Published: 8 April 2022
Last updated: 4 March 2024
The Liberals tried to taint me as ‘anti-Israel’; now they’re doing it to Allegra Spender, to damage her and deflect attention from genuine policy differences
THERE’S AN OLD SAYING about history repeating itself and so it was a case of déjà vu for me when I saw this week’s article on the front page of the Australian attempting to align independent candidate Allegra Spender with alleged “anti-Israel” supporters of the BDS campaign, in the process risking damage to Spender’s standing with the Jewish community.
Talk about dog whistling!
Why the déjà vu? Well, the same tactic was used against me in the 2018 Wentworth by-election and again in the Federal election in 2019.
Same newspaper.
Same Liberal candidate, Dave Sharma.
The same tactic was used against me in the 2018 Wentworth by-election and again in the Federal election in 2019. Same newspaper. Same Liberal candidate.
During the by-election campaign in 2018, a story was published with the headline “Liberals play BDS card in hope of swaying Jewish vote”. It went on to say: “the Liberal Party is trying to link Wentworth independent candidate Kerryn Phelps to the boycott of Israeli goods and services, saying her campaign spokesman…had contracted for the Maritime Union of Australia, which has backed the BDS boycotting system against Israel.”
Again, dog whistling.
Still, it forced me to have to defend my position against an outrageous fabrication. And I am a member of the Jewish community!
The same card was played on Anzac Day in 2019 when I was yet again forced to defend myself against similar spurious allegations put to me by a journalist, again from the Australian, along with comments on the record by Dave Sharma. It was some nonsense to do with retweeting an unrelated tweet by someone who once tweeted something about BDS and objecting to Israel hosting Eurovision. What?
I respect that journalist for putting the allegations and Mr Sharma’s comments to me in writing and giving me the opportunity to refute them in detail. Still, it wasted a lot of our time and caused us a lot of angst.
The problem is, raising even the suggestion of support for BDS is enough to raise suspicion and deflect attention away from genuine areas of policy difference between candidates.
Raising even the suggestion of support for BDS is enough to raise suspicion and deflect attention away from genuine areas of policy difference.
Way down in this week’s story, Ms Spender was allowed the opportunity to state her actual position.
In a statement on Facebook, Ms Spender said “I have always strongly opposed the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, and I repeatedly condemned the Sydney Festival BDS campaign over many months. Australia and Israel have very strong ties and I hope to see them strengthened…I ask you to look at my strong record of supporting Israel and condemning the BDS movement.”
Seems clear to me.
Dave Sharma, quoted in the article in the Australian this week, said he was “staunchly opposed to the BDS movement in all its manifestations”. Also clear.
So, there is no policy difference between the candidates Allegra Spender and Dave Sharma on Israel or the BDS. That should be the end of it.
The fact that this tactic has been dragged out for yet another campaign and that there are ongoing attempts to perpetuate it on social media shows that it is seen as a potent political weapon in electorates like Wentworth with large Jewish communities.
There is no policy difference between the Allegra Spender and Dave Sharma on Israel or the BDS. That should be the end of it.
It also shows that the Liberal Party must be deeply worried about their prospects in Wentworth, which went from one of the safest to one of the most marginal seats in the country. And so they should be worried.
Australians have despaired as bushfires and floods devastated communities that were left to largely fend for themselves with negligible government support.
The fact that this tactic has been dragged out for yet another campaign shows that it is seen as a potent political weapon in electorates like Wentworth.
The Covid19 pandemic continues uncontrolled with around half a million active cases currently across Australia and 50,000-60,000 new cases every day. The health system and the education sector are struggling. This will need a renewed focus.
Allegra Spender is campaigning strongly on issues of great national importance: harnessing the potential of renewable energy and taking substantive action on climate change, establishing an integrity commission, responsible economic management, ending the rorts and waste of grant program funding, education, aged care reform, childcare.
