Jenny Leong (born 1977), an Australian politician, is a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly representing Newtown for the Greens since 2015.[2] Leong is the first person to represent Newtown in its current form, as it was created for the 2015 election.
In October 2023, Leong signed an open letter condemning attacks against Israeli and Palestinian civilians during the 2023 Israel–Hamas war.[6]
Controversy
In early 2024, a video from a Palestine Justice Movement forum in Bankstown held in December 2023 surfaced in which Leong stated: "The Jewish lobby and the Zionist lobby are infiltrating into every single aspect of what is ethnic community groups ... they rock up to every community event because their tentacles reach into the areas that try and influence power”.[7][8] Leong was strongly criticised for use of the phrase, including by several Jewish community leaders and politicians such, as well as Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.[9][10] Leong's use of the term "tentacles" was compared to antisemitic tropes.[11] Leong apologised for her remarks saying she ""apologise[d] wholeheartedly and unreservedly".[12] Jewish people subsequently protested in front of Leong's office, with some protesters dressed as inflatable squids.[13][14]
Leong worked with Amnesty International from 2008 to 2012 as a crisis coordinator and a campaign organiser before entering politics. Although based in London, Hong Kong, and Australia, Leong worked all over the world. At Amnesty she oversaw the organisation's response to the Arab Spring as well as protecting freedom of expression in Burmese elections. She also spent more than three years on the Human Rights Law Resource Centre advisory committee.[18]
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