In response to PM Rudd’s Motion on Israel’s 60th Anniversary year, many Australians, including this blogger, supported and signed an advertisement that appeared prominently on page 7 of The Australian national broadsheet on Wednesday 12 March. The statement reads:
Not in Our Name
We, as informed and concerned Australians, choose to disassociate ourselves from a celebration of the triumph of racism and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians since the al-Nakba (Catastrophe) of 1948. As we write, Israel continues to expand illegal Jewish-only settlements in the West Bank including Arab East Jerusalem.
Australia and Australians should not give the Israeli people and its leaders the impression that Australia supports them in their dispossession of the Palestinian people. Israel has poisoned our (the West’s) relations with the whole of the Arab and Muslim world. Rather than celebrating the creation of the State of Israel, we should be recognising the people of Palestine, those who were dispossessed, those who lived and died as refugees, those who continue to live and die and suffer at the hands of the State of Israel, and those who will continue to suffer and die in the future until justice is done.
Statement written by Paul Heywood-Smith QC for publication in The Australian newspaper on 12 March 2008 (Click on thumbnail for statement as it appeared in The Australian, with signatories. Click here for a better resolution — thanks Dave)
From 1948.com.au
- Advertisement (.pdf)
- Reason for the advert
- Letters to the Editor (The Australian and Sydney Morning Herald)
- Letters to Mr Rudd
Recommended Sites
- 1948.com.au (Australians for Palestine)
- Coalition for Justice and Peace in Palestine (CJPP) Sydney
- Israel’s 60th Birthday
Related Articles
- Sonja Karkar, Australian government continues its love affair with Israel
- Alan Ramsay, Don’t mention the war as Israel lauded
- Paul Maley, Labor Split Over Israel Support
- Jeremy Salt, What Do You Want Us To Honour, Kevin?
- Joseph Wakim, Now Its Time For Israel To Say Sorry
- Ross Peake, PM snubbed from all sides over Israeli motion
See also
Alan Ramsey on Dissent Among Australian Federal MPs on Israel Motion
Why is all this congratulating and condemning going on a few months early. It should all build up till May.
Good question, LDU. Could be the tactic is to get in early, milk it for all its worth. Rudd still hasn’t explained to colleague Julia Irwin just why he saw fit to deliver this motion.
Damn! I was having such high hopes for Rudd. :-(
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