Her remarks represent a new flashpoint in the sensitive debate over the war in Gaza that has opened up rifts across sport,politics,media and within progressive movements in the months since Hamas’ terror attack and Israel’s military response that has provoked international condemnation.
Peris,the first Aboriginal Olympic gold medallist and first Indigenous woman elected to federal parliament,is being backed by reconciliation leader Sean Gordon and Liberal MP Julian Leeser in disputing the argument that Israeli Jews are a settler-colonial force similar to British settlers in Australia.
In a social media video to be boosted by paid advertisements and influencers,Peris says Jewish Australians have been “the most committed” supporters of reconciliation.
“In recent times we’ve heard a lot in our national discourse in Australia about truth-telling,and it has mostly been in the context of my own people,” she states in the clip,which is being backed by grassroots fundraising.
Funding for the campaign has been provided by Peris as well as Jewish,non-Jewish and Indigenous supporters,rather than organisations.
“I want to reciprocate by helping overturn a similar lie which is now being told against the Jewish people:that they have no connection to the land of Israel;that they are ‘settler-colonialists’.”