The Greens have dumped a candidate ahead of the upcoming Northern Territory election over a social media post saying the government is “owned” by Zionists and corporations.
Chris Tomlins, who is Indigenous, was removed from the running in the seat of Araluen, covering Alice Springs, on Friday after ABC News published comments he made in September last year when sharing a post on Facebook.
That post called Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council national chairman Mark Leibler a “global executive Zionist” and a “puppet master” over his role in the Voice to Parliament referendum, which Mr Tomlins opposed.
“What Australian (sic) need is a government owned by the people that is elected by the people. Not Zionist (sic) or co-operations (sic),” Mr Tomlins wrote.
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry chief executive Alex Ryvchin objected to the post, saying it showed The Greens have an anti-Semitism problem and that Mr Tomlin “belongs at a Klan meeting”.
“This is a damning illustration of how hard-left ideologues have fallen for the same racist conspiracy theories about Jewish greed and global domination more commonly associated with neo-Nazism,” he said.
“As a party, they need to reflect on why an alarming number of its members and elected representatives subscribe to manifestly anti-Jewish views.”
NT Greens convenor Jonathan Parry said it has been a “difficult decision” to stand down Mr Tomlins, but “candidates for public office must be held to a high standard and the NT Greens are proud to fight against racism and anti-Semitism”.
Mr Tomlins hit out at “false accusations of anti-Semitism” but said he was sorry for causing offence.
“I am a proud cultural, tribal man, Arrernte and Walpiri elder, I want to stand with other oppressed people,” he said in a statement.
The accusations that Mr Tomlins was drawing on an anti-Semitic claim about Jewish power come just weeks after Greens MP Sarah Leong was forced to apologise after she referred to the “tentacles” of the “Jewish lobby” in a speech about the conflict in Gaza.
Ms Leong, a far-left activist with an ethnic Chinese father and a White Australian mother, has a long history of making racist comments about White people on social media despite her mixed heritage, but has never apologised for those remarks.
