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Labor frontbencher Mark Burns says new Greens leader David Shoebridge places Jewish Australians in good and bad categories based on views on Gaza, as Anthony Albanese criticises his hardline approach.
Labor frontbencher Mark Burns has accused new Greens leader David Shoebridge of being prejudiced against Jewish Australians and placing them into good and bad categories based on their positions on Israel's war in Gaza.
Burns said Shoebridge's instinct was to isolate members of the Jewish community. He acknowledged Shoebridge had not explicitly said there were good or bad Jewish people, but maintained the Greens leader's approach was divisive.
Speaking on News24, Burns said: Instead of saying something that was unifying and acknowledging that everyone deserves to feel safe and to be included in the Australian political landscape, Senator Shoebridge decided to give an answer that said that he has relationships with some who agree with him on his perspective of the Middle East. Burns added: People shouldn't be judged just based on whether or not they agree with David Shoebridge.
The Jewish community should not be put into categories of good and bad based on their views of what is happening in the Middle East. That is not progressive leadership, that's prejudice. The criticism came as Shoebridge's history of controversies was circulated by internal Greens critics and political opponents in Canberra. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also suggested Shoebridge's hardline approach will turn off Greens voters.
Albanese Critiques Shoebridge Approach
Albanese opened Labor's attacks a day after the NSW senator was elected to succeed Larissa Waters. He critiqued Shoebridge's aim to replace Labor instead of focusing on the rise of a far-right wing party. Pointing to the interpretation that the Greens' obstructionist approach was to blame for losses at the last election, a view not shared by Greens strategists, Albanese said Shoebridge sounded a lot like some of the people who didn't win their seats.
On Thursday, Shoebridge said the rare contested ballot of Greens MPs this week showed the hunger within the party to respond to overlapping social, economic and environmental crises producing searing anger among voters. He told the ABC: I see that as a real sign of strength in the party and a sign of deep eagerness across the whole team to get in and make this fight real.
Asked on Wednesday about his relationship with the Jewish community, Shoebridge said the party had really strong connections with much of the Australian Jewish community here, working alongside Jewish Australians who are fighting a genocide. He added: And we will continue to champion their voices, to be solid allies with them. Shoebridge then urged the media to listen to their cries for justice like we do. Shoebridge, 55, has been scrutinised for pushing the envelope in his political activism.
Shoebridge Faces Activism Scrutiny
He has described himself as a radical socialist and hails from the NSW hard-left faction associated with Lee Rhiannon. He was the only Australian politician to attend an event at the Chinese embassy in Canberra marking the 80th anniversary of Japan's defeat in World War II. The embassy was not allowed to hold the event in Parliament House. The ABC reported Shoebridge posted on Instagram in July about Labor gagging the truth about the Bondi massacre.
The post related to a former ASIO undercover agent known as Marcus, who claimed he warned authorities about the Akrams family years before. ASIO insisted that Marcus, who was refused a visa to appear at the antisemitism royal commission, was unreliable. Many comments on the post claimed explicitly that the Bondi massacre was a hoax. Mossad false flag event, one user said, drawing 255 likes.
Another saying Get Israel out of our politics received nearly 1000 likes, while another, We all know it was a Mossad operation, received 245 approvals. Shoebridge's office disabled comments on the post a few weeks ago when this masthead alerted it to the nature of the remarks. This masthead is not suggesting Shoebridge supported the views of the commenters, only that they remained online for many weeks.
The volume of comments underlined Israel's reputational damage since it responded to the October 7 Hamas attacks by entering Gaza and killing at least 70,000, including combatants. The UN has labelled it a possible genocide.
Jewish Community Condemns Claims
However, the comments also display the conspiratorial views of some elements of the left. Albanese's key ally in the Jewish community, Peter Wertheim, singled out Shoebridge in his submission to the royal commission. Wertheim, the co-chief executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, said Shoebridge made a false claim about government funding for security upgrades that spurred responses which inflamed antisemitism. Wertheim wrote: The senator did not check the accuracy of this statement.
The sequence of social media commentary was illustrative of how misinformation and disinformation can play to and stoke antisemitic sentiment. In other controversies, The Shot's recent pieces were described as practical demonstrations of antisemitism. Milner called Shah a liberal Zionist coward. Milner was contacted for comment.
Shoebridge's office did not respond to detailed questions about this story, including whether he endorsed Milner's views. A party spokesman said: This is a collection of allegations that are grossly inaccurate, false and wilfully misleading. The controversies come amid the National Socialist Network's pledge to support One Nation at the election, as hardline forces capitalise on a crisis of faith in mainstream parties across the world.
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theage:This story was compiled and edited by the HeadTopics newsroom and HT AI from the reports above.
Greens Leader Mark Burns Antisemitism Gaza War
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