Monique Ryan accused of bias in her response to Hamas, Gaza and Israel

The teal MP has fired back after the principal of a Jewish school accused her of ‘selective outrage’ at Gaza deaths, rather than the 1400 Israelis slaughtered by Hamas.

Monique Ryan has come under fire over her ‘selective outrage’ over events in the Middle East. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

The principal of a Melbourne Jewish school has written a blistering letter to independent Kooyong MP Monique Ryan, accusing her of “unacceptable” bias in selectively expressing outrage at the death of children in Gaza rather than the deaths of 1400 Israelis at the hands of Hamas.

The letter from the principal of Bialik College, Jeremy Stowe-Lindner, said Ms Ryan’s responses to the October 7 massacre of Israelis and the retaliatory bombing of Gaza by Israel had repeatedly played down the suffering of Israel and of the Australian Jewish community.

It follows a Facebook post by Ms Ryan on Wednesday in which she wrote ‘as a pediatrician, I find the human suffering in Gaza intolerable,’ and called for a humanitarian pause so that aid can reach people.

Mr Stowe-Lindner said he represented the only Jewish school in Mr Ryan’s electorate where “multiple family members (are) attending, online and in person, funerals of murdered loved ones in Israel.

“Your reference to the suffering only in Gaza is unacceptable,” he wrote.

“Perhaps a reference to the intolerable suffering of the families of 1400 Israeli civilians on October 7 who were murdered, raped, beheaded would be appropriate too? Or to those Jewish families sheltering in bomb shelters from 5000 Hamas rockets in just a few hours on that day who were wiped out through hand grenades being thrown into their shelters? Or to that catastrophe as a pogrom, the deadliest day for world Judaism since the Holocaust?”

“Intolerable also is the reaction of mobs calling for Jews to be gassed here in Australia, or apparently peaceful crowds with placards proclaiming ‘from the river to the sea’ which for those with any understanding of geography is a call for the ethnic cleansing and destruction of the world’s only Jewish state,” he wrote.

Bialik College principal Jeremy Stowe-Lindner.

Mr Stowe-Lindner wrote that it was impossible to understate the trauma and alienation of these events for the Jewish community.

He said Ms Ryan’s Facebook posts had only made one reference to Hamas, which was in response to the massacre of October 7.

“(There) you wrote that “Hamas has made the road to a two-state solution much harder. Israel has every right to defend its people.” Is that all you have to say? “Much harder?”

“Only one sentence on Hamas as making things ‘much harder’? And a vague comment about a country’s right to self defence but no comment in any post about suffering in Israel or the murder of Jews?”

Mr Stowe-Lindner said a more appropriate response from Ms Ryan would be to also acknowledge the suffering of Israelis and the Jewish community.

“Were you to post a reference to Israeli children who have been taken hostage for almost a month, a reference to babies who have been murdered, a reference to pregnant women who have been gunned down, an acknowledgment of the suffering of children on all sides – this would ‘tolerable’, as would an unashamed and unreserved condemnation of Hamas, a terrorist death cult,” he wrote.

Ms Ryan rejected the accusation in comments on Friday afternoon, saying it “misrepresents” positions she has taken on the broader conflict.

“As I have said in Parliament, I unequivocally condemn the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel, I call for the hostages to be released, and I reject antisemitism in the strongest possible terms.

“I urge anyone with doubts about my record to read my speech in Parliament and see my strong voting record on Israel, which is the same as the Coalition’s.

“Amid rising antisemitism I have deep concern for the wellbeing and welfare of the Jewish community inside and out of Kooyong. I reject any suggestions to the contrary.”