Liberal Waverley councillor Will Nemesh condemns Greens councillors following Israel vote

A Jewish councillor has called for the resignation of Waverley’s deputy mayor after he refused to support a motion condemning this month’s attacks by Hamas. However, he says the motion didn’t reflect the atrocities by “both sides”.

Waverley Liberal councillor Will Nemesh.

Tensions have boiled over in the wake of a Sydney council meeting as debate wages over a motion condemning this month’s attacks by Hamas on Israel.

Liberal councillor Will Nemesh used this week’s Waverley Council to put forward an “urgent motion” recognising the trauma the conflict has inflicted on the community’s area’s large Jewish community and for the council to provide increased support and services to residents.

The motion included wording “condemning” incidents of anti-Semitism seen at a pro-Palestine rally held last Monday which was held against the backdrop of the Opera House lit in the blue and white of the Israeli flag.

Mr Nemesh said it was crucial the council “demonstrate solidarity” with its local Jewish community, as well as offering “practical” support through existing organisations in Waverley.

However he said he had been “bitterly disappointed” by the response from two Greens councillors, including deputy mayor Ludovico Fabiano and Dominic WY Kanak, who he said we aren’t able to support the motion.

Politicians attending the vigil held in Sydney tonight at Rodney Reserve, Dover Heights on October 11, for Israeli civilians who died in the Hamas terror attack. Picture: Monique Harmer.

Mr Nemesh, in the wake of the meeting, called on Mr Fabiano to “resign”.

But Mr Fabiano has hit back at Mr Namesh’s comments, telling this publication he was unable to support the motion as tabled because it did not reflect the “atrocities committed by both sides” of the unfolding war including by Israel.

Waverley councillor Will Nemesh.

Mr Fabiaono had tried to include amendments to the motion that would also have further condemned the “war crimes committed by a right wing Israeli government”.

“I come from a background of peace and trying to find a peaceful resolution and I couldn’t support the motion (without the amendments) because it didn’t represent the full picture.” he said.

“Several times in my address to the meeting I condemned the Hamas attack on Israeli civilians. The Greens councillors support providing assistance to our local Jewish community.

“I’m trying to see things not from a position of purely hatred.”

At an emotional meeting Tuesday night that saw multiple councillors brought to tears, Mr Nemesh told the council that local organisation JewishCare had been “flooded” with calls for support.

The social services organisation had established a crisis line with volunteer social workers, and shared further funding would allow it to employ a casual psychologist to provide necessary counselling.

Mr Nemesh acknowledged almost every member of the Waverley community knew someone who had been murdered, injured or called up to military service.

Labor councillor Steven Lewis said the council had a duty of care to its residents who were part of the Jewish community, who he said had expressed “real fear for their safety” amid ongoing reported incidents at Jewish centres.

The motion was passed nine votes to two.