First published in the Australian Jewish Historical Society Journal, Vol.20, Part 3, November 2011, pp.430-443.
Please see attached for footnoted version.
There are two principal historical perspectives concerning Australian Jewry’s engagement with Indigenous concerns.
One perspective, which is often cited in the Jewish media, holds that Jews have been prominent in the struggle for Indigenous rights. This perspective typically cites a number of examples of this support. They include:
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Max Kaiser: the new AJDS Community Organiser.
The AJDS has a new part-time paid staff member to help with the many demands that the organisation faces in planning functions, communicating with our members and more actively pursuing the role of a progressive voice amongst Jews and a Jewish voice amongst progressives.
We’ll let Max give a brief sketch of himself–
I’m 24 years old, grew up in Brunswick and currently live in Coburg. I recently graduated from Melbourne University with a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in social theory.
Max Kaiser: the new AJDS Community Organiser.
The AJDS has a new part-time paid staff member to help with the many demands that the organisation faces in planning functions, communicating with our members and more actively pursuing the role of a progressive voice amongst Jews and a Jewish voice amongst progressives.
We’ll let Max give a brief sketch of himself–
I’m 24 years old, grew up in Brunswick and currently live in Coburg. I recently graduated from Melbourne University with a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in social theory.
A very strong motion was carried overwhelmingly on the voices at the Victorian State ALP Conference (8 Oct 2011) and has been made available to AJDS by Robin Rothfield who is active in Labor for Refugees.
Sol Salbe, a former long-serving member of the AJDS executive and newsletter editor, has had an opinion piece published in the widely circulated 972+ website (972 is the Israeli International Dialling Code). Kol ha-kavod lo –all honour to him!
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After the torching of a mosque last weekend in Israel, an anti-occupation activist wrote on Facebook that alongside recent anti-minority legislation passed in Israel, a publication permitting murder on religious grounds, and the appalling role of the army, police and politicians in supporting religious-nationalistic terrorism, Israel today is reminiscent of the 1930s. Other friends of mine rejected this comparison, observing that Israeli politicians, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had condemned the perpetrators. “What more response do you expect from politicians,” wrote one.
What more do I expect? Good question. Below is the response that I want. I would have liked for Benjamin Netanyahu to deliver the following speech on national television to the Israeli people…
[for the rest of the article, go to 972+ website].
Robin Rothfield, a member of the AJDS Executive, has long been an advocate of refugee rights, and has had two letters published recently in the press:
[The Australian, 19 Sept 2011]
THE first step for the Prime Minister to take in reforming the ALP is to abide by decisions of the ALP National Conference, the supreme policy-making body of the party, as embodied in the Natiional Platform, 2009. Chapter 7, paragraph 157 of the Platform states: “Protection claims made in Australia will be assessed by Australians on Australian territory.”
Consistent with the platform the Prime Minister must therefore scrap plans for offshore processing.
[The Age, 15 September 2011]
What platform is that?
ACCORDING to your report “Abbott muddies water on boats” (The Age, 13/9), Senator John Faulkner explained to the Labor caucus that under Labor Party rules legislation could not be in breach of the ALP platform. Your report continues that Julia Gillard told a news conference that the plan was in accordance with Labor’s platform.
The ALP National Platform states, chapter 7, paragraph 157: ”Protection claims made in Australia will be assessed by Australians on Australian territory”, which is a clear endorsement of onshore processing. Moreover, the Prime Minister, the Minister for Immigration and all Labor MPs would have signed a pledge as parliamentary candidates: ”To do my utmost to carry out the principles embodied in the platform.”
[This letter appeared in the Sunday Age, 25 September 2011]
THE report in The Sunday Age exposes a fundamental truth of propaganda campaigns – the level of ignorance that drives them.
The protesters chanting outside Israeli-connected Max Brenner chocolates display little understanding of the complexity of the conflict about which they gather, and are apparently unaware of the way in which their aggressive confrontation taps into the collective memory of many in the Jewish community, who inevitably associate back to the picketing of Jewish businesses in 1930s Europe.
Melbourne in 2011 is not comparable to that dark period, nor can the protesters be remotely compared to people back then. But they need to be aware of why some Jews are so incensed by tactics that try to link locally owned Israeli shops with allegations against the Israeli military.
In reality, Max Brenner is not in the war business. The parent company provides ”care packages, sports and recreational equipment, books and games for soldiers”, to quote the protesters.
The consequence of their polarising tactics is that many people who support Israel vent their disgust at the protests, and ignore the oppression of Palestinians, the reality of 44 years of occupation and the brutalisation of generations of Israeli conscripts since 1967. This point is completely lost on the protesters.
LARRY STILLMAN, HAROLD ZWIER
Australian Jewish Democratic Society executive
Harold Zwier, an AJDS Executive member, had this letter in The Australian 21/9/2011
NOW that Tony Abbott has put a welcome nail into the coffin of the Malaysia Solution, it’s time for Julia Gillard to address the nation. She should tell us that she failed in her bid to pander to the populism of using asylum-seekers as political weapons, rather than helping people in need.
She should confirm that she has no option but to embrace the hardest of political options: to accept that asylum-seekers who arrive here should be processed here. And she should sell the benefit of that option to all Australians. Our history amply supports the argument.
The Labor government has nothing to lose. It won’t lose one vote from being pushed into doing the right thing. And it will discomfort the opposition. It would benefit genuine refugees, our self-esteem and our reputation in the world.
Denis Altman in The Age has an excellent analysis of the local politics that inhibit recognition of the Palestinian states and as well, why it is in Israel’s best interests to recognise such a state.
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.