New Greens leader Larissa Waters claims many Jews ‘support’ anti-Israel party

The new Greens leader declared that many Australian Jews who ‘don’t support genocide’ back her depleted left-wing party, shocking the nation’s Jewish leaders within hours of her taking the reins.

Newly elected Greens leader Larissa Waters gives her first press conference in Melbourne. Picture: NewsWire / Luis Enrique Ascui

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New Greens leader Larissa ­Waters has declared there are many Australian Jews who “don’t support genocide” backing her depleted left-wing party, shocking the nation’s Jewish leaders within hours of her taking the reins from the ­vanquished Adam Bandt.

Following a Greens partyroom meeting in Melbourne on Thursday to elect a leader after Mr Bandt lost his seat, Senator Waters was chosen “by consensus, unopposed”, with Mehreen Faruqi elected deputy leader after beating Dorinda Cox, nine votes to three.

Senator Waters issued an ­ultimatum to Anthony Albanese that he can choose to work with the Greens or the Coalition, ­asserting the minor party had the numbers in the upper house to pass Labor’s legislative agenda.

Declaring that she wanted to “get shit done” and Labor “can’t blame anyone else” for not passing positive reforms, Senator Waters recommitted to fighting for action on climate change and First Nations justice, and tackling inequality.

After the May 3 election saw the Greens’ numbers reduced in the House of Representatives from four to one, Senator Waters doubled down on the party’s stance on the Middle East conflict and denied that Jewish voters had abandoned the party.

“I know a lot of wonderful Jewish voters who are backing the Greens because they don’t want genocide either,” she said.

Senator Waters also denied that Mr Bandt had failed to condemn Hamas, declaring that many Australians felt strongly about the “devastation”, “starvation” and “genocide” occurring in Gaza.

“We did at the time, we condemned Hamas, and we have condemned every day since the atrocities that are occurring in Gaza,” she said.

Mr Bandt has repeatedly failed to condemn the Gazan terror group, including after its recent violent repressions of hundreds of Palestinians who questioned Hamas’s rule.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry president Daniel Aghion said the Greens were “deluding themselves” if they believed they had the support of large numbers of Jewish Australians, urging the minor party to reflect on its behaviour or “remain a party of Peter Pans”.

“The Greens have a new leader, but are still parroting the same old extremist messages,” he said.

“They have not learned a thing from the resounding rebuke they recently received from the voters. They are still acting as judge and jury in their outrageous statements accusing Israel of genocide and other crimes, when no one has been tried and convicted.”

Mehreen Faruqi, Senator Waters and Senator Sarah Hanson-Young walk out of their election meeting in Melbourne. Picture: NewsWire / Luis Enrique Ascui

Zionist Federation of Australia chief executive Alon Cassuto said if the Greens are serious about “fixing their extremism” they need to address the “rampant anti-Semitism in their ranks”, condemn terrorist organisations and acknowledge that their rhetoric has “fuelled a breakdown in our social cohesion”.

“Even after their extremism was utterly rejected by Australian voters, the Greens seem to be in total denial that their hate-filled rhetoric cost them at the election, and the new leader’s comments today show they have not learned any lessons from their defeat,” he said.

Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council executive director Colin Rubenstein said the Greens’ “lies” on Israel “backfired at the ballot box”, and if they continued down this path, they would become “increasingly marginalised and irrelevant”.

“With her comments, the new Greens leader has shown that the party has learned little from their disastrous election result – that the Australian public rejects their politics of division and hatred and promotion of extremism,” Dr Rubenstein said.

Former Greens MP, and leader, Adam Bandt. Picture: NewsWire/ David Crosling

Senator Faruqi said the election result had handed the Greens a mandate to “fight for people and the planet”, declaring they would not “take a step backwards on action, on climate, on the environment, on housing and for justice for Palestine”.

“Migrant and multicultural communities have in the tens of thousands across Sydney, across Brisbane, across Melbourne, backed our strong stand against the genocide in Gaza and for us telling the truth about what has happened,” she said.

South Australian senator Sarah Hanson-Young, reappointed Greens manager of business, said the “ball is in Mr Albanese’s court”, demanding Labor end native forest logging and rule out allowing the “climate bomb” North West Shelf gas project to go ahead.

“There are no more excuses, right-wing politicians and conservative politics have been smashed in this election,” Senator Hanson-Young said.

“There are no more excuses for being timid.”

Senator Waters denied that Lidia Thorpe was eyeing a return to the Greens, after The Australian revealed that multiple sources believed the outspoken senator was using an Indigenous faction of the party to meddle in the leadership contest.

Greens sources said the group, known as the Blak Greens, had sought to undermine Senator Cox and argue she should be stripped of the Indigenous Australians portfolio.