Greens pick pro-Palestine poet Omar Sakr ahead of conflict-heavy Blaxland campaign
The Greens have preselected poet Omar Sakr to contest Jason Clare’s seat of Blaxland in what will shape up as a tight campaign with the Israel-Hamas conflict at its core.
The Greens have preselected poet Omar Sakr to contest Jason Clare’s southwest Sydney seat of Blaxland in what will shape up as a tight campaign with the Israel-Hamas conflict at its core.
The selection of Mr Sakr, who is vocal in his support for Palestine and criticism of Zionism, will fuel a divisive race where independent candidate Ahmed Ouf, backed by The Muslim Vote political movement, is looking to topple the Education Minister by harnessing community discontent with Labor’s Israel-Palestine approach.
Labor remain carefully confident of both Mr Clare and Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke in Watson retaining their seats amid an anti-ALP onslaught, with sources citing the pair’s longstanding work with the Muslim community and the likely preference flow.
Greens senator for NSW Mehreen Faruqi on Tuesday said Sakr would be a “desperately needed authentic” voice in parliament.
“The two major parties have lost touch as they prioritise corporate interests while millions struggle to make ends meet,” she said, accusing Labor of “not caring about western Sydney”.
“That’s why it’s important that voices like Omar are in parliament – voices from the community that fight for the community.”
Sakr, who lives in the seat, said he was motivated to run given his “disgust” and “horror” with Labor’s stance on the conflict, accusing the party of being “united” with the Liberals in its “disregard” for Muslim people.
“They are united in attaching Australia to the US’s doomed forever wars in the Middle East, which we don’t need to have any part in,” he said.
Sakr has won a Prime Minister’s Literary Award for poetry, and has been strident in his pro-Palestine and anti-Israel stance since the onset of the war, calling Zionists “angry Karens in a state of constant hysteria”.
He has alleged Zionists were being “demonised” because of their “sick actions and inhumane deeds”, calling some “privileged shits” who invoked the “Holocaust to shield their behaviour”, something he said was a “Zionist tradition”.
The party’s conflict-laden announcement and pro-Palestine candidate indicates a similar approach to its NSW local government election campaign, and all but confirms a form of preference deal with independent Mr Ouf, where a coalition of local activists supportive of both campaigns have started to coalesce.
Mr Ouf and Watson independent Ziad Basyouny are likely to preference Labor last, and in the former’s successful election to Cumberland Council in September he directed preferences to the Liberals, with Labor’s vote in his ward collapsing.
Many in the community fear a protest vote against Labor could inadvertently elect the Liberals, something far less palatable to many Muslim voters, despite anger with the ALP.
Labor, while remaining cautious, does not fear an upset in Blaxland and Watson as much as places like Werriwa and Gilmore, in southern NSW, where it expects razor-thin battles with the Liberals.
Mr Clare, however, has been out leafleting and will – bar some Christmas respite – ramp up efforts ahead of the election.
He won Blaxland with 55 per cent of first-preference votes in 2022, where about 32 per cent of voters are Muslim. Last week at a community-organised BBQ in Blaxland, he said he would “never stop fighting” for “each and every (constituent)”.
The event was held by prominent Lebanese Muslim community leader Jamal Rifi, who has vowed to mobilise support to re-elect Mr Clare and Mr Burke under the interchangeable “Friends of Jason” moniker.
Flanked by his wife, Louise, and two sons – eight-year-old Jack and three-year-old Atticus – Mr Clare said his youngest’s name was a reference to Harper Lee’s Atticus Finch, who urged that novel’s characters to “think what it’s like to walk in someone else’s shoes”.
“As the MP of this beautiful community, it’s my job to walk in other people’s shoes – to understand the suffering and sense of helplessness that so many feel,” he said. “You feel it and express it to me, and you help me be a better MP. That’s why I’m grateful for your support and look forward to working with you in the campaign.”
The event brought together figures from across southwest Sydney’s diasporas – including the Palestinian and Lebanese – and Dr Rifi has criticised bullying aimed at the two Labor members and the Muslim organisations seen to be engaging with them.
“Some people who have never been involved in politics or community affairs are claiming Jason has taken our community for granted, but this is so far from the truth,” Dr Rifi told the event.
“He’s never taken us or our vote for granted. He has worked hard for our support and represents us in the best way in government. I’m proud to be friends with Jason, and I know you are all proud to be a ‘Friend of Jason’.
“I walked the Kokoda Track with him and we’ll walk the campaign with him.”
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