Vic Alhadeff sent packing by Muslim MP
With an invitation in his hand, the CEO of the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies CEO Vic Alhadeff arrived at Labor Party event in Sydney…only to be refused admission by the organiser, Muslim NSW MP Shaoquett Moselmane.
Vic Alhadeff
Chief Executive Officer
NSW Jewish Board of Deputies
Initially Alhadeff was not invited to the launch of the Labor Union Multicultural Action Committee but he received an invitation later following his intervention..
In Moselmane’s invitation he wrote: “I hope this grass-roots committee of Labor and Union members in our Multicultural community can not only become a bridge between the Labor Party and the Union Movement as it is intended but also a conduit between the Multicultural community on the one hand and the party and union movement on the other.”
Alhadeff told J-Wire: “The NSW Jewish Board of Deputies is the official representative of the Jewish community, which is part of the multicultural community to which he refers, yet was not included or invited, until we made representations.”
The NSWJBD CEO wrote to General Secretary Kaila Murnain and Unions NSW Secretary Mark Morey stating: “Our initial concern is that neither the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies – the representative organisation of the NSW Jewish community – nor any other Jewish organisation or individual appears to have been invited to this function.
This segues to our deeper concern – that the individual who is launching the function, Shaoquett Moselmane MLC, has been consistently vitriolic against both the Jewish community and Israel.”
He advised them that in 2013: “The NSW parliament erupted in fury after Labor Legislative Councillor Shaoquett Moselmane slammed Gaza as “the world’s largest open-air prison camp” and compared resistance to the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon with that against Nazi Germany.”
And in the same year Moselmane addressed the following remark to Israel’s ambassador to Australia Yuval Rotem: ” I say to the Israeli ambassador, Yuval Rotem, butt out and stay out. Your perceived right to bully as you do in the Middle East does not extend to the Australian political arena.”
Yuval Rotem is currently the Director General of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Vic Alhadeff continued: “Both responded immediately and positively and invited me as a “vip guest. Despite that he refused to let me in.”
The NSWJBD CEO was reported to have been offered a baklava which he refused and was sent packing.
Vic Alhadeff told J-Wire: “While I appreciated the goodwill in receiving an invitation from Kaila Murnain and Mark Morey, it was unfortunate that Mr Moselmane defied his own party leadership and denied entry to a leader of the Jewish community. Given that the invitation which Mr Moselmane sent to others specifically said he hoped this new organisation would become a conduit between the multicultural community and the Labor and union movement, it made no sense to exclude the CEO of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies when we represent the Jewish community and are an active component of multicultural NSW.”
The NSW Labor opposition leader Luke Foley called Alhadeff to formally apologise.
Shaoquette Moselmane
Foley told J-Wire: “I have apologised to Vic Alhadeff for what occurred. He did receive a written invitation to the meeting. Unfortunately Mr Moselmane says there was a miscommunication. NSW Labor maintains healthy and constructive relations with Vic and other leaders of the state’s Jewish community, and that will continue.”
“His apology is accepted and appreciated,” Alhadeff said. “However, the problem remains and the issue remains – that the opposition whip would organise a multicultural event and intentionally exclude the CEO of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, which represents a community that is an active component of multicultural NSW and works hard to make a positive contribution to multicultural Australia.”
NSW Labor frontbencher and NSW Parliamentary Friends of Israel deputy chair Walt Secord has unequivocally condemned Shaoquett Moselmane for refusing to allow a Jewish communal leader into the Labor-Union Multicultural Action Committee on Monday night and dissociated himself from the incident.
He commented to J-Wire: “NSW Jewish Board of Deputies’ executive director Vic Alhadeff had an official personal invitation from the NSW ALP General Secretary and the head of Unions NSW – and was welcome to attend.
“It was stupid, malicious and vindictive to refuse him entry into a multicultural event.
“The actions do not reflect the views of NSW Labor.
Guests at the function included sub-continent friends of Labor Indian and Pakistani and representatives of the Philippine, Greek, Chinese, and Ango-Saxon communities.
In a letter to The Australian newspaper, Moselane wrote “Let me make it clear in response to your article today August 14, 2018
Mr Vic Alhadeff of the Jewish Board of Deputies, arrived at a meeting of the NSW ALP. He asked if this is a Multicultural community meeting.
As convenor, I explained to him that it was for NSW ALP Labor Action Committees which I convened in order to launch a Labor Union Multicultural Action Committee. The meeting was for members of the ALP as well as members of the Labor Action Committees.
I politely pointed this out to him. After a chat with other members he opted to leave.
Mr Alhadeff is not a Labor member and not a member of the Labor Action Committee.”
We don’t want the Australian Labour Party infected with antisemitism like British Labour. Mr Moselmane should be kicked out of the party immediately.
This is reprehensible. Is this a reflection of what is festering at the core of Multicultural Australia? Mr Moselmane should be denounced and ostracized for the bigot that he is. Silence only confirms acquiescence.
The Board of Deputies shouldn’t accept and should’e request an apology from committee members who had no part in the incident. Rather, other ethnic and cultural representatives who attended should demand that Shaoquett Moselmane be severely reprimanded. Their silence about it is disgraceful.
You are right Gary, but the leaders of the Labour Party should also take their responsibilities seriously and so should the media commentators.
It is disgusting that any comment that offends non-heterosexuals, radical feminists, mohammedans, critics of uncontrolled immigration, multiculturalism advocates or any socially targeted victim groups is attacked from all sides to reinforce political correctness, but when it comes to Jews, its open season, merely an exercise of free speech.