GREENS senator Lee Rhiannon is correct when she states that one can criticise Israel without being anti-Semitic (Letters, 19/12).
It is, however, hardly surprising that when she regularly criticises Israel in an extreme and unbalanced fashion and never gives Israel the benefit of any doubt that some people might misunderstand her motives.
Rhiannon and other extremists in the Greens have frequently indulged in intemperate and ill-informed attacks on Israel. The NSW Greens conference in 2011 passed a proposal to "boycott Israeli goods, trading and military arrangements, and sporting, cultural and economic events as a contribution to the struggle to end Israel's occupation and colonisation of Palestinian territory, the siege of Gaza and the imprisonment of 1.5 million people and Israel's institution of a system of apartheid".
This radical anti-Israel policy is at odds with the policies of both main parties in Australia and the majority of the Australians. It is also at odds with the federal Greens, which voted against a similarly worded proposal.
The NSW Greens policy is so one-sided and extreme that it could have been written by Hamas. Given that Hamas is recognised and listed by most democratic governments as a terrorist organisation, one can hardly be surprised that this position of the NSW Greens would cause concern.
Bill Anderson, Surrey Hills, Vic
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