30 silver coins create a furore in Melbourne
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry has slammed Greens’ supporters who were caught on CCTV placing a bag of 30 silver coins on the desk of Melbourne’s Port Phillip Council’s Jewish Deputy Mayor.
Dick Gross Photo; Wikipedia
ECAJ president Anton Block told J-Wire: “We all know that politics can get heated at times, but there is no excuse for anyone to deploy discredited racist stereotypes, or engage in bullying racist behaviour, to try to advance their cause. This incident illustrates all too clearly that antisemitism is not confined to the far right of politics. A toxic anti-Jewish culture has become well-entrenched in the far left of the Greens, especially in NSW, although it is not always as overt as it was on this occasion. We welcome the prompt condemnation by the local Greens councillors of this anti-Jewish stunt, but until the Greens as a party addresses the problem of antisemitism within its ranks in a serious and systematic way, I expect that it will continue to be embarrassed by more incidents of this kind”.
According to reports, the close bag was placed on the desk and Dick Gross was “urged” to open it by a man.
The reports also said the Victorian Greens have distanced from the incident. Dick Gross is the Deputy Mayor of council which is home for a large Jewish community with many coming from a Holocaust background.
Greens leader Richard Di Natale told The Australian he condemned “unequivocally” the incident at the Port Phillip Council meeting. He said “These kind of blood-libels have been used throughout history to vilify Jewish people and are deeply hurtful to the community,” Senator Di Natale said.
“I personally condemn in the strongest possible terms this kind of hateful action.”
The Greens recently lost the race to elect a new mayor. Dick Gross has served three terms as the Mayor of the City of Port Phillip.
The thirty silver coins gesture has been used over the centuries in antisemitic incidents. They depict the price Judas accepted to betray Jesus.
I’m surprised at the seeming surprise of the writer that anti-Semitism could come from the left. That is where most of it is now. There are some fringe far right groups that are anti-Semitic, but so much of the left is saturated with it.
Hi Con
You haven’t heard of the far right’s hold on Europe?
60,000 matched in Poland. And they still hate the Jews.
40 pieces of silver? Haven’t those boneheads heard of inflation
The narrative of the 30 silver coins to used to indict Judas for betraying Jesus is a plagiarized myth from the story of Joseph’s brothers selling him for 30 pieces of silver to some passing slave traders.
Like all the stories used by the Gospels, the aim was to distort the original biblical meaning for their evil purposes of disseminating Jewish hatred. Or, more precisely for creating the fantasy that it was the Jews who killed their God Jesus Christ.
What is even less understood is that if indeed the mythical Judas, the Jew, would have betrayed Jesus, then the whole narrative of God sending his son to be sacrificed for the purpose of expiating our sins would fall on its head … like every one of the Christian myths?
That after more than 2000 years such oxymorons should still nurture the souls of those purporting to be good Christians, can only serve to tragically attest for the reasons why wars can never be preventable.