Friends of Israel in Western Australia

Melbourne Al-Quds Day features anti-Semitic cartoons

2013-08-11T17:57:00.000-07:00

From J-Wire, August 9, 2013 by Julie Nathan*:

Read on for article

Melbourne held its first Al-Quds Day rally this year.
The short video of the rally and march shows about fifty people gathered on the steps of the State Library, with speakers giving speeches, and protestors waving anti-Israel banners. The crowd then marched down the street.
In the middle of this two minute video of the anti-Israel protest several photos and cartoon images have been inserted. Some of these images are overtly anti-Jewish.

One image is of a Jewish man, identified as such with a kippah (skullcap) and Star of David, and with a stereotypical huge hooked nose, holding a small and limp child in front of him. The Jew is poised to take a gigantic and deadly bite out of the child.
Why is an image of a Jew eating a gentile child inserted into a video of an anti-Israel rally?
For a thousand years, Christians had accused Jews of murdering gentile children and draining their blood for use in religious rituals or for making matzah (Passover bread). This fabrication has been used against Jews to vilify and demonize them, and to incite the mobs to violently attack Jews.

Another image shows a dead Palestinian in loin cloth draped in the arms of a sitting woman, with fighter planes overhead. The figure is transposed from artwork of the dead Jesus in the arms of Mary. This image elicits the millennial accusation against Jews as “Christ-killers”.
This accusation was used to incite the mobs to go out and massacre Jews, often whole Jewish communities. This image in the video reconstructs the accusation and demonizing of the Jewish people as being innately murderous and absolutely evil, and of the Palestinian Arabs as being mild and meek as Jesus, and innocent.
The video was made by Alaa Al, and appears in several places.
The Al-Quds Day committee Australia, the organizers of the rally, posted this video on their Facebook page, with the acknowledgment of its producer, through the introduction: “Video made by sister Alaa on the first Al-Quds Day Protest in Melbourne.” The video was also posted on the Al-Quds Day Committee’s Melbourne event Facebook page by Alaa. It also appears on Alaa’s Youtube channel.
Al-Quds Day was inaugurated by Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran in 1979 as a call for international protests against Israel and to promote the destruction of Israel and its replacement with a Muslim state.
This is reinforced by the Al-Quds Day Committee Australia in 2012 calling “Israel, the enemy of mankind, the enemy of humanity…”
So why the antisemitic images?
- Anti-Zionists deny they are anti-Jewish, claiming they are only anti-Israel. They often accuse those who accuse them of using anti-Jewish stereotypes and imagery of using the ‘antisemitism card’ as a ploy to stifle and silence criticism of Israel. This is aimed at diverting the accusations of antisemitism away from the anti-Zionists, and of legitimising any claims of antisemitism.
A banner at the Sydney Al-Quds Day rally had the words ‘Delete Zionists’. This goes beyond calls for the destruction of a state. It is a direct call to kill people, specifically to murder millions of Jews in Israel and around the world.
In Toronto, Canada, a speaker at the Al-Quds Day rally called for giving Israeli Jews two minutes warning to leave Palestine, and then to start shooting any Jews they come across. This is another direct call and incitement to murder Jews, urged at an Al-Quds Day rally. The speaker’s words were:
“We have to give them an ultimatum: You have to leave Jerusalem. You have to leave Palestine… We say get out or you are dead. We give them two minutes and then we start shooting. And that’s the only way they’ll understand.”
If Al-Quds Day was about protesting against the Israeli control of parts of the West Bank and Jerusalem, or even of Israel’s existence, then why the antisemitism?
With all their rhetoric of ’justice’ and ‘human rights’ for all oppressed people throughout the world, and especially for the Palestinian Arabs, how can they justify using and promoting racist stereotypes and images about one segment of humanity, namely Jews, and only Jews? How do they justify portraying Jews as innately evil, and as the enemy of humanity?
It appears as though Al-Quds Day is not about Palestinian human rights at all, but about hatred of Jews. It appears that their problem with Israel is that it is the state of the Jewish people.
As Al-Quds Day proponents have a vitriolic hatred of Jews they will oppose Jews wherever they are, whether in a Jewish state or dispersed throughout the world. Their focus for now is on where Jews are concentrated most – in Israel.
To Al-Quds Day supporters, the Jews’ greatest crime is not to have re-established a state in the ancient homeland, but to survive and thrive, despite or in spite of, whatever hatred, demonization, and violence is used against the Jewish people.

*Julie Nathan is the Research Officer for the Executive Council of Australian Jewry

Bob Carr is "disappointing "

2013-08-09T00:37:00.001-07:00

From AIJAC, Aug 9 2013:

It was disappointing to hear the remarks made by Foreign Minister Bob Carr outside Lakemba Mosque at the celebrations to mark Eid al-Fitr on Thursday.
... it is unfortunate that he did not take the opportunity to ...recognise the need to ensure Israel's security, to call for an end to all rocket attacks against Israeli civilians and incitement by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas against the Israeli population, or to reiterate Australia's support for the current peace talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
His opinion that "settlements on Palestinian land are illegal under international law and should cease" is highly contentious. Any implication that the West Bank is sovereign Palestinian territory - something it has never been - prejudges core issues of the peace process that must be negotiated.
We call on the Foreign Minister to place realistic and informed support for a negotiated two-state peace at the centre of Australia's approach to Israeli-Palestinian issues, and to refrain from one-sided statements which prejudge the outcome and complicate peace negotiations.

Israeli Film Festival 21-28th August 2013

2013-08-08T02:05:00.001-07:00

10th AICE Israeli Film Festival 2013

Screening exclusively at Cinema Paradiso 21-28th August 2013.
Download programme. Visit website.
View Trailer

This year the AICE Israeli Film Festival celebrates its 10th anniversary! In 2013 we bring you one of our strongest programmes yet – with an exceptional selection of 19 award-winning feature films and documentaries. The films screening at this year’s festival explore the myriad of stories emerging from one of the most diverse and multi-racial countries in the world. Many are shaped by politics, many are personal - but overwhelmingly they celebrate the stories of people’s lives.

OPENING NIGHT
The Ballad of the Weeping Spring (dir. Beni Torati) will launch the festival on Wednesday 21 August, 7pm. The Perth premiere of The Ballad of the Weeping Spring is preceded by the official reception from 6.15 upstairs at Oliver’s, including wines courtesy of Devil’s Corner, canapés and live entertainment.

Described as an entertaining, melodramatic fairytale by Screen Daily, Beni Torati’s The Ballad of the Weeping Spring sees Tawila travelling a timeless Israel in this homage to the music of the region and a Hollywood of the past. Possibly the first Felafel Western, certainly an Israeli Magnificent Seven, the multi-award winning feature echoes classic cinema in telling a story of love, loss and redemption. And then there’s that music…
Read more here. View Trailer.
General Admission $38, Luna Privilege Card holders $33.

Antisemites gather in Sydney and Melbourne for "Al-Quds Day" (inaugurated by Ayatollah Khomeini)

2013-08-05T20:35:00.003-07:00

From J-Wire, August 6, 2013 by Julie Nathan:

Palestinian and Hezbollah flags flew at the Al-Quds Day rally in Arncliffe, Sydney, last Friday

Around 150 people attended, plus a police contingent of over a dozen officers.

An Israeli flag at the rally had the words “Delete Zionists” painted on the blue stripes,

and the Star of David was circled and crossed out.
Inciting people to “Delete Zionists” is a call not only for the destruction of Israel, but for the destruction of Israelis, and of those who support Israel and the right to self-determination of the Jewish people.
It is a call for the annihilation of millions of Jews, in Israel and the diaspora. It is a call against people, not against a belief or a state.
The protestors gathered outside Arncliffe railway station and after several speeches, the crowd marched to Arncliffe Park while chanting “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, “Down down Israel”, and “Netanyahu you will see, Palestine will be free.”
Let no-one be fooled into thinking that the protest was simply against Israel’s “occupation” of the West Bank. Designating the whole of the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, which includes Israel’s heartland, as “Palestine” is a statement against Israel’s very existence.
Father Dave Smith, of the Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Dulwich Hill, addressed the crowd in the park, most of them Shia Muslims from the nearby Arncliffe mosque. He stated that
“the greatest crime ongoing in the world today is the oppression of the Palestinian people. From 1948 until now, the Palestinian occupation continues. How has humanity allowed this injustice to go on for so long? The injustice of the Palestinian occupation stains the whole world with the blood of the innocent… We call on governments to remove this stain.”
Just listen to his words: “the greatest crime ongoing in the world”, “from 1948 until now”, “this stain”. He was saying that all of Israel, not the West Bank, is an “occupation”, a “crime”, a “stain”.
He was inciting people to hate and destroy Israel.
Yet he began his speech by saying that he did not agree with those calling for Israel’s destruction. That sentiment rings hollow in light of his subsequent rhetoric.
The MC for the event demanded “We want the Zionists out of Muslim lands...” A female speaker referred to genocide being committed against the Palestinians.
Jamal Daoud, an organizer of the rally, lamented that the Arab Spring and the Syrian civil war had “shifted the focus from the Palestinians.”
Several Shia sheiks addressed the crowd. Sheikh Nami Farhat al-Ameli called on “humanity to stand against the evil Zionist regime and big devil America.”

Tim Anderson, another speaker, said that “imperialism has its tools, and Israel is one of those tools.”
This was the second year that an Al-Quds Day rally has been held in Australia, both times in Sydney. This year saw the first rally held in Melbourne. An early video of the Melbourne protest was embedded with the antisemitic imagery of a Jew eating a gentile child.
Al-Quds Day was inaugurated by Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran in 1979 as a call for international protests against Israel and to promote the Muslim rule of Jerusalem.
The Al-Quds Day committee Australia stated on its facebook page in July that “Al-Quds is the Arabic name for Jerusalem, which along with all of Palestine is under occupation by the Zionist Regime.” In 2012 this Committee called “Israel, the enemy of mankind, the enemy of humanity…”
A few days before the rally last week, the Committee made a bizarre accusation: “this year the Zionists have left the job of trying to sabotage the rally to organisation/s that claim to be pro-Palestinians” and of “plots to sabotage the movement.”
It is unclear what they are referring to, but perhaps it fits in with Iranian leaders who see “Zionist plots” anywhere and everywhere, even under the bed, and apparently too even in the Sydney suburb of Arncliffe.

