President of the Queensland Jewish Board of Deputies, Jason Steinberg, is calling for an apology from the Greens mayoral candidate after a post included Zionists with Nazis and other racists appeared on social media (seen on Tuesday 5 December).
“Comparing Zionism with Nazism is not only deeply offensive, it reveals a complete lack of basic knowledge, and is unashamedly, offensively racist,” Mr Steinberg said.
“Zionism is the movement for self-determination and statehood for the Jewish people in their ancestral homeland, the land of Israel. Before the establishment of the modern State of Israel in 1948, Jews endured over 1,900 years of oppression and violence across Europe (including the Holocaust) and the Middle East.
“Comparing Zionists with Nazis is a false analogy aimed at demonising Jews and minimises the evil of the planned industrial extermination of six million Jews by the Nazis from 1933 to 1945.
“To say that Zionists are not welcome at a Greens event, or any event, is an affront to any assertions promoting multiculturalism in Brisbane City.
“Mr Sri owes a big, public apology to the Jewish people of Brisbane. To say such a thing right now, when our Jewish community is experiencing unprecedented antisemitic incidents is at best juvenile ignorance, and at worst malicious discrimination that is inciting more hatred against our community.”