Anti-Semitic remark at Council Meeting
A throwaway line at a council meeting in Sydney has sparked a major outcry.
Ku-ring-gai Council was debating the legal costs incurred in dealing with the application to construct an Eruv in the area. When Councillor Tony Hall described those applying for the Eruv as “non-profit group” Councillor Elise Keys retorted “Jewish non-profit?”
She told media that “it was just a casual remark about the wealth of religious organisations.”
The Sydney Morning Herald reported her saying “if I’ve caused any offence, I am deeply sorry. The meeting at that stage was very light-hearted.”
Vic Alhadeff, CEO of the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies was featured on an ABC broadcast reorting on the incident.
The text follows:
ELEANOR HALL: A dispute on Sydney’s north shore over plans to build a virtual fence or eruv for Orthodox Jews, has turned ugly with claims of antisemitism being levelled at a local councillor.
The local council rejected the proposal last year, and has spent tens of thousands dollars defending its decision against legal appeals being brought by Jewish non-profit groups.
Now a local councillor has been accused of antisemitism after she made a sarcastic remark about Jewish non-profits groups.
Emily Bourke reports.
EMILY BOURKE: It’s not the first time claims of antisemitism have cropped up on Sydney’s north shore.
For more than five years the St Ives community has been divided over a plan to create a local eruv, or religious zone, for ultra-Orthodox Jews.
The plan involves hanging a thin wire between a series of dark green poles and existing telegraph poles but it’s angered some locals who say the eruv would spoil the leafy streetscape of their suburb and scuttle the push to have poles and cables put underground.
But others say the opposition amounts to outright bigotry.
The Ku-ring-gai Council rejected the proposal but it’s spent around $170,000 defending its decision against court appeals.
But during a council meeting early this week, councillor Tony Hall questioned the wisdom of spending so much money fighting non-profit groups.
That question prompted a sarcastic remark about Jewish non-profit groups from a fellow councillor Elise Keays.
The World Today has obtained a recording of part of that council meeting.
MALE COUNCILLOR: If you look at the pages, it’s been broken up into $15,000 lots… Eleven of them. That adds up to $174,359. Against a non-profit organisation, a community group.
ELISE KEAYS: Jewish, non-profit? Come on.
(Laughter)
FEMALE: Councillors please.
ELISE KEAYS: Please, come on.
EMILY BOURKE: The comment has sparked a furious response from the Vic Alhadeff from the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies.
Vic Alhadeff
VIC ALHADEFF: There was a perfectly legitimate discussion at Ku-ring-gai Council about this development application and that’s part of the everyday business of council, it was an appropriate discussion.
What was entirely inappropriate was for one of the councillors to make a comment which endorsed a racist, negative stereotype. Those comments have no place in a council chamber, they have no place in a harmonious society in which all of us want to live.
EMILY BOURKE: The councillor has reportedly said that she was commenting more about the deep pockets of religious organisations. Isn’t that fair comment?
VIC ALHADEFF: It is entirely not fair comment. In an ideal world nobody should be making racist comments. What has happened here is that there has been a DA for an eruv which is there’s been in an eruv in Bondi for over 10 years, they exist all over the world.
Essentially there is a symbolic area which enables young mothers to get out with their babies, elderly people to push a stroller or a walking stick et cetera. What is very unfortunate is that the tone of this debate has descended whereas some interest groups have allowed misinformation, have pushed information into the public discourse, and the sort of tone which we heard at Ku-ring-gai Council has countered what should be a straight forward debate over a DA.
EMILY BOURKE: Is it possible though for members of the community to challenge, question, or even oppose an eruv without it being seen as bigoted or antisemitic?
VIC ALHADEFF: One-hundred per cent and I absolutely defend that right. We have a democracy and in a democracy the umpire’s verdict is what stands. So we have a judge, we have a judicial system, and that is what makes us a very fierce and fantastic democracy and it is entirely possible and people should challenge that, that’s what democratic debate is all about.
What we have seen enter this debate, and this DA over some time now, is a tone which is unsavoury, where the sorts of remarks we heard the other night where a racist stereotype is used against, in this case the Jewish people, but it could be against anybody.
So to oppose DAs – that’s life. People put DAs in, they get opposed, they’re accept it and we all move on. But what has been very unfortunate and not the Australian way is for racist stereotypes to enter the debate and to create a fear campaign and a fear atmosphere, an atmosphere of mistrust. That is unacceptable.
EMILY BOURKE: A final ruling on the eruv is still to be handed down by the Land and Environment Court.
ELEANOR HALL: Emily Bourke with that report. And Councillor Elise Keays says she’s devastated and deeply distressed that such a simple comment has prompted claims of racism.
Councillor Elise Keays says she’s ‘devastated and deeply distressed that such a simple comment has prompted claims of racism’. Her comment, although brief, was singular and focussed, and the implication it left hanging there (which resulted in general laughter), was further reinforced by her added, “Please, come on.” Perhaps she hasn’t thought of herself as racist up to this point, now confronted with the fact that she actually is, albeit subliminally or sub-consciously (giving her as much room to move here as possible), she is shocked and distressed. Could be a good time for Councillor Keays to examine herself in an attempt to find out where her ideas and thoughts come from. This is part of the big, big problem for Jews, isn’t it, the stereotypical negatives handed down through the ages.