*Julie Nathan is the Research Officer for the Executive Council of Australian Jewry

Australia Arab Chamber of Commerce & Industry and the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce jointly support a seminar in Sydney

2013-07-31T20:01:00.000-07:00

The Jerusalem Arbitration Center (JAC) held a seminar for members of Australia’s legal community hosted by Clayton Utz at its Sydney office on Tuesday 30 July.

The event was chaired by the Hon. James Spigelman AC QC and speakers included the President of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Israel, Major General (ret.) Oren Shachor and Head of Legal Team, ICC Palestine, Mazen E. Qupty. Alex Ryvchin, represented the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.

Go to this link to hear a radio report on the seminar

The event was organised by Senior Associate, Adam Butt. The principal financial supporters were LEADR, the Pratt Foundation and Wainwright Ryan Eid Lawyers.

The event was jointly supported by the Australia Arab Chamber of Commerce & Industry and the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce. It is hoped that this will be the first of many events jointly supported by these bodies.
The JAC is an apolitical and impartial forum for the resolution of commercial disputes arising from Israeli-Palestinian business relations, and seeks to eliminate obstacles to further bilateral trade between Israelis and Palestinians. Significantly, it is a joint enterprise established by the Israeli and Palestinian divisions of the ICC and indicates the potential for constructive, meaningful co-operation between Israeli and Palestinian institutions.

Presently, bilateral trade between Israelis and Palestinians is in the region of nearly $5 billion per annum and the work of the JAC aims to create further opportunities for further economic engagement, prosperity and co-operation between Israelis and Palestinians.
Whilst political engagement between Israeli and Palestinian leaders is vital, it is economic co-operation that creates most of the opportunities for daily contact between ordinary Israelis and Palestinians. Such contact has the power to build greater mutual understanding, co-operation and friendship between Israelis and Palestinians. Ultimately, it is the people who must live together in peace, not just their leaders.

1948 as told by those who lived it

2013-07-29T15:48:00.002-07:00

From the Times of Israel, 1 July 2013, by Philippe Assouline*:

Robert F. Kennedy, martyred liberal icon, was a reporter for the Boston Post in 1948. He was sent in the spring of that year to Mandatory Palestine to cover the lead up to the British withdrawal. His dispatches are a fascinating glimpse back in time and invaluable historical records. And yet they are also a testament to the ideological stagnation of the Arab world vis a vis Israel.

Then, as now, Israelis saw themselves as fighting for survival against irrational enmity. Then as now, the Arab world abounded in hostility to the very idea of a Jewish presence in its midst which it justified by casting itself as the victim of Western conspiracies. R.F.K.’s accounts and other primary sources would appear to vindicate Israel’s version of events.

At the heart of Arab grievances against Zionism lay the claim that an indigenous people (the Palestinian Arabs) were ethnically cleansed by Zionist colonialists aided by the West. Zionists have long held that, though the Holy Land was not empty at the dawn of political Zionism, the Turkish backwater was in no way inhabited by a distinct people, nor did the Zionists ever adopt a policy of ethnic cleansing.

Kennedy in his first dispatch, puts the Arab claim (which was perhaps more controversial then) to rest almost as an afterthought:

The Jews point with pride to the fact that over 500,000 Arabs in the 12 years between 1932 and 1944, came into Palestine to take advantage of living conditions existing in no other Arab state. This is the only country in the Near and Middle East where an Arab middle class is in existence.

Kennedy later interviewed many people on the ground, on both sides of the conflict, and found himself focusing on the struggle for Jerusalem. The ancient Jewish Quarter of the city had been besieged by Arab forces and almost cut off from the rest of the Jewish population centers, long before the British left Palestine in May of 1948. What Kennedy observed is rampant hatred of Jews – not merely Zionists – on the part of ordinary Jerusalem Arabs, i.e., their neighbours:

The Arabs living in the old city of Jerusalem have kept the age-old habit of procuring their water from the individual cisterns that exist in almost every home. The Jews being more “educated” (an Arab told me that this was their trouble and now the Jews were going to really pay for it) had a central water system installed with pipes bringing fresh hot and cold water. Unfortunately for them, the reservoir is situated in the mountains and it and the whole pipe line are controlled by the Arabs. The British would not let them cut the water off until after May 15th but an Arab told me they would not even do it then. First they would poison it.
Within the Old City of Jerusalem there exists a small community of orthodox Jews. They wanted no part of this fight but just wanted to be left alone with their wailing wall. Unfortunately for them, the Arabs are unkindly disposed toward any kind of Jew and their annihilation would now undoubtedly have been a fact had it not been that at the beginning of hostilities the Haganah moved several hundred well-equipped men into their quarter.
(Emphasis throughout is mine)

Kennedy went on to recount how the Arabs had been arming volunteer fighters from as far as Pakistan and sending them into the borders of Mandatory Palestine long before May 1948, that is, under British noses. Once the war of ’48 started in earnest, after May 15 of that year, R.F.K. made the following observation that, 65 years on, remains an accurate description of the current impasse:

The die has long since been cast; the fight will take place. The Jews with their backs to the sea, fighting for their very homes, with 101 percent morale, will accept no compromise. On the other hand, the Arabs say:
‘We shall bring Moslem brigades from Pakistan, we shall lead a religious crusade for all loyal followers of Mohammed, we shall crush forever the invader. Whether it takes three months, three years, or 30, we will carry on the fight. Palestine will be Arab. We shall accept no compromise.’

In such a war, where people who have immutably refused partition also relish the thought of murdering thousands of innocents because they are Jews (a mere 3 years after Arab leaders supported the Nazis), expulsions are to be expected. Between suffering another genocide and expelling those who have attacked you to satisfy maximalist imperatives, the moral if unfortunate choice is undoubtedly the latter. And yet, if we are to trust first hand accounts over later renderings, the Palestinian Arabs who left overwhelmingly did so not compelled by Jewish forces. They left, rather, because of their own leaders and, by and large, without having ever seen a Jewish soldier.

Refugees by choice

Consider in support of this contention the recently released British intelligence archives from 1948:

The Arabs have suffered a series of overwhelming defeats… Jewish victories … have reduced Arab morale to zero and, following the cowardly example of their inept leaders, they are fleeing from the mixed areas in their thousands. It is now obvious that the only hope of regaining their position lies in the regular armies of the Arab states.”

One would expect an intelligence report by the British military about the 1948 war to at least mention expulsions which, we are told today by myriad activists, were rampant. And yet there appears to not have been mention of such. On the contrary, the British report — and bear in mind that according to R.F.K. the British forces in Palestine were exceedingly hostile to Jews– mentions only flight fueled by hysteria, groupthink and “cowardice.” That is, the exact opposite of forced expulsion.

The Refugees Speak… “Mad Hattery” and Myth

Most compelling perhaps is a 1961 in-depth and extensive jewel of a piece on Palestinian Arab refugees by author and journalist Martha Gellhorn (wife of famed author Ernest Hemingway) for The Atlantic. Gellhorn travelled to numerous Arab states bordering Israel as well as to Israel itself in order to put a human face on what she called the “undifferentiated mass” of Palestinian Arab refugees. Her piece, though long, is a must-read study on the birth of anti-Israel propaganda, and the pathologies that fuel it:

Sitting in his neat office, with my guide, the principal of the school (a former member of the Palestinian police), and the camp leader, I listened to the first of what became an almost daily Mad Hatter conversation.
It went like this:
“The Arab countries invaded Israel in 1948 to save the Palestine Arabs from being massacred by the Jews.”
“Were there massacres? Where?”
“Oh, yes, everywhere. Terrible, terrible.”
“Then you must have lost many relatives and friends.” This, being a tiresome deduction from a previous statement, is brushed aside without comment.

Indeed, Palestinian refugees interviewed by Gellhorn, time after time recounted tales of massacres and atrocities that could never, it seemed, be verified. Then as now, an echo chamber of myth and embellished tales of victimhood substituted for what ought to have been a sober look at the role of Arab leadership in bringing about the refugee crisis. Gellhorn paints a picture of widespread auto-indoctrination and an enforced orthodoxy of blame. To read the claims made by NGOs and Palestinian advocacy groups today is to notice that not much has changed at all. Today, as then, bien-pensants dogmatically cling to a version of events whereby outnumbered and outgunned Jewish forces were entirely to blame for the often destructive and foolish choices of Arab leadership, including the choice to wage genocidal war on nascent Israel.

The Last Vestiges of Journalistic Integrity and Professionalism?

The stark difference between today and the years following the Israeli War of Independence, however, is that journalists then were willing and even eager to challenge the accounts that they heard in order to ensure veracity. Coverage of the Middle East today is all too often a stale mix of cliché and condescension peddled as fact. It is an exceedingly rare thing to see a Palestinian account taken as anything less than the Gospel by today’s Western press.

Not so Gellhorn in 1961. Upon hearing tales of atrocities allegedly committed by the Jews of Jaffa against the city’s Arab inhabitants in 1948, Gellhorn reported the following:

Arab refugees tell many dissimilar versions of the Jaffa story, but the
puzzler is: where are the relatives of those who must have perished in the fury of high explosive the infallible witnesses? No one says he was loaded on a truck (or a boat) at gun point; no one describes being forced from his home by armed Jews; no one recalls the extra menace of enemy attacks, while in flight. The sight of the dead, the horrors of escape are exact, detailed memories never forgotten by those who had them. Surely Arabs would not forget or suppress such memories, if they, too, had them.
As for those Arabs who remained behind, they are still in Jaffa–3000 of them–living in peace, prosperity, and discontent, with their heirs and descendants.

