I’ve come to realize that there are strong divisions within the Palestinian ‘camp’ over the validity of the bid for recognition of the State of Palestine by the UN.
One of the key problems is the internal struggle over ‘who speaks for Palestinians’ and the disputed claim that the PLO is the ‘authentic voice’ of the Palestinian people. Since there has been no election process for all Palestinians or descendants of Palestinians (and the complexity that such a descent claim entails) this problem appears to be irresolvable unless in fact there is an election process set in place for the new state.
Author: AJDS
Jstreet has an ongoing campaign in support of a two state solution. Strangely, it seems little known in Australia. What is very important is that it has the backing of the cream of the Israeli establishment including many with military and intelligence experience.
While the positions that Jstreet takes are often regarded as too compromising, its general sentiments should be lauded.
Jstreet has an ongoing campaign in support of a two state solution. Strangely, it seems little known in Australia. What is very important is that it has the backing of the cream of the Israeli establishment including many with military and intelligence experience.
While the positions that Jstreet takes are often regarded as too compromising, its general sentiments should be lauded.
Update: 15 August. This statement (in an edited form) appeared as an op-ed in The Age, and was syndicated nationally online.
The Australian Jewish Democratic Society urges the Australian government, which already accepts the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, to support their bid for recognition of the State of Palestine by the UN General Assembly.
Update: 15 August. This statement (in an edited form) appeared as an op-ed in The Age, and was syndicated nationally online.
The Australian Jewish Democratic Society urges the Australian government, which already accepts the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, to support their bid for recognition of the State of Palestine by the UN General Assembly.
Demonising parents
[This letter appeared in the Melbourne Age today. Miriam is an AJDS member. Joe Hockey, is the Shadow Treasurer]
Joe Hockey’s comment that parents who sent unaccompanied minors in boats to Australia were engaged in an act of bastardry shows an unbelievable lack of empathy (”Young asylum seekers pose quandary”, The Saturday Age, 6/8). Has Hockey not heard of the Kindertransport, for example, when desperate Jewish parents in Germany sent children as young as six with strangers to the UK?
UNHCR statement on Syria
“GENEVA (5 August 2011) – A group of UN human rights experts today warned that the scale and gravity of the violent crackdown in the Syrian Arab Republic continues unabated, and reiterated their call for an immediate end to the violent strategies adopted by the Government to quash the on-going demonstrations.
Ghassan Khatib is on a short speaking tour of Australia.
I taped this speech by him and a couple of questions during an address at the Victorian State Parliament to the Parliamentary Friends of Palestine on 2 August 2011. Later in the day he spoke to a very large meeting organised in conjunction with the PFP by the Jewish Capital Forum, also at the same location and this is to be broadcast on Channel 31 in the near future. He is also speaking to Palestinian audiences.
Viv Porszolt, a member of AJDS and recently detained and then released in Israel, provides her account of the recent rally in Israel in support of a Palestinian state.
“On July 15, former NSW Greens MP Sylvia Hale and I used the freedom from deportation awarded us by an Israeli court to good effect. We joined the largest rally for some years in support of a Palestinian state ahead of the expected United Nations vote in September.
Robin Rothfield, an AJDS member is featured in this article about the ‘solution’ and how it goes against ALP policy. The opinions expressed are of course his own.
New Matilda also features a critique of what is going on.