Key Points
- Sydney lord mayor Clover Moore is set to block a motion to light up the town hall in the colours of the Israeli flag.
- An Israel Defence Forces spokesperson said elected officials should take sides in the current conflict.
- Moore said such gestures were "one sided" and "divisive."
An Israel Defence Forces (IDF) spokesman has taken a swipe at lord mayor Clover Moore over her expected move to block the lighting up of the Sydney Town Hall with the colours of the Israeli flag.
A Liberal councillor at the City of Sydney is expected to put forward a motion in support of the display at Monday night's council meeting, but Moore told the Sydney Morning Herald on Sunday "one-sided motions or statements are divisive and harmful".
"Having discussed the matter at the start of the meeting, there will be no need to vote on [Councillor Shauna] Jarrett’s motion," she told the newspaper.
She will instead put forward her own mayoral motion calling on the council to write to representatives of the Jewish and Muslim communities, the paper reported.
On Monday, IDF international spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus said he believed people, including elected officials, should take sides in .
He told ABC Drive host Raf Epstein: "One should take sides and choose according to your own morals where you stand."
He later referenced those comments and Moore when he posted a link to the interview on X, formerly known as Twitter.
"Maybe the mayor of Sydney won't agree with what I said towards the end, but I firmly believe that one should take a stand, and stand for good," Conricus wrote. "In this case, stand with Israel against evil."
In his interview with the ABC, Conricus labelled opposition forces the "aggressors" saying Israel "didn't start this war."
He said Israel was "now defending" itself ... "so if you can take a stand with that, I think there's something very wrong with your morals."
He said he would direct his comments about taking sides to "anybody, from the everyday person in the kitchen listening to our broadcast and thinking of where they stand, and I will direct it to people of power, elected officials who have a moral obligation to stand for what's right."
In minutes , Moore wrote the City of Sydney condemned "war, terrorism, and violence" and that "antisemitism and Islamophobia have no place in our city".
But she added: "Consistent with the objective of maintaining social harmony, the City should not display any partisan symbols associated with the current conflict."
Israel has been pounding Gaza with air strikes following thewho killed 1,400 Israelis and took
According to Gaza's Health Ministry, had killed at least 4,385 Palestinians and had displaced more than a million of the territory's 2.3 million people.
The significant escalation is the latest in a long-standing conflict between Hamas and Israel.
Hamas is a Palestinian military and political group, gaining power in the Gaza Strip since winning legislative elections there in 2006.
Hamas stated aim is to establish a Palestinian state, while refusing to recognise Israel’s right to exist.
Hamas, in its entirety, is designated as a terrorist organisation by countries including Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Some countries list only its military wing as a terrorist group.
The United Nations though did not condemn Hamas in its entirety as a terrorist organisation, due to insufficient support from member states to do so during a 2018 vote.
