The Anti Defamation Commission has joined calls for former prime minister Kevin Rudd’s sister to apologise over an anti-gay marriage remark.
Loree Rudd is lobbying federal MPs and threatening to quit Labor if the party backs gay marriage at its national conference in December.
She accused some Labor members of being brainwashed by a “global gay Gestapo” this week.
The ADC, Australia’s peak Jewish human rights body, said she should apologise.
“It is completely unacceptable for anyone to co-opt and trivialise the name of one of the most active and feared arms of the Nazi machinery for their own political purposes,” ADC chairman Anton Block said in a statement on Friday.
“The Gestapo was directly responsible for the murders of Jewish, Romani, homosexual and disabled people.
“To use its name in this context shows a level of ignorance and insensitivity that has no place in contemporary political discourse.
“It is highly offensive, and we call upon Ms Rudd to apologise immediately and unreservedly.”
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