Greens senator Lee Rhiannon lashes Israel

GREENS senator Lee Rhiannon has lashed out against Israel, accusing the Jewish state of a “massacre” in Gaza.

GREENS senator Lee Rhiannon has lashed out against Israel, accusing the Jewish state of a “massacre” in Gaza as strife continues. “Israel is the aggressor here,” she told ABC radio’s Hack program.

Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister Alan Tudge told the program “Israel faces an existential threat almost daily” from rockets fired by Hamas forces in Gaza.

Senator Rhiannon played down the Hamas threat. “This isn’t a war between equals,” she said. “We’ve had an invasion here. There is a massacre going on.”

Her allies in the so-called “watermelons” faction of the NSW Greens have clashed with the federal party over their approach to Israel. “Israel has occupied Palestinian land since 1948,” she said. “We need to end the occupation.”

Senator Rhiannon denied she was offering support for Hamas by opposing Israeli action. “To say that people who are calling for Israel to stop their aggression are backing Hamas is just not the case at all,” she said. “We’re talking about Palestinian people who have been abused for so long and the crimes are extreme. Australia should be adding its voice to ending the occupation.’’

Senator Rhiannon’s NSW state colleague David Shoebridge addressed a rally 10 days ago at which Jewish community figures say anti-Semitic signs were displayed.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry research officer Julie Nathan told the J-Wire website that Holocaust inversion featured among rally themes. “Words included ‘Israel: using one Holocaust to continue another since 1948’, ‘One Holocaust doesn’t justify another’ and ‘Netanyahu: modern day Hitler’,” she said, pointing to banners carried at the protest.