The New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, has warned parliamentarians about sowing division in the community after a Greens MP apologised for referring to the “tentacles” of the “Jewish lobby” and its influence across Australia.
The Newtown MP Jenny Leong said she did not intend to reference an antisemitic cartoon depicting Jews as an octopus when she made the comments at the Palestine Justice Movement forum in Sydney in December, where the boycott movement against Israel was being discussed.
Leong has been a vocal and longstanding supporter of Palestine and has spoken frequently about the Israel-Hamas conflict since war broke out in October.
On Wednesday, Minns cautioned Leong and other parliamentarians on their language when referring to racial and ethnic groups.
“Everyone, particularly [that] Greens MP, has to be really careful about commentary, particularly in relation to ethnic groups, racial groups, particularly for longstanding tropes,” he said.
“I acknowledge that she’s apologised for that. That’s really important. But when passions run high, people can stumble into terrible, terrible comments that further divide and sow disunity in our community and that is the last thing we need right now.”
Vision from the 13 December event showed Leong telling the forum that “the Jewish lobby and the Zionist lobby are infiltrating into every single aspect of what is ethnic community groups”.
“They rock up and they’re part of the campaign and offer support for things like the campaign against the 18C racial discrimination laws, they offer solidarity, they rock up to every community event and meeting to offer that connection because their tentacles reach into the areas that try and influence power.
“We need to call that out and expose it.”
A 1938 Nazi German cartoon, by Austrian artist Josef Plank, depicted Jews as an octopus encircling the globe.
At the forum, Leong made a distinction between lobby groups and the Jewish community more broadly, who she described as “wonderful humans”.
Leong has apologised for the offence caused and acknowledged “that I used a word at one point that was an inappropriate descriptor”.
“As a committed human rights and anti-racism advocate, who has been outspoken about the rising threat of far-right extremism, I know that it is important to hold people to account for words that may cause harm,” Leong said. “But it is equally important to not stay silent and hold people to account for harmful actions, and this includes the occupation and military violence by the Israeli state in Palestine.”
The NSW Jewish Board of Deputies president, David Ossip, said Leong had “plumbed new and dangerous depths … to accuse Jews of covertly manipulating civic life”.
“She has outrageously suggested that there is a sinister or evil purpose associated with Jews undertaking the most normal of activities – interacting with other Australians,” he said.
“Her comments echo antisemitic propaganda throughout the ages, including Nazi propaganda, that Jews were conspiring to control the world.”
