Been Seen As Mean: Greens' Spleen Against Jewish Doctor in New South Wales

Some months ago, upset by the Marrickville Council's promotion of BDS against Israel, which among other things he feared might prevent his daughter, who attends school in that inner suburb, from participating in any exchange visit to Israel, medical specialist Dr John Nemesh distributed posters in Marrickville during the New South Wales election campaign.  These criticised the BDS policy implemented by the Greens-dominated Council under Mayor Fiona Byrne (pictured; who went on to narrowly lost her seat at that election).

Spotting that the posters failed to comply with the requirement that election material must bear the name and address of the printer, the Greens, stooping to the bottom of the barrel to extract vengeance, splenetically reported him to police for the trivial omission.  A Greens councillor, Max Phillips, evidently told police that in the early hours he'd seen a number of people distributing the "illegal" posters:

"People who were putting up the signs were leaving and heading back up towards Petersham. There were three younger people and an older guy in the car. They appeared to be well-dressed 20-somethings. It occurred to me that they might be Jewish university students."

Dr Nemesh told J-Wire:

"As far as the posters are concerned, Christine Milne, the deputy head of the Federal Greens Party made the same mistake as me and neither of us was charged by the electoral commission. Yet [Councillor Phillips and another Green, Colin Charlton] filed a complaint only against me. There seems to be one rule for the Greens and one for everyone else."

This week Margaret Quinn, a magistrate in the local court at Newtown, New South Wales, dismissed the charges against Dr Nemesh, describing them as trivial, Dr Nemesh as "a very well-regarded person," and the Greens' pursuit of BDS as "fairly disgraceful".

Reports the Australian newspaper:

'Outside court, Dr Nemesh said Ms Quinn had dismissed the matter, "due to the utter ridiculousness of the charge against me, initiated by the Greens". He added: "What was not ridiculous was the manner in which the Greens conducted themselves, with hypocrisy, bullying and even racial profiling...."

 Dr Nemesh has made a complaint to police against Ms Byrne for allegedly stealing his posters, some of which accused the Greens of hypocrisy for supporting gay causes while denouncing Israel, the only country in the Middle East where gay rights are enshrined in law.'

 In welcoming the acquittal of Dr Nemesh,.Luke Foley, leader of the Opposition in the New South Wales Parliament, adds:

'How then did Dr Nemesh’s matter ever make it to court?... The police brief of evidence revealed that the two complainants were both Greens activists. One of them is Max Phillips, a Greens councillor on Marrickville Council. In other words, a public office holder from the then ruling political party in the Marrickville municipality went to Marrickville police station and sought criminal charges to be laid against Dr Nemesh. How were Marrickville police constables to act when confronted by the local governing political party heavying them to lay charges against Dr Nemesh?

The Greens regularly rail against our law and order system, always deeming it heavy-handed and always condemning tough laws. Yet they throw the book at Dr Nemesh, the son of a Holocaust survivor, for daring to object to their Israel boycott. Councillor Phillips’ witness statement describes the pursuit of Dr Nemesh by Greens activists during the election campaign. Phillips states:

■There were three younger people and an older guy in the car. They appeared to be well dressed twenty somethings. It occurred to me that they might be Jewish university students.

The Greens activists proceeded to photograph and then follow them—because they looked like Jews. This is the very racial profiling that New South Wales Greens politicians, such as Lee Rhiannon, have railed against. If one substitutes the word "Jewish" in Councillor Phillips’ statement with "Arabic", imagine the howls of outrage that would come from Greens politicians. Yet here we have a Greens public office holder tendering a statement to the police volunteering that he and his colleagues pursued political opponents on the basis that they appeared to be Jews. The statement says that they were well dressed and then leaps to the conclusion that they must be Jews. The old stereotypes still fester among a few.

Boycotting Jewish commerce is, of course, Europe’s oldest political appeal. The international campaign to impose trade and cultural boycotts serves the purpose of delegitimising the State of Israel and in doing so feeds the eliminationist narrative of Hezbollah, Hamas, Iran and all those who want Israel wiped off the map, aligning itself with the putrid racism of those groups—their Holocaust denial, their promotion of anti-Semitic stereotypes and their raw sewage Nazi ideology. Boycott, divestment and sanctions activists regularly demonise Israel as an apartheid State, even though the analogy between Israel, where Arabs exercise full citizenship rights, and apartheid South Africa is specious.

I commend my parliamentary colleague Jeremy Buckingham for courageously speaking out against the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign promoted so heavily by Senator Rhiannon and her supporters inside the New South Wales Greens. Unfortunately, some within the New South Wales Greens harbour an obsessive hatred of the Jewish State of Israel. A virulent strain of anti-Semitism exists within some sections of the New South Wales Greens. I call the leader of the Australian Greens, Bob Brown, to intervene in his party’s New South Wales branch to purge this frantic extremism.'