Port Macquarie Greens call Israel’s creation ‘a huge mistake’ amid UN aid controversy

A mid-north coast Greens branch slams Israel and says Jews should have been settled in Europe and the Middle East, not their ancestral homeland, after World War II and the Holocaust

A local branch of the Greens has described the creation of the state of Israel as a “huge mistake” in an online chat, it can be revealed, amid calls by the party to restore funding to a Gaza-based aid organisation whose employees were accused of taking part in the October 7 massacres.

In a Facebook chat on January 14 between the Port Macquarie Hastings branch of the Greens and a member of the public, the operator of the Greens account said that “the state of Israel was a creation of 1948.”

The Greens account went on to say that was “a huge mistake as Jews should have been domiciled in Europe and the US where they would have been much safer.”

The account also rejected a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine crisis, saying “Jews and Muslims should live together under a secular state of Palestine.”

The revelations come as Greens deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi called on the government to “immediately reverse” a pause on $6 million in funding to the Gaza Strip’s United Nations Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA.

Facebook message exchange with the Port Macquarie Hastings branch of the Greens, January 14, 2024, referring to the creation of Israel as a "mistake". Photo: Supplied

Over the weekend, Foreign Minister Penny Wong announced that the government would hold back $6 million payment to UNRWA after it was revealed some of its employees participated in the October 7 terrorist attacks in Israel.

In November, this masthead reported that dozens of teachers and staff celebrated the attacks on social media, leading to charges UNRWA was “exacerbating fanaticism.”

NSW government frontbencher Anthony D'Adam and Greens MP Jenny Leong leading a pro-Palestinian protest march in Sydney on Sunday. Supplied

For years, watchdog agencies have warned that UNRWA was promoting anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish propaganda, and in 2022 the European Commission called out “incitement to violence” in textbooks distributed by UNRWA.

However the Greens condemned the move by the Albanese government to suspend funding.

Greens deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi said, “ “Suspending lifesaving funding to the largest relief provider in Gaza is nothing short of catastrophic.”

“It is a despicable and heartless act,” she said.

However Alex Ryvchin, co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, said “the Greens seem to think they can tell Jews who we are, where we’re from and where we can and can’t live. They might harbour fantasies of Israel collapsing or of a one-state horror show where Tel Aviv progressives live in peace with Hamas be-headers but no one actually cares what they think about Israel.

ECAJ Co-CEO Alex Ryvchin in Sydney. John Feder/The Australian.

“Their entire position is a tired rehash of 1950s Soviet propaganda. “

“Their support for UNRWA, a corrupt bureaucracy whose employees have evolved from teaching Palestinian students to become terrorists to actually carrying out terror attacks and holding hostages themselves, says it all.”

Greens NSW Co-convenors Amy Croft and Arthur Bain said, “these comments don’t reflect the Greens policy and we remain committed to our calls for an immediate, permanent ceasefire that ends the Genocide, and an end to the occupation of Palestine - this is the only way to secure a lasting and just peace for both Palestinians and Israelis.”