Jewish group lashes City of Sydney for anti-Israel BDS motion
A leading Jewish group has condemned the City of Sydney Council for passing a motion that would consider divesting from companies involved with the ongoing war in Gaza.
A leading Jewish group has condemned the City of Sydney Council for passing a motion to investigate divesting from companies involved in “human rights abuses in Palestine”.
The motion was in line with demands of the broader anti-Israel boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaign.
Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-CEO Peter Wertheim said the council was guilty of “muddled morality”. “Sydney City Council has shown spectacular ineptitude in its latest foray into international affairs,” Mr Wertheim said. “It has acknowledged the terrorist atrocities committed by Hamas in Israel last year, but has decided to punish not the perpetrators but the victims for having the temerity to defend themselves.
“Appeals to principle seem to have no impact on the muddled morality of Sydney City Council.
“Perhaps it will find economic considerations more persuasive when it recalls the fiasco of the aborted Marrickville council decision to boycott and divest from Israel in 2011. The idea was abandoned after an internal council report showed that a boycott of Israel would cost ratepayers a minimum of $3.7m.
“How many millions of dollars would it cost the ratepayers of Sydney City Council in 2024?
“A body that struggles to achieve competence in collecting the garbage and fixing potholes might be overreaching itself just a tad in its pretensions to forge peace in the Middle East.”
The Sydney City Council motion was brought by Greens councillor Sylvie Ellsmore and was supported by Lord Mayor Clover Moore and her four other Team Clover councillors. The text of the motion asked the chief executive to consider divestments “to ensure that council’s investment policy 2023 fully consider companies involved in, or profiting from, any human rights violations, including the illegal occupation of the settlements in Palestinian territories, and the supply of weapons”.
The City of Sydney did not respond to a request for comment.
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