Gellhorn eventually tired of the tales that she was hearing. When she arrived to Israel, at the end of her trip, she confronted an Israeli Arab who, being in Israel, was free to speak candidly. The conversation is telling of the banalized double standards and lack of accountability that characterize the anti-Israel mindset and stain too many diplomatic initiatives to this day:

“In 1947, the United Nations recommended the Partition of Palestine. … The Jews accepted this Partition plan; … Are we agreed so far?”
“It is right.”
“The Arab governments and the Palestinian Arabs rejected Partition absolutely. You wanted the whole country. There is no secret about this. The statements of the Arab representatives, in the UN are on record. The Arab governments never hid the fact that they started the war against Israel. But you, the Palestinian Arabs, agreed to this, you wanted it. And you thought, it seems to me very reasonably, that you would win and win quickly. It hardly seemed a gamble; it seemed a sure bet. You took the gamble and you lost. …”
“Yes.” It was too astonishing; at long last, East and West were in accord on the meaning of words.
“Now you say that you want to return to the past; you want Partition. … Please answer me this, which is what I must, know. If the position were reversed, if the Jews had started the war and lost it, if you had won the war, would you now accept Partition? Would you give up part of the country and allow the 650,000 Jewish residents of Palestine -who had fled from the war–to come back?”
“Certainly not,” he said, without an instant’s hesitation. “But there would have been no Jewish refugees. They had no place to go. They would all be dead or in the sea.“

Martha Gellhorn

The More Things Change…

It is interesting to note how, a mere 13 years after the end of the Holocaust, weaponized revisionism was already in vogue among some pro-Palestinian advocates. Specifically, the Holocaust – which Palestinian Arab leadership eagerly supported – was already then recast to serve as a cognitive tool against its Jewish victims. Gellerhorn reports being told, when mentioning the 6 million who were butchered:

Oh, that is all exaggerated. [Hitler] did not [kill 6 million Jews]. Besides, the Jews bluffed Hitler. They arranged in secret that he should kill a few of them–old ones, weak ones–to make the others emigrate to Palestine.

Greta Berlin, organizer of the 2010 Flotilla to Hamas was lambasted for peddling the same arguments last year. Indeed conflation of Zionism and Nazism has become ubiquitous among so many claiming to defend justice.

Having encountered similar attitudes over and over in Beirut, the Jordanian-Occupied West bank, Gaza and Israeli Arab villages, Gellhorn’s frustration turned to outrage. Her pithy observation of the unspoken rules of victimhood is a perfect encapsulation of the moral nuance that is lacking today in reports and histories of the Middle East:

It is hard to sorrow for those who only sorrow over themselves. It is difficult to pity the pitiless. To wring the heart past all doubt, those who cry aloud for justice must be innocent. They cannot have wished for a victorious rewarding war, blame everyone else for their defeat, and remain guiltless. Some of them may be unfortunate human beings… [b]ut a profound difference exists between victims of misfortune (there, but for the grace of God, go I) and victims of injustice.

Today, victimhood – however counterfeit – compels sympathy, even when it shouldn’t. And to compel sympathy is to be right. With respect to the Middle East, moral standing and moral choices no longer intersect in public consciousness.

Gellhorn presciently concluded that the West, when speaking to or about Palestinian Arabs, would “require[] non-Arabs to treat Arabs as if they were neurotic children, subject either to tantrums or to internal bleeding from spiritual wounds.” While her language is incendiary, it is a fact that today, the politically correct all too often hold Israel responsible for the Arabs’ self-inflicted wounds — to put it bluntly, as if Arabs are essentially not fully capable adults. To thus pity the Arab “other” regardless of his choices is an egregious, despicable form of Orientalism. To rob Arabs of their agency is nothing more than racism masquerading as compassion. To hold them to no standard at all is to despise them.

Indeed, what do the Palestinians have to show for 65 years of moral deflection, canonized exaggerations, and cultivated victimhood?

*Philippe Assouline made aliyah from Montreal in 2010, after living in New York for too long… [More]. Philippe is obsessed with all things Israel and reggae. He is an avid ranter but since the birth of his son, his wife can no longer listen to him so he has started writing.

'Kingdom Culture' conference 27th - 28th August

2013-07-29T15:43:00.002-07:00

Time is ticking and the highly anticipated 'Kingdom Culture' conference at Subiaco Church of Christ, on the evenings of Tuesday the 27th and Wednesday the 28th of August, is looming fast!

Such a quality conference, featuring Ps Peter Tsukahira and Steve Carpenter, both coming all the way from Israel, is a rarity in our city. Please see the brochure below for their bios and for further info about this conference.

Organiser, Carmel Friends Inc. urges you not to miss this one. Tickets arelimited.

Contact Craig Beech for details of how to register: 0419 899 363

New Australian Ambassador to israel is Australia's youngest

2013-07-28T19:07:00.000-07:00

From JPost, 28 July 2013, by GREER FAY CASHMAN:

"People should see it as a vote of confidence – young ambassadors who have a future will remain friends of Israel," Dave Sharma, 37, tells Post.

Dave Sharma. Photo: Courtesy Australian Embassy

... Australia’s ambassador- designate to Israel Dave Sharma, who at 37, is the youngest ambassador on Australia’s diplomatic circuit... and his wife, Rachel, and their three daughters aged six, four and three months, arrived in Israel in June.
... Although he is a career diplomat who has served in other postings abroad, most recently in Washington, this is his first ambassadorial post. Sharma is the third-consecutive envoy from Australia, following James Larsen and Andrea Faulkner, who will be an ambassador for the first time in Israel.
Sharma said this is indicative of the importance that Canberra attaches to its relations with Israel. “People should see it as a vote of confidence. It says something if you’re sending relatively young ambassadors who have a future ahead of them and will remain friends of Israel for years to come,” he said.

... Sharma barely had time to unpack his suitcases after his arrival, when he was told that he must attend the Presidential Facing Tomorrow conference in Jerusalem.
Not long afterward, Sharma hosted a dinner for a delegation from Woodside Petroleum.
Woodside is Australia’s largest independent oil and gas company, and one of the world’s leading operators, producing an average of 900,000 barrels of oil a day.
Woodside’s 30 percent stake in the Leviathan gas field west of Haifa has hit rocky ground, but if things sort themselves out and Woodside puts its flag on the site, Sharma is more than optimistic that other Australian energy companies will invest in Israel. The government recently cut the share of the gas due to be exported, likely reducing the liquefied natural gas exports Woodside will operate.
Sharma came into early contact with people from the Israel office of the Zionist Federation of Australia when he attended the launch in Ra’anana of a partnership between Telfed, the representative organ of the Zionist Federation of South Africa, and the ZFA, which have joined forces in providing services to aid new immigrants from South Africa and Australia.
He also hosted a reception for an Australian Trade Mission on Science Innovation and Technology headed by Peter Ryan who is the deputy premier and minister for state development in the State of Victoria.
Keen on archeology and ancient history, Sharma was delighted to take a look at the archeological digs in Gath where two Australian teams from Macquarie and Melbourne Universities are among the excavators.
In Jerusalem, he did the tour of the Hebrew University campus on Mount Scopus, where many facilities have been donated by Australian Friends of the Hebrew University.
Sharma hosted a reception for members of the Australian delegation to the Maccabiah Games. Like other Australian ambassadors before him, he participated in a memorial service for the four Australians killed in the bridge disaster in the 1997 Maccabiah Games.
He attended the opening of the current 19th Maccabiah Games.
Sharma is an all-round sportsman – a runner, swimmer, tennis player, golfer, cycler and soccer player.
When asked if he plays Australian Rules football, he reminded his interviewer that he’s from Sydney, not Melbourne, and that his games are rugby and soccer.
Among the essential tasks that he has set himself during his tour of duty is to broaden Israel’s profile in Australia, because most Australians get their impressions of Israel from the media, and the general public perception of Israel is that of a country in conflict and turmoil, always on the brink of war.
Sharma wants to make Australians aware of antiquities, tourist attractions and the impact of Israel’s scientific and technological research on commerce and medicine.
He is less concerned about giving Israelis a more rounded picture of Australia, because quite a few Israelis spend up to a year in Australia after their army service.
Given that it is the 11thlargest donor toward humanitarian needs in the Palestinian Authority, Australia would like to be more involved in the peace process, said Sharma.
As far as bilateral relations with Israel are concerned, he wants to encourage greater sharing of know-how in that the Australians have much experience with regulation, taxation, management and environmental issues related to gas and oil exploration that it could share with Israel, while Israel is much stronger than Australia in innovation and entrepreneurship.
Another thing he hopes to do is to revive Australia Day (January 26) get-togethers.
He has never understood why Australia Day is not an open house celebration by Australian embassies abroad.
Sharma cannot fathom why ANZAC Day is commemorated in Israel each year, yet there is no Australia Day celebration.
But first he has to focus on Australia’s upcoming federal elections on Saturday, September 14. Voting is compulsory in Australia, and religiously observant Jews or people who may be out of the country on Election Day have the option of casting postal votes.
Early in-person voting will be conducted at the Australian Embassy starting on September 2. Postal voting applications are available at the embassy. There are approximately 10,000 to 11,000 Australian citizens in Israel, but Sharma does not know how many have voting rights. Australians living abroad must have an address in Australia and pay taxes in Australia if they want to apply to be enrolled on electoral voting lists.
When an ambassador is appointed, it occasionally gets a media mention in the country of origin and in the prospective host country. In Sharma’s case, it was also reported with fanfare in the Indian press because his father is Indian, and because Sharma is only the second Australian of Indian background to be appointed an ambassador.
Reports at home and abroad also emphasized his age.
When asked why all this is such a big deal, he explained that while Australia is a successful migrant country, immigrants tend to succeed in the private sector but it takes much longer for them to succeed in politics and the diplomatic service, which are still dominated by people of Anglo background.
His mother is third or fourth generation Australian with a mix of Scots, Prussian and Irish blood.
The most frequent question that Sharma has been asked since arriving in Israel is whether his wife, Rachel, is Jewish. The answer is no. She merely has a biblical name.

Trade Unions Linking Israel & Palestine spread the word about what's really happening in Israel

2013-07-25T04:02:00.000-07:00

From an email from Eric Lee, Trade Unions Linking Israel & Palestine (TULIP), 22 July 2013:

In some countries, and in some unions, it's become commonplace to talk about "Israeli apartheid" and to call for unions to break ties with Israeli trade unions.
Some Israel-haters go so far as to say that there are no real unions in Israel.
The reality is that Israeli workers -- Jewish and Arab -- are involved every day in the same kinds of struggles as trade unionists everywhere else in the world. Their unions are often on the front lines of the fight for social justice, equality and peace.
Please help me spread the word about what's really happening in Israel and Palestine.
Share this message with your fellow union members. Encourage them to get onto our mailing list here: http://www.tuliponline.org/?page_id=4212
Here are some news stories from the last two weeks that we reported on the TULIP website:

Thank you
Eric Lee

Israel Film Festival 2013: 21-28 August

2013-07-22T22:40:00.003-07:00

Birdbrained fact-checking at the ABC

2013-07-22T03:47:00.004-07:00

From AIJAC 22 July 2013, by Ahron Shapiro:

An ABC interview with the Australian organisers behind the building of a park in Gaza took a bizarre and embarrassing turn last month, when an outlandish and demonstrably false claim made during the interview was later employed to promote the interview on the ABC website.

