Jenny Leong accused of using anti-Semitic trope

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has condemned a Newtown Greens MP for accusing Jewish groups of using their “tentacles” to “influence power” at a pro-Palestine event.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has condemned a Newtown Greens MP for accusing Jewish groups of using their “tentacles” to “influence power” at a pro-Palestine event last December.

“I condemn, totally, any form of anti-Semitism, including … the comments by my local member, the member for Newtown, whose comments about tentacles, with regard to the Jewish community, I find offensive. I find it had its origins in anti-Semitism and I condemn it unequivocally,” Mr Albanese said.

The Prime Minister said that he made his comments “in the context of the worst social disharmony that I have seen, not just in my time in politics but in my time that I have been alive in this country.”

Mr Albanese had been asked to condemn comments by the Ms Leong, who is also the Prime Minister’s local member in NSW parliament, by fellow Sydney MP Paul Bradfield, who challenged the government to call out the Greens.

“Will the government today join the opposition in standing with Australia’s Jewish community and condemn the Greens for their blatantly anti-Semitic behaviour?”

“Or is the Prime Minister too dependent on Greens preferences and Greens support in the Senate to have the courage to do so?” he asked.

Ms Leong has been the subject of widespread criticism ever since vision of her commenting on the supposed power of the Jewish lobby emerged earlier this week.

“The Jewish lobby and the Zionist lobby are infiltrating into every single aspect of what is ethnic community groups,” she had been recorded as saying.

“Their tentacles reach into the areas that try and influence power.

“We need to call that out and expose it,” she said.

Premier Chris Minns said, “Everyone, particularly [that] Greens MP, has to be really careful about commentary, particularly in relation to ethnic groups, racial groups, particularly for longstanding tropes,” he said.

“When passions run high, people can stumble into terrible, terrible comments that further divide and sow disunity in our community and that is the last thing we need right now.”

Greens MP accused of using anti-Semitic trope

Premier Chris Minns has warned Greens MP Jenny Leong to be “careful” of her commentary after the Newtown MP was been accused of using an antisemitic trope at a pro-Palestinian event last year, when she accused the “Jewish lobby” of “infiltrating into every single aspect of what is ethnic community groups”.

The Premier said on Wednesday that such comments would further divide the community.

“I think everyone, particularly Greens MPs have to be careful about commentary, particularly in relation to ethnic groups and particularly for long standing tropes,” he said.

“I know she (Ms Leong) has apologised... but when passions run high, people can stumble into terrible terrible comments that further divide and sow disunity in our community and that is the last thing we need right now.”

Ms Leong has repeatedly criticised to Israel’s “illegal … occupation” of Palestinian land, and has attended pro-Palestinian rallies in the CBD.

Member for Newtown Jenny Leong. Picture: AAP Image

At a Palestine Justice Movement event last year, the Newtown MP referred to the “tentacles” the “Jewish lobby” uses to “influence power”.

“I think that we need to call that out and expose it,” she said.

“The Jewish lobby and the Zionist lobby are infiltrating into every single aspect of what is ethnic community groups, they rock up, and they’re part of the campaign,” she said in the meeting.

“Their tentacles reach into the areas that try and influence power, and I think that we need to call that out and expose it,” she said.

The use of the term “tentacles” echoes a Nazi-era cartoon depicting Jewish people as an octopus with tentacles reaching across the globe.

NSW Jewish Board of Deputies President David Ossip accused Ms Leong of using a racist trope with her language.

“The oldest and darkest antisemitic tropes to accuse Jews of covertly manipulating civic life,” he said.

“She has outrageously suggested that there is a sinister or evil purpose associated with Jews undertaking the most normal of activities – interacting with other Australians.”

In a statement, Ms Leong apologised that her language had caused offence, acknowledging she used an “inappropriate” description of groups “backing Netanyahu’s genocidal attacks in Gaza.”

“Speaking on a panel during a two-hour long event last year, I acknowledge that I used a word at one point that was an inappropriate descriptor for the influence of groups backing Netanyahu’s genocidal attacks in Gaza and the ongoing occupation – I apologise that this has caused offence,” she said.

“It is incredibly telling that after a conversation where myself and other speakers made countless mentions of the genocidal attacks and occupation occurring in Gaza right now, that two months later more focus isn’t being put on the deaths of over 26,000 people, many of them children.”

Ms Leong said it is “important to hold people to account for words that may cause harm”.

“But it is equally important to not stay silent and hold people to account for harmful actions, and this includes the occupation and military violence by the Israeli state in Palestine that has been ongoing since 1948,” she said.

Liberal MP Julian Leeser called on the NSW parliament to censure Ms Leong for her comments.

“If Jenny Leong was an MP for a mainstream party, I would call on her to apologise. Given that she is a Green, she will probably be promoted,” he said.

“Jenny Leong wants to silence Jewish Australians and to remove any Jewish influence in politics, the arts and philanthropy. She believes Jewish-Australians have no place in our national life. This is the Greens.”

“The NSW Parliament should censure Jenny Leong for these terrible comments.”

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