A conservative Australian-Jewish group this week called for the community to bar from its events ministers from the ruling Labor Party unless they support a national inquiry into the Dec. 14 massacre of 15 people at a Chanukah party in Sydney.
Robert Gregory, CEO of the Australian Jewish Association (AJA), issued the call in a statement on Wednesday titled “Labor Ministers should be blocked from Jewish events.”
His group “is calling on Jewish organizations to seriously consider making it clear that federal Labor ministers will not be welcome at any Jewish venue or event unless they have publicly called for a Royal Commission into the Bondi Beach Chanukah massacre,” the statement reads.
Seventeen families related to victims of the attack, as well as the Rabbinical Association of Australasia, have called for a national inquiry, but Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said the events would be reviewed by a federal panel focused on the response of law enforcement to the event.
Supporters of a national inquiry seek a broader scope, which would look at authorities’ handling of escalating antisemitic violence since Oct. 7, 2023, the rhetoric of Australian officials vis-à-vis Israel, and the country’s immigration policy and handling of radical Islam.
Prosecutors in Sydney said the Bondi Beach attack was perpetrated by two jihadists, a father and son. The father, an immigrant from Pakistan, was killed in an exchange of fire with police. The son, who was wounded, is facing murder charges.
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ), a larger and less conservative communal body, did not reply to JNS’s request for a comment on AJA’s call in time for publication.
Supporters of the Labor government condemned the AJA’s call as partisan. Gregory dismissed these claims.
“If a Labor minister stands with the Jewish community and calls for a Royal Commission, they will be received warmly,” he told JNS. “The problem is not with the Labor Party but rather with the federal government.”
Gregory noted that New South Wales Premier Chris Minns, who is a Labor politician, “receives a standing ovation whenever he appears at Jewish events, [whereas] the prime minister is booed.”