During the June 7 interview, pro-Palestinian humanitarian aid advocate Moira Kelly, one of the founders of the "Global Gardens of Peace", told ABC News Breakfast hosts Michael Rowland and Beverly O'Connor that "there are no birds in Gaza" - a claim so shocking on face value that O'Connor repeated it back to her, yet she did not actually question its authenticity.

One might have been tempted to simply let such a nonsensical claim go, yet this became more difficult after ABC decided to draw further attention to it when it posted the interview their website under the heading "Peace garden to bring birds back to Gaza" along with the following description:

A new garden dubbed 'The Garden of Hope' is set to bring a sense of peace and serenity to the war torn Gaza Strip. It's said that no birds inhabit the region but it's hoped the garden will provide a habitat for them to return.

It is hard to imagine how ABC news staff could have not caught Kelly's blatant exaggeration and even felt free to put the ABC's imprimatur on the claim by including it in the story summary. Yet even the most cursory investigation would have confirmed that the Gaza Strip, like its neighbour Israel, is literally teeming with avian life.

Type "birds in Gaza Strip" into Google and the very second response you get, in terms of relevance (the first being a Wikipedia article) is a bird checklist by the World Bird Database which lists 171 species of birds in the Gaza Strip.

The third most relevant response is a scholarly paper from 2011 by Dr. Abdel Fattah N. Abd Rabou from the Department of Biology at the Islamic University of Gaza.

The paper, "Notes on Some Palestinian Bird Fauna Existing in the Zoological Gardens of the Gaza Strip" focuses mainly on birds in captivity in the Strip. However, the paper also includes a survey of the natural bird life in the area.

Writes Dr. Abd Rabou:

The Gaza Strip, which is located at the southern portion of the Palestine coast along the Mediterranean Sea, is blessed with a considerable number of bird fauna including terrestrial and aquatic forms. Dense concentration of birds occurs over the Gaza Strip during spring and autumn migration seasons [5, 6]. It is worth mentioning that wetlands, including the wetland ecosystem of Wadi Gaza, are considered as very productive ecosystems, having rich bird fauna. They provide bird fauna with all necessary requirements such as shelter, protection, food and breeding, resting and roosting places ... etc [7-13].

It should be noted that, in spite of the abundance of bird life in the Strip, the biologist does identify threats to the bird population. It's worth mentioning here that none of them have anything to do with the conflict with Israel, but rather suggest an indictment of internal Palestinian mismanagement of ecological issues.

In autumn, scores of fine nets are erected each year along the Gaza coastline to illegally catch migratory birds such as the Common Quail Coturnix coturnix [1, 9, 10]. In addition to poaching and hunting, urbanization and residential creeping, ecosystem alteration and destruction, environmental pollution and the extensive and intensive use of pesticides impose real threats on birdlife in the Gaza Strip.

What about visual evidence to support the existence of a healthy bird population in Gaza? There is tons. Take, just for one example, this photo essay by Palestinian photographer Abed Rahim Khatib from April 2012. Flocks of birds literally fill his lens.

Khatib's caption:

Migratory birds in the spring season also come from all over the world and pass in the skies of the Gaza Strip.

Given the abundance of evidence to be found regarding the proliferation of birds in Gaza, there is no need to belabour the point.

Summing up, this blog post should not be construed as some sort of objection to the building of a park in Gaza. On the contrary, one should only hope that Gazan children of the future should enjoy a plethora of wholesome recreational pursuits in parks rather than the Hamas paramilitary "summer camps" and hateful indoctrination and incitement against Jews and Israel they are currently exposed to.

Furthermore, there is no disputing that any trees in a new park will provide additional perches for birds traversing the area and this is undoubtedly a positive (although from the pictures of the park site, it seems that the land that was given to Kelly for the park is not actually situated in a densely populated neighbourhood).

At the same time, though, one can only wonder why Rowland and O'Connor failed to ask Kelly why Hamas, which rules Gaza, chooses to pour its money into building offensive weapon capabilities against Israel instead of building and supporting its own parks.

But more importantly, ABC goofed by giving Kelly a license to exaggerate claims about conditions in Gaza as a fundraising and propaganda tool. Even before the construction of this park, Gaza most certainly did, and continues to have, trees, bird life as well as green spaces (even some lavish ones, like the Dolphin Water Park and Resort which opened in April, compensating for another one which Hamas destroyed in 2010).

Kelly and the ABC effectively conspired to distort the reality on the ground in the interests of manufacturing sympathy for a doubtlessly worthwhile project. But when Australia's public broadcaster uncritically promotes such storytelling, it is acting counter to the principles of ethical journalism, and its own charter.

While this incident is, of course, peripheral to the more substantive issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, for ABC's journalists and editors to "parrot" the bizarre notion that Gaza is devoid of birdlife without anyone along the way bothering to exercise the most basic level of fact-checking is indeed troubling.

It raises the question of what other fact-checking, if any, is employed by the ABC regarding news items originating in Palestinian controlled areas on more important subjects.

"The approach taken by the EU is ham-fisted and potentially counter-productive..."

2013-07-22T03:42:00.000-07:00

From the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, 21 July 2013:
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) has warmly welcomed the announcement of an agreement being reached for resuming direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

"We express our sincere hope that a just and enduring peace can be reached between Israel and the Palestinians on the basis of the principle of two States for two peoples", said ECAJ President, Dr Danny Lamm. "We note with appreciation that the Australian Government’s policy statements have consistently affirmed this principle, and have urged the parties to return to direct negotiations without preconditions," Dr Lamm said.

Dr Lamm was also highly critical of new guidelines published by the European Union concerning the eligibility of Israeli entities which operate beyond the Green Line to benefit from grants, prizes and financial instruments funded by the EU.

"It is not the place of the EU or anyone else to try to pre-empt the resolution of final status issues such as borders and settlements which the parties themselves have previously agreed can only be resolved by them in direct negotiations", Dr Lamm said.
"The approach taken by the EU is ham-fisted and potentially counter-productive. It sends out the utterly unrealistic message that only the Israelis, and not the Palestinians, will need to make painful compromises to achieve peace".

Where has the billions of PA aid gone?

2013-07-22T02:39:00.001-07:00

From an email from Simon McIlwaine, Anglican Friends of Israel:
Anglican Friends of Israel Membership Director Fran Waddams was invited to be one of a group of leaders of pro-Israel Christian organisations on a recent fact finding trip to Israel organised by the Jewish Leadership Council. The group was briefed by top civil servants and Israeli government officials as well as having the opportunity to meet Arab Israelis and Palestinian Christians.

Particularly moving was the welcome given by young soldiers of the IDF stationed near Gaza, who usually meet Christians who are insensitive to their delicate, dangerous mission, and whose objective is often to make their difficult lives even more difficult. It was quite a different experience for them to meet Christians who supported their mission and appreciated their courage and cheerfulness.

Sderot was an eye-opener. Reading about the beleaguered town is one thing. It is quite another to walk its streets calculating whether there the 15 seconds after the warning siren goes off will be enough to reach the nearest bomb shelter.

Fran was invited to write an article about her experience after her return to the UK, and she has done this in the form of an open letter to Archbishop Justin Welby, whose own visit to the Holy Land took place only days after the group left Israel.

[That letter is reproduced in the JPost and below]

Shalom

Simon McIlwaine, Anglican Friends of Israel

From JPost, 13 July 2013, by FRAN WADDAMS:

The Palestinian Authority has received billions of dollars in aid. Where, exactly, has this money gone?

Archbishop of Canterbury in Jerusalem, June 27, 2013. Photo: REUTERS

The Jewish Leadership Council of the UK recently led a group of leaders from several Christian organizations to Israel and the Palestinian territories.
This group had the opportunity to meet with and question Israeli officials, citizens and clergy.
Fran Waddams of Anglican Friends of Israel, one of the organizations represented on the trip, responds to a report by the archbishop of Canterbury on his visit to the Holy Land which took place a few days later.

An open letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury by FRAN WADDAMS
Dear Archbishop Justin,
I toured the Holy Land, together with Christian leaders of other organizations, on a visit organized by the UK Jewish Leadership Council just a few days before you last month, and read your reflections on your own visit to the region wondering whether you would be as attentive and impartial as you were at a meeting a few years ago at which I spoke and you were chair.
It’s heartening that you support the rights of all people in the region “to peace, security, and justice.”
The issues you touch on also arose on our three days of visits and meetings with Israelis, both Jewish and Arab, and Palestinians, and some questions sprang to mind as I read your piece.
You were shocked at the contrast between west Jerusalem and Ramallah.
Next time you visit, would you ask Palestinian leaders why there is such a contrast? The Palestinian Authority has received billions of dollars in aid. Where, exactly, has this money gone? It doesn’t appear to have gone into infrastructure, public buildings and utilities, nor created Palestinian jobs nor gone onto Palestinian tables. It might really help our understanding if we knew the answers to this question.
Palestinians may find passing through IDF checkpoints inconvenient, or even humiliating.
But air travelers of every nationality accept the indignity of intrusive security searches, understanding that there are those who would blow airliners out of the sky if measures were not taken to stop them.
Israel’s security fence and checkpoints exist for the same reason. They were put into place only after dozens of murders and hundreds of mutilations caused by Palestinian suicide bombers who drove unhindered into Israel to carry out their missions. Several people loaded with explosives have been stopped at checkpoints over the years. Every week the Israel Defense Forces intercepts weapons and explosives and prevents indiscriminate death and mutilation of Palestinians and Israelis alike. Israel’s security measures save lives.
One young Palestinian woman has written that “most Palestinian Christians and peace loving Muslims acknowledge (privately) that the wall was built as a direct response to suicide bombers from within the Palestinian community.”
However unwilling the Ecumenical Accompaniers Programme for Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) is to believe it, it is a fact that the number of terror attacks, which reached epidemic proportions by 2003, has dwindled to almost nothing.
Like us, you were alarmed by the danger with which the citizens of Sderot live daily. It’s one thing to read dispassionately the few reports that appear in the UK media, quite another to be on the spot, wondering whether the nearest bomb shelter (at every bus stop) could be reached within the 15 seconds between the Red Alert and the missile exploding. The morning after our visit, terrorists were lobbing missiles toward Israel.
They missed this time. But missing was not the intention, and it didn’t stop Sderot’s parents having to make agonizing decisions on whether they had time to get all their children to shelter in time.
Then we met young IDF soldiers, amazed that British Christians wanted to show appreciation for their dangerous work. Most Christians they encounter are scrutinizing their behavior for faults as they work at checkpoints or try to prevent violence at demonstrations.
These Christians seem indifferent to the dangers they face as they try to distinguish between peaceful Palestinians and those smuggling explosives or weapons.
Finally we had the privilege of visiting Baptist Pastor Naim Khoury in Bethlehem. Brought up to believe that the Jewish Scriptures were irrelevant, he began to read them for himself as a 17 year old. He has discovered that the whole Bible is God’s Word, not just the New Testament and as a result insists that Palestinian Christians are obliged to love all their neighbors, Muslim and Jew.
He also learned that God has given the Jewish people a right to live in the Holy Land. Pastor Khoury does not endorse all that the Israeli government does. Nevertheless, he insists that Jews’ right to live unhindered on the land promised to them by the God is clearly set out in the Bible.
As a result of his courage, Pastor Khoury is shunned by fellow Christians, his church has had its right to conduct official marriages and baptisms withdrawn by the Palestinian Authority, his church has been bombed 14 times, and he was once shot. Nevertheless, his Arab congregation numbers in the hundreds, the largest in the Territories. What an irony.
The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is complex.
It is about land and it is about justice. And your question is excellent – what constitutes a “just solution.” There are many voices that you won’t hear by sticking to “official” channels. The truths told by the “other voices” are out there, but so often those voices have to be sought out.
They’re worth listening to.
They really are.

