An ABC radio presenter has raised eyebrows after questioning NSW Premier Chris Minns over whether attacks in the city’s eastern suburbs on Wednesday morning were anti-Semitic.
The words ‘Kill Israiel (sic)’ remained graffitied on a house next to a burning car in Woollahra, a prominent Jewish suburb in Sydney’s east, on Wednesday morning.
Minns quickly described the incident as a “deplorable anti-Semitic attack” that will be “met with nothing less than the full force of the law.”
ABC Sydney Breakfast presenter Chris Taylor questioned the Prime Minister over his wording.
“Just as worded in your statement this morning, what is your reasoning for calling the attack anti-Semitic and not anti-Israel? How do you make a distinction?”
Minns responded: “I think we would have to be intentional at this point to turn a blind eye to that sequence of events and suggest that it is anything other than an anti-Semitic attack.”
“And I want to be clear if there was an attack on any other community group in New South Wales on the basis of their religion or on the basis of their nationality, then I would say exactly the same thing.”
The host continued to press Minns on the issue.
“So if you’re calling it an anti-Semitic instead of just an anti-Israel political statement… Would you say that anti-Semitism is in your experience in your experience?”
ABC Sydney Breakfast fill-in host Chris Taylor (pictured) asked the Prime Minister how to ‘make that distinction’ between an incident that is ‘anti-Israel’ and ‘anti-Semitic’
An ABC Sydney fill-in host has caused a stir after questioning NSW Premier Chris Minns (pictured) over his description of an incident as ‘anti-Semitic’ and not ‘anti-Israel’
Mr Minns replied: “Yes, I would.”
When asked about Mr Taylor’s line of questioning, the ABC told NewsCorp that he “referred to antisemitism twice” when it first covered the story that morning.
“There was another alleged anti-Semitic attack in the eastern suburbs just a few hours ago,” Taylor told listeners.
“We’ll be keeping an eye on this story throughout the morning and see if we can comment on what continues to be a pretty ugly trend, in this apparent rise in anti-Semitism behavior.”
But former Victorian Liberal Party president Michael Kroger claimed the national broadcaster had a “shocking and embarrassing…anti-Israel bias”.
Minns was quick to describe it as ‘anti-semetic’ after police found graffiti reading ‘kill Israel (sic)’ next to a burning car in Woollahra, in Sydney’s east, on Wednesday morning
Kroger said opposing Israel and not the Jewish community is a “three-card trick that the extreme left uses to hide its anti-Semitism.”
“People should not be misled by their protests that they do not criticize Jews,” he said. Sky News Australia.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted the ABC for comment.
Police have launched an investigation into the incident and urged anyone with information to come forward.
They believed the perpetrators to be two people from Slim Build, aged between 15 and 20, wearing face coverings and dark clothing.
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