Some Jewish leaders have accused Victorian MP Georgie Purcell of lacking “self-awareness” in her submission to the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion.
But Ms Purcell and her Jewish partner, federal Labor MP Josh Burns, have hit back, maintaining critics are unfairly targeting her.
In a 22-page statement to the commission, Ms Purcell detailed relentless online attacks against her, Mr Burns and their daughter, including comments about starving their baby.
Australian Jewish Association president Robert Gregory said the abuse Ms Purcell had endured was unacceptable, but her submission showed an inability to reflect on her own actions given she had stoked anti-Israel sentiment in recent years.
“Since October 7, Ms Purcell has repeatedly aligned herself with a movement that has too often tolerated or excused antisemitic rhetoric and extremism,” Mr Gregory said. “Her submission displays a striking lack of self-awareness.”
In December 2023, Ms Purcell, an Animal Justice Party MP, wrote on Instagram that she had been supporting the “sit intifada” pro-Palestine protest at state parliament.
The “sit intifada” protest was organised by pro-Palestine activist Ihab al Azhari.
In one altercation outside parliament in May 2024, Mr al Azhari was recorded telling a Jewish woman: “Seventh October, that’s the bloody beginning. You’re going to have plenty of seventh of Octobers happening.”
On October 7, 2023, more than 1000 Jewish people were murdered and 250 taken hostage by Hamas terrorists.
Jewish community advocate Menachem Vorchheimer said Ms Purcell’s associations with “controversial figures such as Ihab al Azhari lays bare an uncomfortable reality: hostility often disguised as anti-Israel or anti-Zionism is, in reality, hostility towards Jews”.
Mr Gregory agreed: “Ms Purcell owes the Jewish community an apology … For most Jews, the word ‘intifada’ evokes the campaign of suicide bombings and other terrorist attacks that killed over 1000 Israelis.”
In June 2024, Ms Purcell also used Instagram to promote a “Palestine will be free” badge designed by Melbourne illustrator Carla Scotto.
Ms Scotto sells T-shirts emblazoned with the words “bash Zionists” and a badge that reads “Zionism is fascism”.
Hitting back at critics of her statement to the commission, Ms Purcell said: “I made a submission to the royal commission with the support of my Jewish friends, family and staff in the hope that my experiences and observations will help the commission do its important work in understanding and responding to the ways antisemitism is harming Jewish Australians as well as their loved ones.
“I won’t be responding to inflammatory statements about my submission from an organisation that has not even seen my submission.
“My partner and I want our daughter to grow up feeling safe to express her Jewish heritage proudly and freely, and I hope the decision by one organisation to target me does not discourage other Victorians from speaking out against rising antisemitism.”
Mr Burns said: “Since Georgie made her submission to the royal commission, I have been inundated with kind and grateful messages from Jewish community leaders and members.
“Targeting Georgie, who has repeatedly spoken out against antisemitism publicly, and who has been the victim of vile antisemitic abuse for no reason other than her partner and daughter are Jewish, does nothing to support the Jewish community or to confront the very real issue of antisemitism.