Who else is being injured by the vilification of Israel?

2013-07-19T01:10:00.001-07:00

From JCPA:
"...The systematic exploitation of international humanitarian law by "Palestinians" comes at the expense of others in need. It erodes the credibility of UN bodies. And it MUST come to an end."

Amnesty International - still keen to vilify Israel

2013-07-11T22:06:00.000-07:00

From AIJAC, 12 July 2013, by Or Avi-Guy:

Amnesty International has it hands full in the Middle East at the best of times, and now it seems that they are busier still; Egypt is experiencing unrest and mass protests which has led to casualties, as well as a surge in sexual harassment of women, and Syria is still enthralled in its brutal civil war with refugees pouring into neighbouring countries.

Even with such urgent and severe crises, Amnesty still finds the time to deal with... the so-called "bullying and judicial harassment" faced by one Palestinian "rights activist", Nariman Tamimi.
...to Amnesty it seems that a Palestinian woman facing trial for entering a closed military zone during the weekly protests in Nabi Saleh is as much of a human rights violation and an injustice as the killing of protesters in Turkey and Egypt.

Every Friday, in Nabi Saleh demonstrations are held by local Palestinians and activists in a similar fashion to the demonstrations held previously in Bil'in. Part of the ritual in these demonstrations is to intentionally provoke Israeli soldiers, and then document their response. For that purpose, dozens of cameramen and photographers are present at each demonstration. The most infamous case of such provocation in Nabi Saleh took place late last year, when a picture of young An'd Tamimi, Nariman's daughter, confronting a soldier was circulated online and in the global media (see AIJAC's blog post on the incident).

On June 28 Nariman was arrested, along with another protester, for this kind of provocation, when she entered an area which was closed off by the military. She was released on bail and while she awaits trial she was temporarily forbidden from participating in the Friday demonstrations. This requirement by the court that she will stay in the family home between 9am to 5pm on Friday until her trial date was described as a "partial house arrest"- well, very partial, considering the fact that it is only meant to keep her temporarily from events in which she repeatedly breaks the law and confronts soldiers, at least until her most recent actions are brought to court. It does not seem that to prevent a repeat offender (Nariman was arrested in the past for intentionally clashing with soldiers) from participating in the very activity during which they break the law is such a draconian measure. But in the eyes of Amnesty it is:

"Amnesty International has accused the Israeli authorities of bullying and judicial harassment of Nariman Tamimi, a Palestinian rights activist who was placed under partial house arrest today to prevent her taking part in peaceful protests while she awaits trial next week.

'This is an unrelenting campaign of harassment, the latest in a litany of human rights violations against Nariman Tamimi, her family, and her fellow villagers. These arbitrary restrictions should be lifted immediately and the charges should be dropped,' said Philip Luther, Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa Program Director.

'They have been denied the basic human right to peacefully protest over land illegally seized by Israeli settlers, and the Israeli judiciary has used spurious legal tools to punish them for exercising their basic human right to peaceful protest,' said Philip Luther."

But Luther's description is misleading- no one denied the villagers' and activists' right to peacefully protest. The only thing that was denied was the entry of Nariman to a closed military zone. Once she broke the law and confronted the soldiers she was arrested. Not for peacefully protesting. Other protesters who did not try to break into that area were not arrested, and this Friday demonstrations took place as usual. Does Luther think that the "human right to peacefully protest" includes a right to break the law and not face charges and legal consequences?

The Tamimi family is prominent in organising the weekly demonstrations in Nabi Saleh, and in the "resistance" to Israel more broadly. Her husband Bassam is one of the main organisers of the protests, as are Naji and Bilal Tamimi. Amnesty International is making them into non-violent resistance heroes, but this is a political stand by Amnesty. It might be framed in the language of human rights, but when someone breaks the law, is brought to court and the only sanction they face until the trial date is to not participate in the very action in which they broke the law in the first place, the excuse of human rights violation is pretty flimsy. The people at Amnesty International must know that, they deal with the daily casualties of protests elsewhere in the region- when the right to protest is truly being repressed, it does not end with individual arrests, bail money and a court date, while the demonstrations themselves continue as usual.

The Tamimi family story is not simply about a family from Nabi Saleh that peacefully responds to what they perceive as violations of their rights. While Nariman brags about the "non-violent" and "peaceful" nature of the demonstrations, in interviews she has stated that throwing rocks is considered "non-violent" in her eyes. The fact that these stones are often aimed at civilians and have caused death and injuries, does not seem to concern her:

"Nonviolent resistance is mostly verbal; we respond back with words, but if a stone was the response or comeback then that doesn't mean it is a weapon. It is more of a message than a weapon. [...] throwing rocks at the soldiers is more of a retaliatory symbolic message."

Nariman's war might be predominantly a propaganda war- staging conflict between Palestinians civilians, including young children, with soldiers to defame the Israeli Defence Forces, and Israel. But it does not stop there. The kind of actions she is supporting can escalate to violent action. This happened in Nariman's own family - her husband Bassam's nephew, Nizar Tamimi, served a life sentence after murdering an Israeli settler in the early 1990s. His cousin Ahlam Tamimi, is infamous for her involvement in helping to carry out the Sbarro restaurant suicide bombing in 2001, as well as other terror attacks, and was sentenced to 16 consecutive life sentences. She holds the dubious title of the first female member of Hamas' "military wing." Both were released from prison in the Shalit prisoner swap deal, and after meeting in prison, they were engaged at the time of their release. Both are very popular in Nabi Saleh and upon their release celebrations were held in the village. Is glorification of terrorism also a form of "non violent resistance"?

Human rights organisations who criticise Israel for temporarily preventing a woman who is awaiting trial from participating in the same activity during which she broke the law are undermining the cause of human rights and draining the term of any substance (see AIJAC's previous blog post about the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights). Any soccer fan that is disruptive during a match would receive similar treatment and could be removed from the stadium until his or her case is heard in court. This is especially the case when considering the regional context. How could anyone take Amnesty's condemnations about deaths in protests in Turkey, about sexual harassment in Tahrir Square or about the disintegration of Syria into chaos seriously, if they use the same language to describe Nariman Tamimi's case?

See Israel with Bridges for Peace

2013-07-10T03:34:00.001-07:00

You've Read The Book - Now See The Land!

Just four months and you could be on your way to the amazing land of Israel...

Our end-of-year "Standing With Israel" tour group will leave Sydney on 28 October, returning on 16 November - that's 16 full days in Israel! You will see so much and enjoy all kinds of fascinating experiences - like walking the length of the 530-metre Hezekiah's Tunnel built to safeguard Jerusalem's water supply, an exhilarating adventure as our last tour group [left] can testify! Contact us now (see below) for your application pack.

Click here to download a detailed itinerary of this eye-opening and life-changing tour

Are You Ready for an exhilarating experience with other young adults on our next Israel tour?

In January 2014 young adults from all over the world will fly to Israel and enjoy a truly life-changing experience, walking in the footsteps of Jesus, learning about the incredible land of Israel, and connecting with the people of this land. If you are looking for something very different during the January holiday, give us a call and we will fill you in on the details.

Click here, then under "video", for a short Zealous 8:2 adventure tour clip

Contact

PO Box 1785, Buderim,
Queensland 4556, Australia
Phone - 61 7 54794229
Phone - 1800 000 661
Fax - 61 7 54792210
Click here to email us
www.bridgesforpeace.com.au

VISIT ISRAEL with the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce - November 2013

2013-07-09T02:26:00.002-07:00

COMPLIMENTARY INFORMATION BRIEFING SESSION - Tuesday 30 July 12-2pm at the Chamber of Commerce & Industry WA

AICC Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce(WA) Inc invites you to participate in our Mission to Israel scheduled for Thursday 28 November to Wednesday 4 December 2013.

The AICC has been organizing Missions to Israel for over 20 years, during which there have been over 40 separate group missions of varying sizes. They are always presented in the context of a historical, cultural, industrial and policy perspective and as such, I am confident the mission will provide you and other delegates with a memorable, stimulating and meaningful experience and above all, linkages to generate real business opportunities.

Next Steps:

If you wish to discuss any aspect of the mission, kindly contact John Cluer on 0419 938 480, or if you would like to receive the full Mission Brochure and Expression of Interest e-mail: diane@aicc.org.au

Complimentary Information Briefing Session will be held from 12 to 2pm in the Chamber of Commerce & Industry (CCIWA) Function Centre, 180 Hay Street East Perth. This session will be attended by Mr Paul Israel, from our Tel Aviv office. The purpose of the session is to answer your questions, clarify all elements of the mission and to hear from the delegates who have been on our missions.

To register : RSVP to Diane at diane@aicc.org.au or call 0402 344 352. If you cannot attend this briefing, please indicate your interest by informing Diane and we will contact you.

