About a week ago, a colleague who was formerly a member of the Australian Greens, passed on a flier promoting a Jewish Greens Shabbat Potluck fundraiser event: https://my.greens.org.au/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=25206.

Referring to the two invited ‘special guests’ who are both known for their systematic opposition to any proposals by governments or civil society bodies to define and combat antisemitism, they commented sarcastically ‘That’s really a line-up from hell–no one would believe it as a parody’.

This comment on the current ‘bogus’ Jewish Greens led me to reflect on the fate of the former bona fide Jewish Greens Network (JGN) which existed from approximately 2017-2023.

But firstly, a bit of history. In 2015, I authored a book chapter on the history of the Australian Greens’ attitude to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict dating back to 2003. That chapter examined a number of key chronological events and patterns including the Greens-dominated Marrickville Council’s support for the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement; the broader divisions within the Greens over whether or not to support the BDS movement; and the extent to which BDS proponents within the Greens were employing openly antisemitic tropes as a core political strategy. Whilst acknowledging the Greens officially endorsed in principle a two-state position, I also noted the absence of any pro-Israel or even pro-I/P peace faction within the Party to balance the domination of the NSW Branch by pro-BDS hardliners. I particularly highlighted the failure of the Greens to actively engage with any progressive and/or peace groups inside Israel.

I concluded my chapter as follows:

The broader political challenge for the Australian Greens is whether the Party wishes to develop realistic progressive policies from an environmental perspective that influence mainstream debates, or whether it wishes to be relegated to the ideological margins. Dalliances with the BDS movement by significant groups within the Party suggest an attraction to the latter pathway. Conversely, the development of a positive pro-two states and anti-BDS policy that aims to advance Palestinian national rights by engaging with both progressive Israelis and Palestinians and eschewing strategies that exclusively blame either side for the ongoing conflict would arguably be indicative of the former’ (Mendes 2015: 205).

Given the evidence tabled, I was highly sceptical the Greens would head in the preferred direction, and with hindsight rightly so.

The authentic Jewish Greens Network

 The Jewish Greens Network or J-Greens Victoria was formed in early 2017 to promote a Jewish presence among Greens, and a progressive Green influence within the Jewish community. Its foundation seemed to be influenced by a number of contentious events that impacted negatively on Jewish Greens members in 2016. One was the decision by the Greens candidate for the Seat of Melbourne Ports (now renamed McNamara), Stephanie Hodgins-May (now an elected Federal Senator) to boycott a Jewish community election debate due to Zionism Victoria acting as a co-host, claiming she disagreed with their political views. This seemed strange given Ms Hodgins-May had previously gone on the record as stating her support for a two state solution and opposition to the BDS movement which were views broadly consistent with those of Zionism Victoria (Hodgins-May 2016). Additionally, that same week the Greens MP for Melbourne Adam Bandt addressed the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN) which was pro-BDS and opposed to a two states solution (Harris 2016; Levi 2016).

The Hodgins-May debacle caused major consternation within Jewish Greens ranks. One Jewish Greens member commented:

I spoke to Steph the night before she decided to withdraw, explaining to her that withdrawing from the debate would do irreparable damage to the relationship between the Greens and my community as it would send the message that the Greens don’t recognize the right for Jews to express their identity in the form of a democratic state. Despite my advice, Steph withdrew from the forum, and this ended up costing her hundreds if not thousands of votes in my community.

Further concern was provoked by the speech presented by Greens leader Richard Di Natale during a parliamentary condolence motion for the death of former Israeli leader Shimon Peres, which criticized his actions as Prime Minister in defense of Israel’s security and downplayed his long-standing advocacy for Israeli-Palestinian peace (Di Natale 2016). A Jewish Greens member commented bitterly:

Richard’s statement........

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