Greens use anniversary of October 7 terror attack to accuse Israel of war crimes

The Greens have used the anniversary of the October 7 terrorist attack, in which 1200 Jewish people were slaughtered by Hamas, to blame Israel for war crimes and genocide.

In a statement, the radical left-wing party called for a complete cessation of Israel’s military activities while also labelling the October 7 attacks as “truly horrific”.

“The very same commitment to compassion, honesty, peace and justice required of us in response to those attacks of Hamas requires us as Greens to call out the war crimes and genocide that is being carried out by the State of Israel right now in Gaza and the rest of the occupied territories and the bombing and invasion of Lebanon,” the statement read.

The statement refers to the “extremist Netanyahu government” and ends with calls for the Albanese Government to sanction Israel.

It comes as Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus says the rise in anti-Semitism since the October 7 terror attack has been “truly shocking”.

The cabinet minister, who is the most senior Jewish MP in the Federal Government, has also condemned the “very ugly” weaponisation of the conflict in the Middle East for political gain on both sides of politics.

His sentiments are echoed by Liberal MP Julian Leeser, who said Sunday’s pro-Palestinian protests showed that even where laws were enacted in an attempt to wipe out hate speech, people found ways to skirt them.

Mr Dreyfus broke his near-silence on the Middle East conflict with an opinion piece published in The Guardian on Monday, saying despite everything, he still had hope for Australia and its Jewish community.

But, he wrote, something had changed over the past year.

“The rise in anti-Semitism in Australia after the Hamas attack has been truly shocking. Equally shocking has been the reluctance of some on the left to call out Hamas’ behaviour for what it is — an attempt to kill as many Jews as possible and inflict harm every day since,” he said.

“The failure of many, including the opposition, to show empathy and compassion to people fleeing Gaza has also been inexplicable.

“The weaponisation of prejudice and hate for political gain is always ugly, and the last 12 months have been very ugly.”

Mr Leeser said Monday’s anniversary of the Hamas attack would be a highly emotional day, and urged the whole Australian community to reflect on the response here as well as the conflict in the Middle East.

“Today is a very particular day for grief about the events of the seventh of October, and it’s about also reflecting on the country that we are given the anti-Semitism that we’ve seen this country over the last year,” he said.

“What we’re seeing in this country is anti-Semitism unanswered by too many people in positions of leadership who’ve turned a blind eye to it.

“Where politicians have been equivocal, where police have failed to arrest and prosecute people, where there’s support for the actions of Hamas on campuses that we’ve seen around the place. We need leaders to set and enforce norms of behaviour.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will attend a commemoration in Melbourne on Monday evening while Opposition Leader Peter Dutton will attend a similar event in Sydney.

Mr Albanese released a message marking the anniversary, saying Jewish Australians had felt “the cold shadows of anti-Semitism” over the past 12 months and the nation must reject “all prejudice and hatred”.

Mr Dutton, who has been highly critical of the Government’s position on Israel, said the October 7 attack and Israel’s response in Gaza and now Lebanon “awoke and exposed an anti-Semitic rot afflicting Western democracies”.

Labor’s Josh Burns, who is Jewish, said his community was entitled to mark the loss of life on October 7.

“Today, the Jewish community needs a bit of space. It needs time to reflect and to mourn and to mark the loss of life of family, of friends, of innocent people.

“I don’t think grief is a competition. I think it’s something where, as Australians, we have to hold space for each other and we have to seek empathy for each other, because if we don’t do that for each other, and if we don’t hold compassion and space for one another, how on earth can we expect people in the region to?”