Hundreds of complaints about an upcoming Sydney event described as “Jew hatred” have been made, but Premier Chris Minns has again refused to take any meaningful steps to prevent it from taking place.
Mr Minns on Thursday said the ‘Why It’s Right to Say: Globalise the Intifada’ forum, scheduled to be held next Tuesday in a City of Sydney council-owned building, should not go ahead in light of the interim royal commission report highlighting an “unprecedented increase” in anti-Semitic incidents.
But the Premier insists he has done all he can about the event, despite having still not picked up the phone to Lord Mayor Clover Moore to request that it be cancelled.
He was asked to do so by the Jewish community a week ago, but said on Thursday it was “more appropriate” to voice his objections publicly.
“Does anyone believe I have some mystical influence over the Lord Mayor?” he asked.
Mr Minns conceded the event was the “last thing we need in our city right now”.
“To keep the public safe is the number one obligation of any government,” he said.
Opposition Leader Kellie Sloane said she and Mr Minns had been copied in on more than 900 emails complaining about the event.
Former prime minister Tony Abbott urged Mr Minns and the council, led by Ms Moore, to “show some leadership” and “step in and cancel the event”.
“Let’s not mess around here,” Mr Abbott said.
“‘Globalising the intifada’ is basically calling on people around the world to conduct violent campaigns against Jewish people – knifings, shootings, bombings.
“It’s an absolutely appalling example of Jew hatred.”
Mr Abbott was among a number of prominent Australians who voiced their opposition to the forum, which is to be held at the East Sydney Community and Arts Centre, in Thursday’s Daily Telegraph.
He was joined by former federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg, and Olympians Dawn Fraser and Nova Peris.
Mr Frydenberg labelled calls to “globalise the intifada” as “reckless, dangerous and unAustralian”.
Federal opposition education spokesman Julian Leeser described the event as “the City of Sydney allowing public property to be used for the purpose of people calling for the murder of their fellow citizens”.
Mr Leeser said anti-Semitic incidents “continue unabated”, also referencing an article “glorifying terrorist organisations” in University of Sydney student newspaper Honi Soit.
“There’s a sickness in this country that has to be dealt with,” he told Sky News on Thursday night.
Sheina Gutnick, whose father Reuven Morrison was one of 15 people killed in the Bondi Beach massacre, said it was “deeply disappointing” that days before public royal commission hearings, the Jewish community was still being “forced to fight this hard to have a hate event removed” from a council-owned venue.
“After Bondi, no public institution should be giving civic legitimacy to the language of intifada,” she said.
“We cannot go back to a pre-Bondi world, not for the Jewish community, and not for Australia.”
Ms Gutnick, who has also written a letter to Ms Moore and independent Wentworth MP Allegra Spender asking for their support to help stop the event, said she had not received a response.
On Wednesday, Jewish non-profit advocacy group StandWithUs Australia announced it was intending to “peacefully” protest outside the forum.