Independent Australian Jewish Voices

Robert Newtown (vice president of the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network) writes in The Canberra Times (16th of Nov):

Prime Minister Julia Gillard acknowledges that foreign policy is not her forte, and it is showing. Australia’s recent vote opposing the admission of Palestine as a full member state of UNESCO is so far out of step with the international community and with public opinion at home that it suggests the Government is fast becoming a liability in the management of Australia’s national security interests. It has been reported that while Foreign Minister Rudd favoured an abstention in the UNESCO vote, Gillard insisted on voting against.

Australia was in a small minority of countries opposing recognition of Palestine as a member state of UNESCO. This will have gone down well within the ranks of Israel’s government which is a coalition dominated by a number of extremist fringe parties anxious to avoid a peace settlement with the Palestinians. While Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is keen to advance the notion that Israel has no partner for peace in the person of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the reality is that Abbas has no partner for peace in Netanyahu. Israel continues to chip away at Abbas’s authority and is maintaining its policy of seeking to isolate and weaken Abbas in a reprise of its earlier campaign against the late Yasser Arafat.

The Australian Government apparently thinks it’s smart to encourage such behaviour. But prolonging uncertainty in the region is no way to build peace. Former Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evens put it well when he recently wrote that ‘‘a perceived change of direction on the Israeli-Palestinian issue would be a huge plus for the West in its relationship with the whole Islamic world’’.

The Palestinian people cannot be expected to live under the humiliation and rigours of Israel’s military occupation forever.

The risk is that the Palestinian people will turn on their own government and a new, more lethal uprising or intifada will be unleashed.

Why can’t Ms Gillard see this? In a recent poll conducted by Roy Morgan Research, three in five Australians believe the United Nations should now recognise Palestine as one of its member States.

The Australia Palestine Advocacy Network recently forwarded a statement to Gillard and Rudd, signed by a number of prominent Australians, calling on the Australian Government to support Palestine’s bid for recognition as a member state of the UN.

Media commentators often cite Australia’s bid for election to a Security Council seat as one reason for Australia to support Palestinian statehood. But they miss the point that support for Palestinian statehood is simply the right course to take, both in terms of Australia’s long-standing position of support for international human rights norms, and of our own foreign policy and strategic interests. The Prime Minister’s disregard for Israel’s constant violations of Palestinian human rights is not acceptable. Support for policies which offer no hope for peace between Israel and the Palestinians defeats the purpose of the Foreign Minister’s efforts to raise the level of Australia’s development assistance and humanitarian contributions to the region. It also suggests the existence of an increasingly dysfunctional relationship between the Prime Minister and her Foreign Minister.

Gillard may have one last chance to redeem herself should, as seems probable, the Palestinians take their campaign for recognition as a member state of the United Nations to the UN General Assembly.

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/opinion/editorial/general/mideast-p...

Australian voters support Palestine

8 November 2011

Three in five Australians believe the United Nations should now recognise Palestine as one of its member States according to a poll conducted by Roy Morgan Research Pty Ltd.

The results are part of an independent national poll done by the respected Roy Morgan Research company.

“This is an outstanding result as it reflects the Australian people’s overwhelming support for the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinians to be freed from 40 plus years of brutal military occupation” said Ms Samah Sabawi, Public Advocate, Australians for Palestine.

The poll also found that 63 percent of Australians do not support Israeli settlers building homes on occupied Palestinian land.

“Settlement building is without doubt the single biggest obstacle to peace. Israel continues to build and expand these settlements in direct violation of International Law” said Ms Sabawi.

With a vote on Palestine due at the United Nations before the end of November, the support for an Australian ‘Yes’ vote was more than three times that of a ‘No’ vote.

The Morgan poll asked respondents: “In order for Palestine to be recognized as a full member state of the United Nations, existing member Nations must enter a vote of ‘yes’, ‘no’ or abstain from voting. In your opinion, how should Australia vote?”

A majority – 51 percent – agreed Australia should vote “yes”, whilst only 15 percent said “no”. Twenty percent believed that Australia should abstain from voting.

“The strong support for a ‘Yes’ vote demonstrates that Australian voters support the bid by Palestine. This should encourage the Labor Government, led by Prime Minister Gillard, to position itself in-line with public opinion and on the right side of history” concluded Ms Sabawi.

As a collective of broad-based advocacy groups in Australia, we ask that the Government heed the call of the public and condemn the illegal settlements being constructed by Israel and support the rights of the Palestinians.

This survey was commissioned by: Australians for Palestine (AFP, Melbourne), Australian Friends of Palestine Association (AFOPA, Adelaide), Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN, Canberra), and Coalition for Justice and Peace in Palestine (CJPP, Sydney).

Political disagreements are increasingly influencing people’s choices on where to direct their money, writes Chemi Shalev in Haaretz.

Full article here: http://www.haaretz.com/ga/in-fundraising-israel-is-a-hard-sell-1.394069

By opposing the Palestinians' bid to be part of UNESCO, Australia has confirmed its position on the pro-Israeli fringe of world political opinion, writes Jake Lynch in New Matilda.

Full article here: http://newmatilda.com/2011/11/04/australia-out-cold-israel

Here is a 2010 interview with Noam Chomsky, who will visit Australia next week. In the interview Chomsky discusses his personal relationship with Israel. Some may be surprised to learn that a young Chomsky was a member of the Zionist movement, he lived on a kibbutz in Israel in the early 1950s, and that, as he says in this interview, he regards himself as a supporter of Israel. In contrast, he argues, there many who call themselves "supporters of Israel" but are in fact contributing to Israel's moral degeneration and probably ultimate destruction.