Why Young Australian Zionists Are Backing the pro-Palestinian Greens

SYDNEY – Seri Feldman-Gubbay once held a senior leadership position in the Australian chapter of Habonim-Dror, the international Labor Zionist youth movement. In the recent election, she voted for the Greens – a party castigated by the largely conservative Jewish establishment for being at best unsympathetic to Israel and at worst downright antisemitic.

“As much as I care about Israel, it’s just not on the top of the list for me in terms of who I vote for in Australia,” says the 25-year-old Sydney lawyer, who voted for the environmentalist party in the previous election as well. “The Greens are the only party I believe offer real solutions on issues that are important to me like climate change and housing.

Samuel Herz, a student at Monash University, Melbourne, switched his vote from Labor to Green this time around. “If nothing else, a vote for the Greens is a signal to people in power that this is an issue Australians care about,” says the 22-year-old computer science and math major, who was active as a teenager in Hineni – an Australian youth movement affiliated with liberal Orthodoxy.

To those who accuse the Greens of antisemitism, he responds: “I think they just see being pro-Palestinian the same as being pro-vegan or pro-feminist: being on the right side of a global issue.”

Raphael Morris, an alumnus of Netzer, the Reform Zionist youth movement, has voted for the Greens consecutively in three elections. “My Judaism and Jewish values are a major influence on why I vote Green,” says the 26-year-old graduate student in philosophy at the Australian National University in Canberra.

“I believe they’re the only party consistently advocating for a humane refugee policy,” he says, “and I believe that from a Jewish perspective, there’s an imperative to treat refugees kindly and to welcome asylum seekers. I also think they’re the only party with a serious environmental policy, and these are the kind of issues that influence how I vote, which are separate from my views on Israel.”

Many of his Jewish friends voted for the Greens as well, says Morris, including Zionist youth movement alumni like himself. “Israel policy is not a deciding factor for most of my friends,” he says. “I think it’s a stronger factor for older members of the community, which honestly worries me, but I think that most people my age are much more concerned about global warming than we are about Australia’s Israel policy.”

It is difficult to know exactly how many young Australian Jews – or Jews at all, for that matter – voted for the Greens in the May 21 election, because no such polling information exists. But based on anecdotal evidence, as well as voting outcomes in key Jewish districts, it would seem their numbers are growing, even as they remain a minority.

Indeed, the most Jewish voting booth in the country, located in the Caulfield North suburb of Melbourne, saw a 5 percent swing in favor of the Greens in the recent election. It was likely young voters, the party’s key constituency, who were behind this upturn.

“I would suspect that more young Jews voted for the Greens in this past election,” says Suzanne Rutland, a leading authority on Australian Jewry and a professor emerita at the University of Sydney. “Climate change, indigenous rights and government policy on refugees – these are the universal issues, identified with the Greens, that are motivating young Jews today much more than the so-called ‘tribal issues’ that are a priority with their parents.”

In dozens of interviews conducted with young Jewish Australians in recent weeks, a surprisingly large number – surprising, considering the overwhelming conservative bent of the Jewish community – said they had either voted for the Greens or had Jewish friends who had. Some asked not to be quoted for fear of how their parents or grandparents might react.

When asked to explain their decision, many said the Greens were much more in line with their progressive values than either of the two main political parties – the Liberals (who are actually conservative) or Labor. Even if the Greens were not particularly friendly to Israel, these young Jewish supporters of the party often noted, that hardly mattered considering how little influence Australia has on events in the Middle East.

Many also spoke of growing up in a Jewish environment in which they had been taught that Israel could do no wrong. After attending university and getting out into the world, they had become exposed, often for the first time, to a very different narrative about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – one in which Israel was not necessarily the good guy. Maybe the Greens weren’t so wrong about Israel after all, some had concluded.

As Feldman-Gubbay put it: “I think there are some members of the Green party that sometimes say things that cross a line for the mainstream Jewish community – but not for me. Yeah, they criticize the occupation. But I do, too.”