The Battle of El Alamein and Jewish Survival

2013-07-08T23:59:00.002-07:00

by Michael Meyer

Michael Sutherland MLA, Member for Mount Lawley and Speaker of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly and Barry House, President of the Upper House invited a number of members of the Perth Jewish community to a talk by Kelvin Crombie at the Western Australian Parliament House on 25^th June.

Kelvin Crombie is an author who made an intensive study of the history of Australian troops’ involvement in both the 1^st and 2^ndWord Wars in the Middle East and has written five books concerning the history of the period in Israel after 1798, mostly associated with the British and Anzacs, and has co-produced several documentaries on the same subject. His main work on the Anzacs is entitled ‘Anzacs, Empires and Israel’s Restoration 1798-1948.’ His latest book is entitled “El Alamein – Halting an Impending Holocaust in the Middle East”.
Kelvin spoke about the battles of Tobruk and El Alamein in which allied forces consisting mainly of British, Australian, New Zealand, South African and Indian troops, fought against the German army under the command of Field Marshall Erwin Rommel in the Libyan and Egyptian deserts from April 1941 to November 1942.
He spoke of how victory at the second battle of El Alamein of the allies, under the command of Field Marshal Viscount Montgomery,is regarded as one of the significant turning points of the Second Word War and of how the defeat of the Germans prevented a possible holocaust in the Middle East. Kelvin described how the Germans has formed a Einzatskommando, mobile SS death squad, which was to carry out a mass killing of Jewish people in British mandate of Palestine similar to the way they operated in eastern Europe. "Einsatzkommando Egypt" was standing by in Athens and was ready to disembark for Palestine in the summer of 1942, attached to the "Afrika Korps" The Middle East death squad was similar to those that operated throughout Eastern Europe. Approximately 700,000 Jewish people lived in Egypt, the British mandate of Palestine, Syria and Iraq at the time.
Kelvin brought the “Montgomery Bible” to the talk. The Bible was an official gift given to Field Marshal Montgomery by the National Council of Palestine Jewry (the Jewish government in British mandate of Palestine prior to May 1948) in recognition for his role in saving the Jewish community in from the impending German forces.
The Montgomery Bible is the Old Testament (Tanach), the cover of which is encased in silver and ivory. The words on the inscription accompanying are:

“Field Marshal Viscount Montgomery, GCB, DSO, the gallant leader of the victorious forces by whose hand God has placed salvation in Zion in the days of El Alamein presented in token of the everlasting gratitude of Palestine Jewry by the Vaad Leumi, General Council of the Jewish Community in Palestine”.

Kelvin presented to the Premier, Colin Barnett and the Speaker, Michael Sutherland a gift of a photograph of the official ceremony of the surrender of Jerusalem by the Turks at the Citadel inside Jaffa Gate on 11 December 1917. British commander General Allenby is seen facing a semi-circle guard of honour, which included the 10th Light Horse from Western Australia. He asked that the photograph be hung in Parliament House.

Kelvin ended his talk by addressing the Premier and the other parliamentarians present, saying that the threat facing Jews in Israel and around the world is real and that those who wish to destroy the Jewish people are no less fervent than the Nazis and that it is their responsibility to ensure that anti-Semitism is not permitted to thrive in Australia and Western Australia.

El Alamein and the Jewish Survival – A Book Review

by Shirlee Finn, Sydney, December 3, 2012

Little did I realise when I went to [NSW] State Parliament recently for the launch of Kelvin Crombie’s new book, “El Alamein and the Jewish Survival” that I was in for such a special treat…writes Shirlee Finn.

I must admit my main interest initially was to see the Tanach – Old Testament, which was presented to Field Marshal Montgomery as an official gift of gratitude for his role in saving the Jewish community in Palestine from the impending conquest by the German-led forces commanded by General Rommel.

Not only was it emotional seeing such a part of the History of Palestine, it was an extremely informative talk about the whole war time history of the region and how grateful the Jews of Palestine were for the Australian Forces keeping them safe.
The words on the inscription attached to the Tanach and encased on the cover in silver and mother of pearl are:

During the twenty four years he lived in Israel Kelvin heard from dozens of older Jewish people about the importance of the battle of El Alamein for the survival of the Jewish people in the land of Israel. One of these was Professor Alex Carmel from Haifa University. In the late 1980’s Kelvin and Prof Carmel together tracked down the Tanach, which the Jewish leadership of Eretz Israel had given to General Montgomery after the victory at El Alamein, at the UK office of CMJ (Churches Ministry among Jewish People). It was hidden away and forgotten.
Kelvin brought this Bible back to Israel and displayed in the museum at the Heritage Centre, of Christ Church in the Old City of Jerusalem, which he had established. He used it when lecturing Israeli groups about Gentile involvement in the restoration of Israel. Most of those gallant soldiers at El Alamein and other battles which fought the Axis (German and Italian) forces in the region were Gentiles– whose very presence hindered the penetration of the Holocaust into the Middle East.
It is currently in Australia in Kevin’s care for the 70^thanniversary of the battle of El Alamein, fought in 1942.
Kelvin Crombie grew up in rural Western Australia, listening to stories of the Anzacs from uncles who served in the Middle East in the Australian Army during the Second World War; and also due to various direct Israeli connections such as an Israeli family on a nearby farm; and the Six Day War in 1967.
He subsequently went to Israel in 1979, this in turn led to him developing a very keen interest in Israel and the Jewish people. He was not a practicing Christian and he is not Jewish. He went to Israel in 1979, as he told me, because he was searching. In the process he found his faith in G-d. He met and married his Dutch wife in Israel, where they lived for 24 years and raised their four daughters.
In 1986 Kelvin was asked by to become the guide at Christ Church, the Anglican church in the old City of Jerusalem, hosting thousands of people monthly, including secular Israelis studying the beginning of modern history in Jerusalem and the land of Israel.
As a guide he not only lectured these numerous groups but also had to undertake considerable research. During this research he discovered numerous historical artifacts. These included several large and unique models of Jerusalem as well as the largest portrait of Jerusalem, the 1879 Jerusalem Panorama a painting and the very special Montgomery Bible. One model, discovered by Kelvin in 1986 was made in Jerusalem in 1864 revealed a tunnel going under Christ Church. In that same year, 1986, the tunnel was re-discovered, but not excavated.
Kelvin pioneered the ‘In the footsteps of the Light Horse’ tours, doing his first of over hundred tours to Beersheba in 1988. In 2007 he was one of the main instigators of the re-enactment of the Charge of Beersheba and was the guide for the Light Horse tour. He periodically guided or spoke to Australian diplomatic, military and trade delegations visiting Israel.
He has written five books concerning the history of the period in Israel after 1798, mostly associated with the British and Anzacs, and has co-produced several documentaries on the same subject. His main work on the Anzacs is entitled ‘Anzacs, Empires and Israel’s Restoration 1798-1948.’
In 1992 Kelvin travelled to El Alamein and together with Allied, German and Italian veterans recalled the 50^thanniversary of this battle. Shortly later during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, he spoke of his visit to El Alamein. Rabin then spoke quite passionately about the danger then facing the Jewish people in Eretz Israel had the Germans won at El Alamein. A similar attitude was voiced by General Uzi Narkiss (the commander of the Israeli forces who captured Jerusalem in 1967) when Kelvin also interviewed him. It was clear that this sentiment was known by every section of the Jewish community who lived in the land of Israel during that traumatic period.
This present book goes more in-depth on this subject matter than his two previous books relating to the Middle East during the Second World War (Anzacs, Empires and Israel’s Restoration 1798-1948&Anzacs & Israel) and includes more material from German sources. Apart from providing historical data, it reveals some of the motives behind this Nazi-Muslim agenda for destroying the Jewish communities of the Middle East. This aspect is important as similar forces of evil are still in evidence today.
El Alamein and the Jewish Survival” was launched at Christ Church in Jerusalem early in November. In the House of Lords in London November, at a meeting convened by the present Viscount Montgomery, this past week in Parliament House in Sydney and 2nd December at the ‘Friends of Israel Western Australia’ ‘Gallipoli to Jerusalem Day’ in Perth. It is also planned to have the ‘Montgomery Bible’ on display at these functions.
There is so much more to this very interesting man. Over the years Kelvin has become involved with other ANZAC military heritage and commemoration projects in Israel. He is a participating member of the Association of the Heritage of the First World War and was one of the initiators of the 2007 Ride of Peace and re-enactment of the 1917 Light Horse charge at Beersheba where he guided the seventy-strong group of horsemen.
Kelvin is occasionally asked by the Australian Embassy, the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, the Israel-Australia Chamber of Commerce, the Australian Army and others (including recently a WA Government delegation) to provide exposure to visiting delegations concerning the ANZAC involvement in the land of Israel.
He has also completed in conjunction with the ‘Hatikvah Film Trust’ a documentary detailing this entire story entitled ‘From Exile to Restoration’ (in Britain, ‘The Destiny of Britain’, and in USA, ‘The Cyrus Call’).

Australian Muslims are being radicalised in Syria

2013-07-08T22:41:00.003-07:00

From the ABC 7:30 report, 30/05/2013, by Caro Meldrum-Hanna (Follow the link to view the video and for a full transcript):

Up to 100 Australians are thought to be fighting in Syria at the moment and authorities fear young Australian Muslims are being radicalised on home soil as a program in a Western Sydney bookstore suggests.

