Senator rejects calls to apologise for saying Labor ‘captured by Zionist interests’

The Coalition’s push to extend the antisemitism royal commission has failed to attract the support of key Jewish community leaders, as a Greens senator rejects calls to apologise for claiming Labor and the Coalition have been “captured by Zionist interests”.

An online petition echoing Liberal MP Julian Leeser’s call for the royal commission to be extended had attracted over 800 signatures within hours of being launched on Sunday, but the nation’s peak Jewish bodies have notably declined to endorse the push.

Senior sources in the Jewish community, speaking to this masthead on condition of anonymity, said there was “absolutely not” overwhelming support for pushing the royal commission’s reporting date beyond December 14, the anniversary of the Bondi Beach massacre.

“None of the mainstream Jewish community organisations participating in the royal commission have come out and supported these calls,” one senior figure said.

Extending the timeframe would not change the fact that Bell has opted for a low-key and legalistic approach to the commission’s public hearings, including by declining to call any government ministers to appear, the source said.

Neither the Executive Council of Australian Jewry nor the Zionist Federation of Australia have called for the royal commission to be extended.

Another senior Jewish community figure said they feared pushing back the deadline would lead the royal commission to lose momentum and public support.

The change.org petition launched by Marnie Perlstein, a Jewish community advocate in Sydney, argues that “there has been an alarming lack of accountability from political figures” in the royal commission.

“Those who have failed in their leadership roles, individuals who theoretically should have played pivotal roles in preventing the spread of hate, have not been summoned to give evidence,” the petition says.

“There has also been a reluctance to explore ‘radical Islam’ we have not heard from the ‘hate preachers’ who took to the streets after October 7, for example.”

Leeser unsuccessfully sought to suspend proceedings in the House of Representatives last week to debate whether the royal commission should be prolonged.

In a speech to the Senate later in the week, Greens Senator Nick McKim accused the government of being “captured by Zionist interests”, as well as the fossil fuel lobby and the Five Eyes intelligence sharing network.

When Liberal Senator James Paterson objected to these remarks, McKim replied that he had also been captured by Zionist interests.

Zionist Federation of Australia President Jeremy Leibler declared, in a letter to McKim released on Sunday, that it was “reckless and dangerous” for the senator to use such language while the royal commission probes the root causes of antisemitism, following the killing of 15 people at a Hanukkah festival at Bondi.

He accused McKim of dressing up an “ancient antisemitic trope in contemporary language” by suggesting Jews who support Israel’s existence wield a sinister form of covert influence over Australian politics.

“Political leaders cannot absolve themselves of responsibility for dangerous rhetoric simply by substituting the word ‘Zionist’ for ‘Jew’,” Leibler said in the letter.

“Having reflected, you should withdraw your remarks and apologise unreservedly to the Australian Jewish community.”

Paterson has called for McKim to apologise, accusing him of promoting conspiracy theories that encourage antisemitism.

McKim brushed off calls for an apology, telling this masthead: “Conflating ‘Zionist’ with ‘Jew’, as the Zionist Federation does, is fundamentally dishonest.

“The Israeli government is carrying out a genocide in full view of the entire world, aided and abetted by an Australian government which has not sanctioned Israeli government war criminals, is still selling weapons to the IDF, and has not expelled the ambassador.

“These facts tell us all we need to know.”

Foreign Minister Penny Wong last week called in the Israeli ambassador to express the government’s outrage over the decision not to pursue criminal charges against the soldiers responsible for the drone strike that killed Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom in 2024.

Wong told reporters it was “a difficult time in the relationship” in the relationship between Australia and Israel.

The government has regularly voted against Israel at the United Nations in recent years, as well as imposing sanctions on senior Israeli cabinet ministers and angering the Netanyahu government by recognising Palestinian statehood.

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