These young Jewish Greens voters tended to be graduates of the non-Orthodox Zionist youth movements (like Habonim-Dror and Netzer) and the non-Zionist Bund movement, which still has a relatively large following in Melbourne. A relatively large number came from families unaffiliated with the established Jewish community. It was rare to find alumni of Bnei Akiva, the religious Zionist youth movement that is quite popular in Australia, among them.

Adam Levy, a 20-year-old linguistics major at the University of Sydney and a graduate of the Moriah Jewish day school, explains his vote for the Greens this way: “I’m voting in an Australian election, and I vote for policies that will benefit this country. I’m voting on issues that are totally unrelated to Israel.”

Natural choice

Max Korman is an alumnus of both the Habonim Dror youth movement (better known in Australia as “Habo”) and the Bialik Jewish day school in Melbourne. Given his background, he says, voting for the Greens was actually the most natural choice for him. “I was taught growing up to think about my responsibility to the world,” says the 26-year-old program director at the New Israel Fund in Australia, which supports progressive organizations and causes in Israel.

That was also the case for Tahlia Bowen, who serves as First Nations partnership coordinator at Stand Up, an organization of Jewish social justice activists. The child of a mixed marriage, she did not attend a Jewish day school but was active as a teen in the Reform Zionist youth movement, where she says she developed her passion for “tikkun olam” (repairing the world).

That part of her youth movement upbringing not only remains instilled in her, she says, but has intensified over the years. She cannot say the same about her Zionist education.

“Since my days in Netzer, I’ve had time to reflect more on how much I really believed in the ideology or was just trying to fit in,” says the 22-year-old activist. “And while I’m definitely not an ‘abolish Israel’ kind of person, it’s difficult to say where I stand at the moment.”

Alex Ryvchin, co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jews, says he has yet to see evidence that support for the Greens is growing among young Australians. But if it is, he says, it is probably only on the margins.

“I have no doubt that some young Jews might be drawn to their focus on environmentalism and social policies, and perhaps they feel they can work within the party to correct some of their policies on Israel,” he says. “And there might be some Jews who have loose affiliations to the Jewish community and Israel who might be voting for the Greens for that reason as well. But I can’t see too many self-respecting, affiliated Australian Jews supporting the Greens.”

Jeremy Leibler, president of the Zionist Federation of Australia, isn’t as quick to write them off. “I don’t believe that because they voted for candidates who didn’t have a great track record on Israel means that climate is more important to them than Israel,” he says of these young Jewish Greens voters.

“I see it more as reflective of how they can make their vote more impactful rather than necessarily a reflection of what issues are most important for them. In other words, people can have an impact on climate. And, frankly, with all due respect to Australia, the position of a random member of parliament on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not going to be that relevant.”

‘Hostile to Israel’

About 100,000 Jews live in Australia (the vast majority in the two big cities of Melbourne and Sydney), where they account for a tiny fraction of the total population – 0.4 percent. It’s estimated that about 70 percent vote for the conservative-minded Liberal party.

In the May 21 election, Australia’s Labor Party, led by Anthony Albanese, returned to power for the first time in nine years. By many accounts, though, the Greens were also big winners: they had their best showing ever, making dramatic gains in both the lower and the upper houses. Mounting concerns about climate change in Australia, where fires and floods have wreaked havoc in recent years, clearly worked to the advantage of Australia’s third largest party.

Australia’s Labor Party is not considered as friendly to Israel as the Liberal Party, given that it officially supports the unilateral establishment of a Palestinian state (though it is far from clear that the new Labor-led government will take action on the matter). Aside from that, Jewish community leaders often note, there are no fundamental differences between the two major parties when it comes to Israel: Both Labor and the Liberals are opposed to the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, and both have accepted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism (a definition that has been challenged in left-wing circles for conflating anti-Zionism with antisemitism). By contrast, the Greens have refrained from outright condemnation of BDS and do not endorse the IHRA definition of antisemitism.

