9 June 2016 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Dr Danny Lamm, President of the Zionist Federation of Australia expressed his dismay with the decision of Greens Melbourne Ports’ candidate Steph Hodgins-May to withdraw from a pre-election debate that is to take place on 22 June at Beth Weizmann under the aegis of the Australian Jewish News and Zionism Victoria.
Despite being told about the co-hosting arrangements on 30 May Hodgins-May has now pulled out claiming she is “not comfortable participating in a forum that is co-hosted by an organisation that isn’t an independent newspaper” and that she doesn’t “believe it is appropriate and right to speak at an event co-organised by a politically active organization”.
Dr. Lamm said, “I am not surprised other than at the fact that it has taken the Greens this long to reveal their true colours. It is ironic that that Adam Bandt, the only Greens member in the lower house, will be appearing on a panel hosted by the Australian Palestinian Advocacy Network The topic under discussion there is ‘Palestine and Israel: adopting a just position.’”
“The hypocrisy of a political party refusing to speak at one function because of a supposed set of principles, while appearing at another function in disregard of the same alleged principles is breathtaking” Dr Lamm said.
Steph Hodgin-May was offered equal time with the other candidates in Melbourne Ports to put her party’s position on a range of issues and her withdrawal from this function says a lot about her attitude toward and disdain for the voters and especially the Jewish voters of Melbourne Ports who would be rightly concerned about her party’s position on Israel and the Palestinians.”
“Her refusal to appear in front of the community is just another link in the ever-growing chain of anti-Israel positions and strategies of the Greens party whose ranks include many who support the vile BDS campaign. Their constant failure to meaningfully condemn genocidal terrorist organisations such as Hamas while at the same time condemning Israel at every opportunity is indicative of this organisation’s prejudice”.
