Premier Chris Minns slams his own MP for ‘deliberately inflammatory’ remarks on Israel-Hamas conflict
The NSW Premier has hit out at an assistant minister in the Minns government who said the Israeli PM was responsible for killing “thousands of innocent children”.
NSW
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An assistant minister in the Minns government says Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is responsible for killing “thousands of innocent children” and called on Labor’s leadership to take “a stronger position” on calling for an “immediate, permanent ceasefire,”
in comments the premier has slammed as “deliberately inflammatory”.
Parliamentary Secretary Anthony D’Adam led a pro-Palestinian the march through Sydney’s CBD on Sunday, holding a banner with another protestor who was displaying a poster depicting Mr Netanyahu with a Hitler-style moustache, under the words “child killer”.
When contacted, Mr D’Adam said he did not endorse the poster, which he said was “in poor taste and not very strategic”.
However, he agreed with the poster’s message that Mr Netanyahu was killing children, due to the Israeli bombing of Gaza.
“If he’s not, then who is?”
“If he is responsible for killing thousands of innocent children, which is clearly the case, then it speaks for itself, doesn’t it?” Mr D’Adam said.
The Labor MP said his party “needs to take a stronger position in relation to the human catastrophe in Gaza,” and said Labor leaders should support an “immediate, permanent ceasefire”.
Premier Chris Minns criticised the comments of his MP, suggesting Mr D’Adam was attempting to be “deliberately inflammatory”.
Mr Minns also his said his parliamentary secretary is someone “most people in NSW would never have heard of”.
“I’m not going to endorse this view. It seems some people are determined to be deliberately inflammatory,” Mr Minns said.
“The Leadership of the NSW Government is united in its view of these issues and on community cohesion in NSW.
“I’m reluctant to offer a comment beyond that, for a caucus member most people in NSW would never have heard of.”
Mr D’Adam has attended most of the pro-Palestinian protests in Sydney’s CBD since the beginning of the Israel-Gaza war, sparked by Hamas’ October 7 terror attacks.
Mr D’Adam said he did not attend the October 9 protest at Town Hall and the Opera House, where flares were thrown and people chanted “f—k the Jews”.
He was one of more than 15 Labor MPs who broke ranks with his leader to sign an open letter in support of Palestine in the weeks after the Hamas attack.
NSW Jewish Board of Deputies President David Ossip said the poster was “grossly offensive”.
“Adolf Hitler was responsible for the systematic murder of 6 million Jews,” he said.
“Israel currently finds itself fighting against a terrorist group whose genocidal purpose is to murder all of the Jews in the land of Israel.”
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