The mayor of a regional New South Wales shire has apologized for making anti-Semitic remarks at a public meeting on Tuesday night. When asked why the Shoalhaven Council had decided to sell public land for a discounted price, mayor Greg Watson said: “Why don’t you jack up the price, why don’t you be a good Jew, why don’t you screw the last dollar out of it like public enterprise would?”

Councillor Watson told The AJN that he regrets his remarks and rejected any assertions that he is anti-Semitic.

“My wife is Jewish,” he said. “In the heat of the moment, I said a phrase like this … it wasn’t a planned statement.”

When asked what he meant by the phrase “why don’t you be a good Jew”, Councillor Watson said: “It is a phrase my wife uses a lot at home”.

“It was in the context that Jews are good business people and would make a profit out of it [the sale of the land],” he said.

“If I had thought about what I was saying, I wouldn’t have said it at all.”

(Source: Australian Jewish News)