The spectre of home-grown terror has haunted security agencies in countries like Australia since 2001.
...Authorities' concerns are being heightened by the bloody conflict in Syria. It's become a magnet and a new training ground for militants around the world, including in Australia.
To date, four Australians have died fighting in Syria against the Assad regime and a hundred Australians are currently believed to be on the frontline, even though it's illegal under Australian law.
...Caro Meldrum-Hanna's been investigating...
CARO MELDRUM-HANNA, REPORTER: ...this [video] ...Yusuf Toprakkaya, a Melbourne bricklayer and a father...was killed in Syria last year. In this tribute video posted online after his death in December, 2012, he's shown making detonators for bombs and on night patrol with rebels in Syria, proof that he was involved in fighting at the frontline, a criminal act under Australian law.
...Yusuf Toprakkaya was well known to Australian authorities. He was named in this secret 2010 cable from the US Embassy in Canberra, requesting 23 Australians be added to the terrorist screening database.
...AARON ZELIN, WASHINGTON INSTITUTE FOR NEAR EAST POLICY: ...four Australians ...have ended up with martyrdom notices on jihadi forums. And there have been many foreigners who have died in Syria, but not all of the individuals who are foreigners who die in Syria end up with having martyrdom notices on jihadi forums. Therefore I think ...they ... joined up with some rebel forces.
...CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: When news of Majzoub's death hit Sydney, hundreds of young Muslim men flocked to the Al Risalah Bookstore in Bankstown, Western Sydney to pay him tribute.
PREACHER [in Sydney]: But I warn the youth today... will we waste the blood of the martyrs?
CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Since it opened just over one year ago, Al Risalah Bookstore has gained a reputation as a centre of Islamic extremism. Sheikh Majzoub gave his final lecture here.
...CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: What do you know of the Al Risalah Bookstore in Bankstown?
JAMAL DAOUD, SOCIAL JUSTICE NETWORK: Al Risalah Bookstore especially is very secret, very secretive. They conduct their business in a very secretive way.
...I tried, I tried to explore who's behind this group. We can't. It is very secretive. This is very worrying for us in a democracy to have some secretive organisation. They conduct all their businesses in very secretive way....
CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: 7.30 has been investigating al Risalah's activities and the speeches made by a number of sheiks, urging Australians to get involved in Syria.
This is Sheikh Abu Sulayman, picture here delivering a lecture at the Al Risalah Bookstore last year, encouraging his audience of young Muslim men to join the jihad in Syria.
ABU SULAYMAN, MUSLIM SHEIKH: We're calling day and night for us to support them with our wealth and with our blood and with whatever we possess.
CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: This is Sheikh Omar El Banna who also gave a lecture at Al Risalah last year. He made this speech, titled Syria is my Responsibility, in western Sydney.
OMAR EL-BANNA, SHEIKH: I want to pass on two points. That you are responsible for what's happening there. ... What should we be do? When one organ is in pain, the remaining parts of the body, they show care. ... In Syria now, the problem, Allah will ask you, "What did you do?"
CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: This is Musa Cerantonio. ....Once an Italian Christian, now a passionate convert to Islam, teaching at Al Risalah. Here Musa Cerantonio promotes the Al-Qaeda-backed jihadist group Jabhat al-Nusra in Syria.
MUSA CERANTONIO: Allah willing, as one of the leaders Jabhat al-Nusra said: "If we take this (Damascus) - and I don't want to give false hope - but if we take this, Allah willing, victory is near."
CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Al Risalah has another even more infamous sheikh. Abu Suhaib, known to the authorities as Bilal Khazal, a former baggage handler for Qantas, trained at a military camp in Afghanistan and a confidante of Osama Bin Laden. Khazal was lecturing at Al Risalah until mid-2012 when he was convicted and sentenced to nine years' jail for producing a do-it-yourself terrorism book. Al Risalah posted this video of Khazal online titled "Final advice before his imprisonment":
ABU SUHAIB, MUSLIM SHEIKH: We ask God Almighty for victory and that the Islamic state rises up.
CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Do you believe that these bookstores are radicalising young men?
JAMAL DAOUD: Definitely. If you go inside and read what DVDs and books they're distributing, it's all about radical Islam.
CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: The possibility that extremist sheikhs are radicalising youth at home before they go to Syria has Australian authorities on high alert.
Are you aware of the sheikhs behind Al Risalah and what they're teaching, preaching?
NICK KALDAS, NSW DEPUTY POLICE COMMISSIONER: Um, I am aware of Al Risalah and I'm aware of some of the activities that go on and some of the individuals involved, yes
CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Would it concern you if these sheikhs and teachers at Al Risalah were promoting violent jihad?
NICK KALDAS: All of that has to be of concern, certainly. But I would also say that our federal authorities are very much involved in some of the issues you've just raised, certainly in term of fundraising and people going - leaving Australia and going to fight overseas. The federal authorities have to be involved and have privacy in a lotta those issues.
CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: If there's evidence of that though, of this radicalisation ...
NICK KALDAS: It is of concern. It's definitely of concern....

‘Kingdom Culture’ conference 27-28th August

2013-07-05T01:09:00.002-07:00

Peter Tsukahira (from Mt Carmel Assembly, Israel) is returning to Perth for a special two night conference, entitled ‘Kingdom Culture’ on Tuesday the 27^th& Wednesday the 28^th of August, to be held at Subiaco Church of Christ.

See the brochure below, with full registration details.

This conference, smaller than his previous ones, will be limited in numbers to approx 500, so do be quick to register and confirm your ticket (only $20!), as per the details on the brochure attached. Peter is also joined by Steve Carpenter (refer bio attached).

Please feel free to circulate this important info on to friends and family. Please note: Peter's new book, "Culture of The Kingdom" is very exciting and is a wonderful and gripping read, which he is also launching at this conference. Don't miss this!

Blessings and sincere thanks,

Craig Beech

(for Carmel Friends Inc.)
0419 899 363

Palestinian Islamists are cleansing the Holy Land of Christians

2013-06-25T22:05:00.000-07:00

From Cranmer Blog, Wednesday, June 12, 2013, by Simon McIlwaine (Anglican Friends of Israel Newsletter):

Anglican Friends of Israel reflects on the significance of Hamas’s legislation which would mean the closure of Christian schools in Gaza, and urges Christian leaders in the West to start holding Palestinian leaders responsible for what happens to Christians under their jurisdiction.
Last week the Catholic Herald reported that five Church Schools ("two Catholic and three Christian") are under threat in Gaza because of the ruling party Hamas’s intention to extend their Muslim Brotherhood-inspired version of Islam throughout their fiefdom. Their edict, which forbids the education of boys and girls together, will mean that the schools must close down because of lack of space and staff. That most of the students are Muslim matters not at all. What’s important is the segregation of male and female as far as possible.
For some, this will be the first chill wind signalling what a Palestinian state dominated by Islamists will mean for Palestinian Christians. But such folk have missed warning signs going back many years.
In 2005, the annual report on human rights abuses around the world produced by the US State Department recorded abuse of Palestinian Christians by individuals and by Palestinian institutions, such as government and the police. The report stated:

The PA judiciary failed to adjudicate numerous cases of seizures of Christian-owned land in the Bethlehem area by criminal gangs. There were credible reports that PA security forces and judicial officials colluded with gang members to extort property illegally from Christians. Several attacks against Christians in Bethlehem went unaddressed by the PA, but authorities investigated attacks against Muslims in the same area.

About this time a Roman Catholic priest in Ramallah bewailed the fact that in his experience Muslim Palestinians did not want Christians living among them.
Then there are the attacks on Christians and their property by fellow Palestinians in both the West Bank and Gaza, few of which were reported by Western media outlets. Bible Society official Rami Ayyad was kidnapped and murdered by Jihadists in Gaza. The YMCA in the West Bank town of Qalqilya was torched, as were church schools in Gaza.
The steady trickle of information about the harassment and persecution of Palestinian Christians by other Palestinians has increasingly come from Palestinians themselves, notably from the East Jerusalem-based Israeli-Arab journalist Khaled Abu Toameh. Abu Toameh risks his life to report various aspects of the underbelly of life under the Palestinian Authority. He reports on corruption within the PA leadership, the effects of chaotic and wasteful governance, and the way in which Palestinian leaders talk peace for eager Western ears whilst inciting their citizens (in Arabic) to believe that their Jewish neighbour can be eliminated.
Khaled Abu Toameh has covered the treatment experienced by Palestinian Christians in both the West Bank and Gaza extensively. He insists that the haemorrhage of Christians from the Holy Land is not due, as many would have us believe, to the Israeli ‘occupation’, but to their increasing marginalisation at the hands of neighbours who use their power to disadvantage Christians.
Then there is the increasing fear that Mahmoud Abbas’s weak Fatah regime in the West Bank could give way at any moment to a Hamas coup. If this happens – given Hamas’s previous record – it could well be the death-knell for Christianity in the Palestinian Territories. Only last week, Abbas permitted Muslim fundamentalists to strut down the streets of Ramallah. Why?
And now another source of information about the realities of life for Palestinian Christians is opening up. Palestinians from within the Territories are speaking out about the injustices that Palestinians are inflicting on other Palestinians. They do so at risk of their lives to whomever will listen.
One young Christian Palestinian woman – who had to flee her West Bank home because she dared to challenge the narrative that holds Israel responsible for all Palestinian woes – has spoken to audiences of all faiths and none in the UK and Europe about the unnecessary poverty and misery which years of mismanagement and corruption have brought to all Palestinians. She has also given accounts of the discrimination Palestinian Christians suffer at the hands of fellow Palestinians from both her own and her friends’ experience.
At a recent meeting in the Midlands, she told how, earlier this year, a student was beaten up by his classmates in a classroom in front of a teacher, with no action taken against the perpetrators. His crime? Refusing to give up his Christian faith and adopt Islam. She tells tales of the way in which she and other Christian students were sexually harassed by Muslim boys on their way to university because, unlike Muslim girls, they had to share public transport with the boys.
Even more chillingly, she reports how Palestinian Christian businessmen were murdered because they refused to pay the protection money demanded by what she described as the ‘Palestinian mafia’.
Though disturbing, the testimony of people like this young woman and journalist Khaled Abu Toameh is refreshing because it breaks a conspiracy of silence which has gone on for years.

Many Palestinian Christians have claimed that their relations with their Muslim neighbours are nothing but cordial; that they are Palestinians first and foremost, united against their common (Jewish) foe. Yet the steady exodus of Palestinians from territories that are under the day-to-day control of other Palestinians suggests that something else is going on.
Why Christian Palestinian leaders are unwilling to admit in public what they certainly acknowledge in private is unclear: fear of reprisals from their government, neighbours and even family must have some bearing on the situation. Nevertheless, this is a disaster for Christianity in the Palestinian Territories. As Abu Toameh comments: "By not talking openly about the problem, the Christian leaders are encouraging the perpetrators to continue their harassment and assaults against Christian families."
Nevertheless, Hamas’s action cannot be misunderstood by anyone. Respect for the views and culture of minorities such as Gaza’s Christians has no place in their thinking. Perhaps this is why it was reported by West Bank Christians and by Abu Toameh that

'Out of the 600 Christians from the Gaza Strip who arrived in the West Bank in the past two weeks to celebrate Christmas, dozens have asked to move to Israel because they no longer feel comfortable living under the Palestinian Authority and Hamas.’It is time for the churches in the West to stop fooling themselves and their congregations into believing that the horrifying reduction in numbers of Christians in the Middle East is somehow the fault of the Jewish State. The future for Christianity in the land of its birth is grim indeed as long as Western Christians avoid holding Palestinian leaders responsible for what happens to Palestinian Christians on their watch.

