As seen on numerous videos on YouTube, Brisbane has a noisy and noisome band of BDS fanatics who that love to infest shopping centres making nuisances of themselves railing and ranting against retailers stocking Israeli produce.
No doubt they are cock-a-hoop at the fact that St John's Anglican Cathedral in Brisbane will soon be the setting next month for a five-week (no less!) exhibition that promises to be a propaganda fest against Israel.
The photographs on display purport to show "the poignant intricacies of life for youth in Palestine".
Nicky Stafford, the guest speaker at the exhibition's opening early next month, "will speak about her personal journey, from anger about lost childhood innocence to certainty that there is a solution to the dilemma, a solution that begins with us".
No doubt, this exhibition will be followed by another at the cathedral, of equal duration, on the "poignant intricacies of life" for children in Sderot and other centres in Israel subject to missile attacks from Gaza, as well as further exhibitions on the "poignant intricacies of life" for children suffering in Syria, and for Christian children suffering at the hands of Islamists in such genuine hellholes as Pakistan, Afghanistan and northern Nigeria.
Meanwhile, half a world away, on the day before the exhibition at Brisbane Cathedral opens, a Sheffield church hall will be the setting for the first of three book launches in the UK, this one by Israel-demonising NGO War On Want of an Israel-demonising book, Generation Palestine: Voices from the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement. Launches will ensue on the two consecutive evenings at SOAS, University of London, and at Friends Meeting House, Manchester: the London and Manchester launches will be hosted by the local Palestine Solidarity Campaign branches.
Edited by Rich Wiles, the tome is, boasts the War On Want spiel,
"a must-read book about the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.
Generation Palestine brings together Palestinian and international activists in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. With essays written by a wide selection of contributors, Generation Palestine follows the BDS movement’s model of inclusivity and collaboration.
Contributors include Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Ken Loach, [the late] Iain Banks, Ronnie Kasrils, Professor Richard Falk, Ilan Pappe, Omar Barghouti, Ramzy Baroud and Archbishop Attallah Hannah, alongside other internationally acclaimed artists, writers, academics and grassroots activists."Read more about this sickening initiative here
Strange! A lot of abuse and slander but no courage to debate reality with any of them. You had been invited to debate and defend Israel and given the opportunity to expose the truth of the BDS movement's charges against Israel in these columns but you have always backed out, but persist in the long discredited hasbara of abuse and slander.
ReplyDeleteYou'll find most of the "abuse and slander" comes from the judeophobes in the BDS movement.
DeleteThere is something seriously wrong about the Church of England. You just have to wonder why so many of these guys just don't get it. Especially it seems the clergy.
ReplyDeleteYou can understand why an exhibit about Palestinian kids engenders sympathy among an already sympathetic audience. The question is why don't they do something about it?
Here is a letter to an Australian Bishop who put up a post at a public site that criticism of Israel is not antisemitism and he deeply resented being called an antisemite because he was an outspoken critic of Israel's treatment of the Palestinians.
http://geofffff.blogspot.com.au/2013/06/open-letter-to-bishop-george-browning.html
In his bio he describes himself as a frequent visitor to Palestine and has hosted Palestinian leaders many times.
It begs the question doesn't it?
Thanks, Geoff. Good on yah.
DeleteIt's striking that while his bio says he has visited "Palestine" frequently there's no mention that he has ever been to Israel.
DeleteIs that even possible? He would have to make a determined effort to avoid the country. Maybe he uses a tunnel from Sinai into Gaza for dramatic effect.
You can understand why an exhibit about Palestinian kids engenders sympathy among an already sympathetic audience. The question is why don't they do something about it?
ReplyDeleteGeoff,
the satisfaction comes not from any result but from being an "activist." That is the process which counters the painful burden of living the white western 1st world good life. One must oppose, oppose, oppose some symbol of one's own society's "oppression" of non-white 3rd world "oppressed" others. That's the drama in which their self-esteem is lost. The cure to the privilege angst is to play the part of "scolding the bad amongst us". From this one can feel "virtuous," and however briefly feel the galling angst of privilege assuaged. Israel is the safe stand-in for white, western and Christian people. (Funny on each account.) The privilege angst scape-goat.
RM