Bondi shooting: Greens Deputy Leader Mehreen Faruqi uses condolence motion to accuse Israel of genocide

The Greens accused the major parties of politicising the Bondi massacre - only to use their condolence speeches on Australia’s worst-ever terrorist attack to criticise Israel.

With Parliament recalled on Monday, during the usual summer break, Deputy Leader Mehreen Faruqi accused the Federal Government of wanting to silence critics of Israel, the world’s only Jewish state, using the word “genocide”.

“Even in moments of deep grief, there are voices that seek to divide us, to politicise loss, to police grief and to sow further hatred,” the Muslim lawmaker told the Senate.

“We must refuse to allow tragedy to be weaponised and turned against one another.

“The legacy of this appalling violence at Bondi cannot be the undermining of basic civil and political rights or laws that can be used to weaponise racism and hate against everyday Australians who follow their conscience and speak out against injustice and genocide.”

Senator Faruqi didn’t mention Israel on Monday but on November 27, just a fortnight before the Bondi atrocity, she accused Israel of genocide in a parliamentary motion which neither Labor nor the Coalition supported.

“After Israel has murdered thousands and thousands of Palestinians, destroyed Gaza, starved children, blocked aid, expanded illegal settlements in the West Bank, Labor still refuses to recognise Israel’s genocide,” she said on Instagram less than two months ago.

Greens Leader Larissa Waters used her Monday condolence speech on Australia’s worst-ever terrorist attack to criticise Israel and warn of hatred against Muslims and not just Jews, after accused Islamist gunman Naveed Akram, 24, allegedly opened fire on Jews celebrating Hanukkah on December 14.

“We cannot claim to be safe, free or equal unless we address anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, racism and discrimination in all its forms,” she said.

“Criticism of Israel’s actions, just like those of Russia, China or Australia should not be criminalised because political expression and peaceful protest are things to be proud of.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is splitting an omnibus bill that would have encompassed a gun buyback and hate speech laws, after the Greens on Saturday indicated they were opposed to hate speech provisions and a proposal to give Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke the power to cancel or reject the visas of hate preachers.

Opposition frontbencher Julian Leeser, who is Jewish, noted that anti-Semitism was rife on the left of politics, especially in the arts.

“The third group is when anti-Semitism is rife as the cultural left, the writers’ festivals and the people who say their mission is to make Jewish people feel unsafe,” he told the House of Representatives on Monday.

“It is in the universities where Jewish students are harassed.

“It is in the conferences where Jewish people are silenced, shut down, humiliated, called might and where the term Zionist is used as an insult. We have seen hatred framed as artistic expression.”

Macquarie University sociologist Randa Abdel-Fattah, who was this month disinvited from the Adelaide Writers’ Festival before being issued with an apology, in October 2023 also mocked the idea of lighting up the Opera House to commemorate the murder of 1200 Israelis by Hamas terrorists.

“They can light up their colonial buildings. But we know that popular global support is with Palestine and that the genocidal state of Israel has only the ruling elites by its side,” Dr Abdel-Fattah sneered on X.

Dr Abdel-Fattah had also previously suggested those who supported Israel had no right to feel safe.

“If you are a Zionist you have no claim or right to cultural safety,” she said.

Senator Faruqi took part in a pro-Palestine march across the Sydney Harbour Bridge in August alongside several NSW Labor MPs known for expressing anti-Israel sentiments.

She has frequently accused Israel of genocide since October 2023, even before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Government first used force in Gaza to brutally suppress Hamas terrorists, and opposed lighting up the Sydney Opera House in the colours of the Israeli flag.

“One colonial government supporting another. What a disgrace,” she tweeted.