The Israeli Embassy in Canberra has raised concerns over comments by former Australian of the Year Grace Tame about reports of sexual violence by terrorist group Hamas.
On Monday, Ms Tame appeared on ABC Radio Sydney to discuss her interpretation of the phrase “globalise the intifada”.
In the interview, Ms Tame said she understood the phrase “to be a call for widespread resistance” against the actions of Israel.
It came more than a month after she was criticised by federal MPs and the NSW premier for leading a chant using the phrase at a rally against Israeli President Isaac Herzog during his visit to Australia.
“Globalise the Intifada” is a contentious phrase that the state government has been considering outlawing under revised hate speech laws.
The word “intifada” means “shaking off” in Arabic and has been used to refer to two periods of violent Palestinian protest against Israel.
Members of the Jewish community have described it as a hateful call for violence.
Ms Tame also responded to claims she had been selective in her outrage and accusations she had never spoken on behalf of women believed to have been sexually assaulted during the attacks on October 7, 2023.
United Nations officials in 2024 found there were reasonable grounds to believe conflict-related sexual violence — including rape and gang-rape — occurred at several locations during Hamas’s October 7 attacks on Israel.
“I’m not going to sink to the level of entertaining any kind of propaganda,” she said.
“Those things have been debunked.
“Awful things are being perpetrated by both sides … This is not selective outrage. I’m outraged by all of the violence,” she said.
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