In a recent analysis of the election results, Peter Wertheim, co-CEO of the Executive Committee of Australian Jewry, summed up well the attitude of the mainstream Jewish establishment to the party: “While the Greens will not be part of the government, their increased numbers in the parliament will enhance the political voices who are hostile to Israel and opposed to values and policies which are overwhelmingly supported by the Jewish community.”

Proud Zionists

It is tempting to draw parallels between what is happening among young Australian Jews and what is happening among their cohort in the United States – the largest Jewish community in the world outside of Israel.

Indeed, survey after survey in recent years has found that young American Jews are far less connected to Israel than their parents and grandparents. Particularly alarming for the U.S. Jewish establishment was a poll published in July showing that 20 percent of young American Jews do not believe Israel has the right to exist, a third believe Israel is committing genocide, and more than a third believe Israel is an apartheid state.

That is certainly not the case in Australia. The most recent survey undertaken of the community, conducted in 2017 by the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilization, found that young Australian Jews were even more likely than their parents and grandparents – albeit by a very small margin – to identify as Zionist. Indeed, three out of every four Australian Jews aged 18 to 29 responded in the affirmative when asked whether they considered themselves to be Zionists. (The survey did not provide a precise definition for the term.) Prof. Andrew Markus, a co-author of the survey, says he has no reason to believe much has changed in the attitudes of young Australians in the past five years. “They may be more challenged, but that doesn’t mean they’re less pro-Israel,” he notes.

Among the reasons often cited for Jewish Australians’ very strong connection to Israel are the high rate of Jewish day school enrollment in the country; the high rate of Jewish youth movement participation; the high percentage of the population that has family in Israel and visits regularly; the high percentage that identify as either Orthodox or traditional; and the large concentration of Holocaust survivors – for whom the establishment of Israel was an especially transformational event.

To be sure, there is nothing unusual about young people voting for environmental and other progressive parties. That it is happening among young Jewish voters in Australia, however, given the particular profile of their community, is significant.

Many of those young Jewish Australians voting for the Greens – often in defiance of their parents and grandparents – maintain that they still feel strongly connected to Israel, which is not likely the case among their American counterparts.

As Herz, the former Hineni activist puts it: “I don’t think me voting for the Greens impacts my Zionist sentiments.”

Rather than interpret their vote for the Greens as a sign that they are renouncing Israel, says Rutland, it should be seen as evidence of their shifting priorities.

“What I think the young people are saying is that they care about the environment more than they care about the Greens’ position on Israel,” she says.

Levy, who defines himself as a “proud socialist Zionist,” says there is no contradiction between voting Green and loving Israel. In fact, he plans to move there once he graduates. A past president of the University of Sydney branch of the Australian Union of Jewish Students, he says he feels more at home socially and culturally in the Jewish state.

“I strongly identify as a Zionist – but I know that if I live in this country, I vote for the Greens, and if I live in Israel, I vote for Meretz,” says Levy, referring to the left-wing Zionist party that is heavily focused on environmental issues. His parents, he says, tend to vote for the Liberals, and he has a hard time persuading them that “being good for Israel” is hardly relevant in Australia.

“What does it even mean to be ‘good for Israel’?” he asks. “The Greens don’t even care about Israel. Yeah, sure, if you go into page three-hundred-and-something of their policy manual, you’ll see some line about West Bank settlements. If that’s enough to turn a Jew off from voting for them, then I guess that’s what it is.”

But not all young Jewish Greens voters find it as easy to embrace their Blue & White. Feldman-Gubbay, for example, says she has reached the point of such frustration with Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians that she can no longer bear to call herself a Zionist. “Maybe the better way to put it is that I don’t identify as an anti-Zionist, but I wouldn’t call myself a Zionist either,” says the former Zionist youth movement leader. “I think Jews have to right to live in Israel, and I have family there, but I don’t think Judaism should be linked to the oppression of other people, and I’m sick of being embarrassed to be a Jew.”

