustration in the community would be insensitive,” Ratnam said.

“If the Victorian Labor government was listening to the Palestinian and broader Muslim communities, it would immediately sever its ties with Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer, Elbit Systems, and Israel’s defence ministry.”

In February 2021, Victoria signed a deal with Elbit to establish a Centre of Excellence in Melbourne to drive the development and commercialisation of defence technologies.

While the state government signed a memorandum of understanding with Israel’s defence ministry in December 2022, Deputy Premier Ben Carroll has previously said any claim Victoria is linked to the manufacturing of Israeli weapons is “unfounded and malicious”.

Earlier this month, both Carroll and Allan’s electoral offices were targeted by pro-Palestine activists who left fake corpses representing children killed in Gaza. All four lower-house Greens MPs were also removed from the chamber for 90 minutes and forced to apologise in early February after holding up signs that said: “Vic Labor, stop arming Israel”.

Liberal MP Evan Mulholland said on Wednesday that many Muslims in his Northern Metropolitan electorate felt let down by the premier. But he insisted Victoria should not cut economic ties with any country.

“There’s a critical lack of investment in Victoria, whether it be housing, employment opportunities and trade. We need investment wherever we can get it.”

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