Tag: Australian Jewery

Israel

Will the media miss another massive grassroots campaign? – Pearls and Irritations

The Australian Aboriginal flag flies in the wind on the Queen Victoria Building in the central business district of Sydney. This image was taken on a sunny winter morning on 19 June 2023.

There is an enormous moral disjunct between being Jewish and Israel

A great illustration of how much of the media totally overlooks the huge grassroots campaign for Yes is the fact that the Jewish community’s far-reaching campaign has been unsighted in mainstream media coverage of the referendum.

The Stand Up campaign sums up much about the community wide activity missed by the media saying: “The Jewish Community has a long and proud history of working together with first Australians on their journey towards justice and reconciliation. And this year, we have an opportunity to recognise first Australians in our constitution and give them a say on the issues that matter to their communities.

Source: Will the media miss another massive grassroots campaign? – Pearls and Irritations

Israel

A fizzled campaign to muzzle free speech – Pearls and Irritations

Israel Palestine.Flags

Antisemitism, like all forms of racism, is a scourge and Australia has not been immune to it. Traditional antisemitism is not hard to identify or call out whether it is in graffiti, slogans or slurs. However, when it comes to debate over Israel and Palestine, what is or is not antisemitic is a highly political issue.

The Executive Council of Australia Jewry, the Zionist Federation of Australia, and the private Australia Israel and Jewish Affairs Council act as a lobby and take an aggressive, if not belligerent, stance against strong criticism of Israel or Zionism, claiming that it is by and large antisemitic except when conducted within very narrow parameters (theirs). Anything supporting the rights of Palestinians is usually condemned. They largely echo the Israeli government. However they cannot claim to speak for all Jews, nor should they seek to police debate about Israel and Palestine in Australia.

Source: A fizzled campaign to muzzle free speech – Pearls and Irritations

Israel

Melissa Parke incident raises difficult questions about Israel : Tony Walker

Former Labor candidate Melissa Parke angered the Jewish community with her support for Palestine.

In contrast with the United States, among constraints on a balanced discussion in Australia of the Arab-Israel issue is that liberal Jewish voices in Australia are barely heard. This inevitably skews the public debate in favour of an Israel “right or wrong” position and in turn, leaves non-Jewish writers about the Middle East exposed.
In an interview with the Jerusalem Post, Leibler alluded to contrasts between American and Australian Jewry in attitudes to Israel, in which the Australian version is more accepting, less critical, of Israel’s actions.

“Leibler noted that among Australia’s 120,000-strong Jewish community, unlike in the United States, differences people may have with the policies of the Israeli government … have not ‘developed into fundamental shifts in the relationship between Australian Jewry and Israel’,” the Jerusalem Post reported.

At this point, I should declare a personal interest. In 1984 I went to the Middle East as correspondent for Fairfax newspapers and the Financial Times.

In 10 years as Middle East correspondent my beat included Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.

During those years, I observed the spread, day-by-day, week-by-week, month-by-month, of Jewish settlements on land occupied in the 1967 war. In the half century since the Six Day War, 400,000 settlers have, for want of a better word, colonised sections of the West Bank.

Melissa Parke incident raises difficult questions about Israel : Tony Walker