This is all very local politics, but another test for diversity and freedom of peaceful association.
There is a planning application to increase the size of meetings so that a Muslim prayer group can meet for a couple of hours a week in St Kilda, Victoria at a community centre.
Opposition is being led by a group not from St Kilda. They are strong anti-Muslims, making all sorts of outrageous accusations.
Fortunately, responsible Jewish organisations have denounced the campaign, as outlined here and here.
The lead person in the anti-Community House campaign (Vickie Janson) was the number 1 candidate for the right wing Christian Democratic Party in the last Victorian elections, and she has also been a Senate candidate. The party is led by the Rev. Fred Nile, a well-known partisan preacher of intolerance in New South Wales. While the QSociety (the anti-Muslim group) claims to be speaking in support of Judeo-Christian values, the CDP makes it quite clear that Australia is a Christian, not any other nation.
Sign the petition in support of freedom of religion and in support of tolerance.
Author: AJDS
Everyone has an opinion, and there was a recent event at the Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas at the State Library of Victoria. You can watch the video/podcast via this link.
Of course, all view expressed are those of the individuals who participated, including Dr Sally Totman, Dr Larry Stillman and Professor Fethi Mansouri, two specialists on the Arab Middle East, and one with expertise in social media and knowledge of Israel.
This time, Antony Loewenstein has had an unfair go at the NZ Prime Minister John Key in his blog, labeling him as Jewish and then being critical of his views on the Middle East.
This time, Antony Loewenstein has had an unfair go at the NZ Prime Minister John Key in his blog, labeling him as Jewish and then being critical of his views on the Middle East.
The Palestine Papers, as revealed by Al-Jazeerah and the Guardian, are explosive evidence about the state of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, leaning over backwards to break a deal—a deal that never went ahead and has even less chance of doing so with Netanyahu still in power.
For the full article, go to Galus Australis
The Palestine Papers, as revealed by Al-Jazeerah and the Guardian, are explosive evidence about the state of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, leaning over backwards to break a deal—a deal that never went ahead and has even less chance of doing so with Netanyahu still in power.
For the full article, go to Galus Australis
A good source of Israeli left opinion can be found at
+972 Magazine, with about a dozen writers and many links.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Meretz USA statement on the UN resolution regarding Israel’s West Bank settlement activity
“As the UN Security Council deliberates on a resolution condemning Israeli settlement construction over the Green Line, we appeal to the Israeli government to act in the country’s best interest, in the interest of peace, and in the spirit of friendship with the US, and implement a complete, effective settlement freeze, unlimited in time and including the area of annexed East Jerusalem.
The current increase in racism in Israel should be put into context. It reflects, at a crude and populist level, and ‘unfortunate’ tendency in goverment, police, military, the media and various right-wing NGOs to take no prisoners when it comes to confrontly those who challenge current practices.
This report from a women’s NGO is incredibly sobering reading, particularly because it accounts for hundreds (so it seems) of disturbing incidents over the past couple of years, incidents which challenge the idea that democracy is healthy and unchallenged. However, I frankly wish that NGOs in the region could issue such reports without being beaten up or jailed by their muhabbarat (secret police).
Take this quote as an example:
” Under the public atmosphere created, members of the media also joined the scathing attack against the organization. In the radio program “The Final Word” broadcasted on July 17th 2009, the anchor Kobi Arieli asked: “why don’t our strongmen beat them [leftists] up and send them home scared?” His co-anchor, Irit Linur claimed: “the organization concocted a report”, and concluded with a demand from the organization’s members: “verify your report, you scum”. It is reasonable to assume that Linor did not read the report, in which Breaking the Silence clearly notes that all testimonies were examined and verified by independent sources and other testimonials which could not be verified were not published. ”
Professor Linda Briskman is the Chair of Human Rights Education at Curtin University in Western Australia. She is currently on academic study leave in the UK. These are her own views.
In a refugee camp in the West Bank, I observe a group of children play-acting to the mirth of onlookers. Three small boys masquerading as Israeli soldiers feign the merciless beating of other Palestinian child actors. In the childhood make-believe worlds with which I am familiar, guns are disallowed and children are protected from the violence permeating television and movie screens. But the lived reality in Palestine is not a world of Barbie dolls and the Wiggles. Here childhoods are lost as a third generation experiences the diminishment of fulfilling lives in the camps.