It was the war between Israel and Hamas in May 2021 that triggered Feldman-Gubbay’s change of heart about her Zionist identity. “Before that, I would happily call myself a Zionist,” she says. “But the recent flare-up in Gaza was all over my social media, and I just couldn’t ignore it. I was probably more exposed to it than my other Jewish friends because I didn’t go to Jewish day school like they did, and I happen to have lots of non-Jewish friends.”

Korman, another Habo graduate, also prefers not to identify as a Zionist. “It’s a very recent thing,” he says. “A year or two ago, I would’ve said I’m a Zionist easily and happily. I think my worldview is still aligned with a lot of the original concepts of Labor Zionism. But because of what the word has come to mean for others, it’s hard me to just go out in Australia and say I’m a capital ‘Z’ Zionist.”

Morris, the graduate student from Australian National University, has identified as a “Diasporist” – as opposed to a Zionist – ever since he was a teenager. “I see the Diaspora as more essential to Jewish history and the Jewish narrative than I see Israel,” he says.

But in recent years, he adds, his disenchantment with Israel has intensified. “That’s partly due to my growing pessimism about the likelihood of Israel or the Israeli government ever taking steps to end the occupation,” he explains.

Under attack?

In recent months, Israel has come under assault on Australian campuses as never before. And it has taken an especially harsh toll on those Jewish students who identify as progressives – many of them, naturally, Greens voters.

A BDS resolution passed by the student council at the University of Melbourne in early May – and unprecedented in tone – accused Israel of “massacres, forced expulsion and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.” It called Israel a “settler, colonial apartheid state,” and referred to Zionism as a “racist, colonial ideology.”

Under pressure from the university and under threat of legal action, the resolution was rescinded a few weeks later. The University of Sydney student council passed a similar motion in June, accusing Israel of “genocide” and urging students to become part of a “fighting, radical Palestine solidarity movement in Australia.”

Because the Palestinian solidarity movement in Australia is aligned with other progressive causes, such as climate change and indigenous rights, Jewish students often find they are not welcome in these spaces unless they renounce their Zionism.

To hear it from Jewish establishment figures, it has reached the point where Jewish students feel unsafe to walk around campus wearing yarmulkes, Star of David necklaces and other signs of their faith.

Nathan Rogut, president of the University of Sydney branch of the student union, believes that is slightly far-fetched. “You can even walk around dressed as a Haredi Jew, and no one will say anything to you,” he says. “It does become a problem, though, when you want to get involved in progressive spaces.”

Jews are widely acknowledged to have been at the forefront of the struggle for indigenous rights in Australia. But many young Jews say they no longer feel comfortable in the movement because of the growing tendency to draw parallels between the plight of Australia’s indigenous population and the Palestinians.

“It’s very common to see Palestinian flags waved during First Nations protests,” reports Bowen, the First Nations liaison at Stand Up. “I think that can be isolating for young Jews who want to engage in this narrative of decolonization of Australia.”

Just before the recent election, Levy had volunteered to hand out flyers for the Greens in his neighborhood. At a post-election gathering, he recounts, a volunteer he had never met before approached him to tell him he hated Israel.

“I was like, ‘Why does this even come up?’” recounts Levy. “It struck me as really odd. Israel was not mentioned at all in this election that just passed, but there is this obsession with it on the left that I simply can’t understand.”

Feldman-Gubbay, who can hardly be accused of being soft on Israel, tends to agree. “I feel lost in the left-wing community sometimes because I have to prove that I’m a ‘good Jew’ – and there’s a feeling that you need to denounce Israel to a certain extent to prove it.”

Often, when she’s out on a date, she relays, she will be asked about her position on Palestine. “It’s definitely an issue that concerns me because I have a connection to Israel, and it makes sense that I care about it,” she says. “But for those on the left who are not Jewish, Israeli or Palestinian, I question why they focus on it so much.”

She prefers, she says, to give them the benefit of the doubt. “Hopefully, it’s because they just really care about people.”