Syrian doctors violate BDS guidelines by sending gunshot victim to Israel for treatment

2013-06-25T01:35:00.004-07:00

From the New York Jewish Week Editorial, 19 June 2013:
For pop singer Alicia Keys, who will soon visit Israel in defiance of a personal appeal to boycott from noted author Alice Walker, the decision to visit Israel, while worthy of our gratitude and applause, was made from a position of strength. After all, Keys is successful, confident and wealthy enough to do as she pleases.
On the other end of the spectrum is a Syrian doctor and his patient, 28, in the throes of a civil war whose decision to go to Israel was made in the ultimate weakness, with a bullet in his gut and life slipping away.
A few days ago, that doctor, who knew he could do no more to save his patient, pinned a handwritten note to his patient, whom he sent over the border to Israel: “Hello distinguished surgeon,” said the note, which explained the patient’s medical history. “Please...do what you think needs to be done and thanks in advance.”
The patient is now recovering in a hospital in Safed (in Israel).
According to the Times of Israel, the Israel Defense Forces has set up a field hospital near the border, where doctors have treated some 20 Syrians who were wounded in the civil war.
In one Syrian’s pocket the Israeli medics found a live hand grenade.
After the story of the Syrian with the note was reported, journalist Jeffrey Goldberg tweeted and tweaked the advocates of BDS (the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement):
“Syrian doctors violate BDS guidelines by sending gunshot victim to Israel for treatment.”
In a few days, critics of Israel will likely resume echoing Alice Walker, who compared Israel to an apartheid state, a place supposedly too evil for Alicia Keys to play, a place deserving of boycott and isolation. With far less publicity, Israel goes about the business of building a country that couldn’t be more different than its neighbor to the north.

Young Greens question Israel's right to exist

2013-06-22T16:10:00.001-07:00

From the AJN, 20 June 3013, by GARETH NARUNSKY:

...the NSW Young Greens posted a poll on Facebook questioning whether the Jewish State should exist or not.

The poll, posted last Thursday – but which has since been taken down – asked users if they “believe that Israel has a right to exist”, to which they could select either “No, I believe in the rights and sovereignty of Palestine” or “Yes, I support the creation and continuance of the state of Israel”.

...a posting by the page admin in the comments stream under the poll stated that “the Greens is also not an authoritarian party. We are free to disagree with our party leader because it fosters debate. Leaders aren’t always right”.

... Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) executive director Peter Wertheim said although Greens policy accepts Israel’s right to exist, “they continue to be embarrassed by extremists in their own ranks, including some of their MPs, who are fixated on singling out Israel, among all the nations of the world, as a target of hatred and demonisation”.

“Regardless of their personal views, their activities and rhetoric have time and again been magnets for gross expressions of anti-Semitism, both online and in public forums,” he said. “The Greens as a party have a choice to make … They can speak and act as a party with mainstream voter appeal, or they can pander to the radical fringe of politics. With a federal election fast approaching, they can no longer do both.”

An admin comment on the Facebook page attempted to justify the poll: “The main purpose of facebook questions is to illicite (sic) reponses (sic), debate and hopefully growth towards different viewpoints. The question is loaded, we acknowledge that but let me reiterate once again. this isn’t about jewish (sic) people. it’s about Israel.”

NSW Young Greens convenor Evan Gray told The AJN: “We posted a poll not to advocate policy but to encourage discussion – unfortunately the discussion we expected did not occur and so we removed the poll.”

Australian Greens Party: fringe numbats, conspiracists and enemies of the truth

2013-06-21T14:51:00.003-07:00

From The Australian Editorial, 21 June 2013:
EVEN if Fredrick Toben is right, and the murder of six million Jews is a fable pushed by "Holocaust racketeers, the corpse peddlers and the Shoah business merchants", it would do nothing to solve the moral bankruptcy of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign.
It would suit the extreme pro-Palestinian argument if the founders of Israel were the oppressors rather than the oppressed, and if the foundation of a Zionist state was indeed an act of imperial aggression, rather than a recognition by the international community that the Jewish people had been wandering too long.
Dr Toben, however, is wrong. He is perversely, empirically and offensively wrong. Through gritted teeth, we defend his right to state his case. Nonetheless, no reasonable person acquainted with the facts would give him the time of day.
The bounds of reasonableness, however, rarely trouble the BDS movement, where actions range between the crass and the repugnant. When BDS supporters punish Israel by picketing Australian chocolate shops owned by a Jewish businessman, their absurdity invites us to laugh. Yet when they call for the severing of ties between Australian and Israeli academics and the banning of Israeli books, the ugly, illiberal and frightening face of BDS is revealed for all to see. Understandably, some conclude that Israel is only collateral damage for the BDS movement. Its real target is the Jews.
By flirting with BDS, the Greens forfeit the right to be considered a mainstream party.
It demonstrates a preference for the company of the numbats and conspiracists in the dark and dangerous fringelands. Until the party disentangles itself, forcefully and unambiguously, from the BDS movement and those who would see a democratic, sovereign nation wiped from the map, its chances of being taken seriously are zero.
Now we learn that NSW Greens MLC David Shoebridge asked Dr Toben to join the NSW Parliamentary Friends of Palestine for a cruise on Sydney Harbour. Mr Shoebridge says it was all a terrible mistake. Dr Toben has since been divested, as it were, from the guest list. He may be right. Who among us has not occasionally pressed "send" in error? But why was Dr Toben's name on a list of potential invitees at all? It is one thing to be a friend of Palestine, but quite another to be an enemy of the truth.

For further background see this, from The Australian, June 20, 2013 by Christian Kerr:

AUSTRALIA'S most notorious Holocaust denier was invited by a NSW Greens MP to join a boat trip on Sydney Harbour last month to raise funds for Gaza.

Greens MLC David Shoebridge invited Fredrick Toben - who served prison time for Holocaust denial in Germany in the 1990s and in Australia last decade for contempt of court after breaching an order to refrain from publishing material on his website vilifying Jews - to the NSW Parliamentary Friends of Palestine event.
...Emails provided to The Australian by Dr Toben show broader contact.
Dr Toben emailed Mr Shoebridge following an incident in March when upper house debate on a motion reporting on a study trip to Israel by a delegation of NSW parliamentarians, organised by the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, was hijacked by pro-Palestinian MPs to attack Israel.
Mr Shoebridge's office emailed Dr Toben a link to his speech on March 25.
"Many, many thanks, Mark - and all the very best to David - and I do hope there will not be a bending to Jewish pressure after this courageous stance!" Dr Toben said in a return email the same day.
"Definitely not," came a response from Mr Shoebridge's office two days later.
Dr Toben was invited to the "Sail with us in solidarity" fundraiser organised by the NSW Parliamentary Friends of Palestine, co-chaired by Mr Shoebridge and Labor MLC Lynda Voltz, on April 3.
"There was never any intention to invite Mr Toben to the event," Mr Shoebridge said yesterday.
"Mr Toben was inadvertently invited to the event via an automated email. Once we realised who he was - namely a Holocaust denier - we withdrew the invitation ..."
Emails between Mr Shoebridge's office and Dr Toben show it took some time for the realisation to hit.
Dr Toben asked in an email on Monday, April 8: "Do you still have a spot for me on that harbor cruise? If so, then I shall book a return flight from Adelaide to Sydney and join the cruise on 2 May."
A response came the following day. "Hi Frederick. Yes there are still spaces available. It would be good to see you there. Mark for David."
On Wednesday, April 10, though, the invitation was withdrawn. "Hi Frederick, I'm afraid we're going to have to rescind our invitation to this event. I have been informed that, based on your past actions and views, your presence will likely offend a number of guests who we work with frequently. Apologies for any inconvenience. Mark for David."
...Peter Wertheim, director of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry and a solicitor for [Mr Jeremy Jones of the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council in a legal] action against Dr Toben, added:
"Whatever Shoebridge's personal views may be, the time has surely arrived for the leaders of the anti-Israel movement to ask themselves some serious questions about what it is about their campaign that repeatedly attracts outpourings of gross anti-Jewish hatred, both online and in other public contexts, and the enthusiastic support of an avowed Holocaust denier."

BDS = antisemitic prejudice, rhetoric and hate campaign

2013-06-18T13:06:00.001-07:00

From a Statement to the Senate: London Declaration on Antisemitism, 18 June 2013:

Senator KROGER (Victoria—Chief Opposition Whip in the Senate) (15:44): I, and on behalf of Senators Abetz, Birmingham, Payne, Ronaldson and Smith, move:

That the Senate—

(a) notes:
(i) that although nearly 70 years have passed since the end of World War II and the Holocaust, antisemitism still exists,
(ii) the vital work of the London Declaration on Combating Antisemitism in drawing the attention of the democratic world to the resurgence of antisemitism in international affairs, politics and society, and
(iii) that more than 125 parliamentarians in over 40 countries have signed the Declaration;

(b) recognises the vast contributions made by the Jewish people to Australian society;

(c) expresses its solidarity with the Jewish people;

(d) affirms that antisemitic prejudice, rhetoric and hate campaigns, such as the Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions campaign, utterly contradict the democratic values Australian society and the Parliament hold dear; and

(e) encourages all senators, regardless of party or politics, to sign the Declaration and so assist to combat antisemitism across the globe.

I seek leave to make a short statement.

Leave granted.

Senator KROGER: The London Declaration on Combating Antisemitism, a declaration that asserts the need for international cooperation to fight anti-Semitism, is regrettably necessary today, just as it was 70 years ago. It is deeply disturbing that, whilst decades have past since World War II, when the world witnessed the holocaust, we are witnessing a resurgence in anti-Semitism across the globe that is manifesting itself in all sorts of ways.

Only last week, I attended an event hosted by the Victorian state government to celebrate the 65th anniversary of Israel's Independence Day. Walking into that venue, I saw some 100 police inside and outside the doors. They were concerned about trouble that they had been advised was possible, and they were there to secure all—an extraordinary situation in Melbourne, a site where we have seen the BDS movement boycotting the Max Brenner chocolate business. I challenge all to expose all who engage in this racist behaviour and commend all Coalition Members and Senators for supporting this.