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!
