The Zionist Federation of Australia welcomes the Prime Minister’s emphatic rejection of violent hate speech.
Yesterday, it was reported that in a soon-to-be released documentary about the spike in antisemitism in Australia, Mr Albanese said he agreed with the assessment of former ASIO, Defence and DFAT head Dennis Richardson that the chant ‘from the River to the Sea’ is “a very violent statement” that poses dangers to the Australian community.
ZFA President Jeremy Leibler said, “This is the kind of leadership that is necessary to restore social cohesion in this country. The former head of ASIO and the Prime Minister are correct to describe these chants, which we are seeing on campuses and city streets, as violent. It is not enough to ignore those who seek to undermine social cohesion; it is vital to demonstrate clarity by specifically rejecting actions that do so. That is what the prime minister has done.”
Mr Leibler added, “The Hamas atrocities on 7 October gave us a hint of what ‘from the River to the Sea’ means in practice. No one of good conscience should be uttering that hateful slogan.”
The reported comments in the documentary came a day after Mr Albanese said the chant ‘from the River to the Sea’ “is a slogan that calls for opposition to a two-state solution… The slogan that you refer to dismisses [the two-state outcome], which is not in the interests of Israelis, but is also not in the interests of Palestinians.”
