A Green Tickled Pink

The zany Medea Benjamin

co-founder in 2002 of the infamous Codepink organisation

recently wrote an as-a-Jew pro-BDS piece in The Guardian that has been replicated elsewhere.
Here, for instance, with Ms Benjamin looking rather demure in the accompanying photo:

 A rather different look by her at this anti-Ahava protest:

And a very different look indeed from her mullah-pleasing apparel at an Israel-bashing conference in Teheran:

Being an inveterate Israel-basher and BDS activist herself, the Welsh Greens' deputy leader Pippa Bartolotti has shared the article to her Facebook page with, inter alia, the following introduction:

Incidentally Bartolotti's still unmoved by requests to remove this obscenity from her Facebook post that attracted some 470 comments, many from angry "Zionists":

Her response to such a request (a response that at least has the merit of enabling us to remind ourselves of what slime many Greens are made of):

[Updated] From UK Green Pippa, What a Lotta Rotta

Among the hysterical leftist reactions to Donald Trump's announcement that the United States' Embassy in Israel will be moving from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem are these posts, from the Israel-hater who used to head the Green Party of Wales, is still its deputy leader, and who aimed to be leader of the UK Greens.

I refer, of course, to Pippa Bartolotti, "Flytilla" alumna whose bloopers include carrying a very dodgy Syrian flag, and who's on record as declaring  in November last year that the Rothchilds [sic] won the US presidential election and who in March this year "liked" a Facebook post linking Israel to the 9/11 atrocity.

Ahead of a rally of Israel-haters in Cardiff at the weekend to protest the Trump announcement, Ms Bartolotti has pronounced on social media, to a predictably enthusiastic reception from those who wish Israel ill, or worse:

and

Of course, this reflects not only this inveterate Israel-hater's own ignorance and spleen, as well as that of many other UK lefties.  It is a damning indictment of the preoccupation with one tiny country (dat of da Joos) so many Greens have, preferring to focus on the supposed crimes of Israel in preference to virtually any other foreign issue.

Meanwhile:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=3Pbe5H2aEY0

Update:  The JC has now reported on Ms Bartolotti's disgraceful posts, which have drawn numerous antagonistic comments from pro-Israel Facebook readers, Jewish and non-Jewish.  Ms Bartolotti is keeping a low profile, it seems, in face of the well-merited onslaught against her.

It will be instructive to see the outcome of this letter, sent to Caroline Lucas:

More Joo-baiting from this wretched ignorant woman:

Leftist "Hypocrisy ... Racist Hypocrisy" regarding Israel (includes video)

Amid interruptions, New South Wales treasurer Dominic Perottet and colleague Alister Henskens condemn in state Parliament some dubious company that a couple of opposition Labor MPs have been keeping in connection with protests against Bibi Netanyahu's recent (highly successful) visit to Australia:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT3D-_xFlrQ

Reported J-Wire recently, inter alia:

'The Australasian Union of Jewish Students invited members the NSW Young Greens to a meeting with  bipartisan young political staffers at the NSW Parliament.But co-convener of the NSW Young Greens Kleon Toffetti confirmed to the Daily Telegraph “We have a longstanding position of not supporting this organisation because … they support the occupation of Palestine­ illegally.”The Telegraph wrote in an email: “It is true that NSWYG have a history of not engaging with AUJS, and I expect that this will continue for the foreseeable future.

 A spokesperson for Greens leader Richard di Natale told J-Wire: “The NSW Young Greens are an independent body and we have nothing to do with them. They exercise total independence and in general their views do necessarily reflect ours.”

In a joint  statement Isabelle Polgar and Ariel Zohar of AUJS said:

 “The Australasian Union of Jewish Students (AUJS) is angered and disappointed that the NSW Young Greens have informed AUJS it is their official policy to boycott Jewish students. AUJS, the peak representative body of thousands of Jewish tertiary students across Australia and New Zealand, is a pluralistic organisation committed to engaging Jewish students with political parties and activists across the spectrum.

The fact that the NSW Young Greens have chosen to boycott an opportunity to engage with Jewish students on account of their mistaken beliefs about AUJS’ attitudes towards foreign policy speaks volumes of their problematic attitudes towards the Jewish community.

To reduce Australian Jews entirely to their political perspectives on a conflict occurring overseas, and to erroneously pigeonhole the entire Jewish student community as ‘support(ing) the occupation of Palestine’ demonstrates the deep, systematic prejudices which pervade the NSW Young Greens.

This is in line with the far-left trend where hatred for Israel is so strong that it can result in the antisemitic effect where the Jewish community is boycotted for the supposed crime of self-defining its cultural, ethnic and national identity.

We are deeply concerned that the youth wing of the NSW Greens has a policy of refusing to engage with Jewish students. This makes a mockery of the Greens’ recent support for diversity and multiculturalism in the context of the 18C debate.

We hope the NSW Young Greens are swiftly and clearly condemned by the senior party to avoid any suggestion that the Young Greens contempt for the Jewish community is shared by the senior leadership.

AUJS calls on the Leader of the Australian Greens, Richard Di Natale, to unequivocally condemn the executive of the NSW Young Greens and clarify that the Australian Greens want nothing to do with boycotts of the Jewish community.

It is inconceivable that these young leaders could one day become future leaders of the Greens.”

 J-Wire contacted Kleon Toffetti who responded: “I will be declining any further comment, or engaging with any media around this.”

 In the Aussie Spectator, Mitchell Goff on the hypocrisy and racism of the Greens:

"....Where in the past left-wing anti-Semites have hid behind the odious Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement or obsessive, pathological criticism of Israel, this decision pretends to be nothing else but blatant, unshielded anti-Semitism.

Now, it seems, they just don’t talk to Jews.

This virulent prejudice is as old as the world itself and it now seems to reveal itself more publicly in sections of the Left. This sort of reasoning is how anti-Semitism slips so seamlessly into the sort of political fascism that if directed at any other group would be the subject of endless Greens Party condemnation...."

Read it all here

Tardily, a pathetically worded statement (in effect saying that a Jew who disavows Israel is the only acceptable sort of Jew, which is of course the standard position for the Israel-hating Left) from the self-styled "anarcho-communist" Toffetti here

Below, on the Facebook page of an inveterate Israel-hater, a rather delicious example of anti-Israel hypocrisy from another Israel-hater named King and from the liker of his comment, Sizer fan Miranda Pinch, an as-a-Jew Anglican:

In yesterday's London Sunday Times,  Anthony Julius and Deborah Lipstadt on the latest Livingstone imbroglio:

"Ken Livingstone, who has been suspended from holding office in the Labour Party following his claims that Adolf Hitler supported Zionism, is a provocateur. That is to say: he doesn’t care about the truth.

To respond to him is already to elevate him; to debate him is a waste of time. Self-pitying, self-admiring, he believes himself to be a truth-telling, special-interest-defying, independent-minded maverick. He cannot be persuaded out of these delusions.

The implication is that anti-semitism is best engaged with at the level of reason, or ignored, following a diagnosis of imbecility. The problem with that approach is that it overlooks the fundamentally malicious nature of anti-semitism. Anti-semites have not reached their conclusions by some faulty line of reasoning that can be corrected. As if Livingstone, when presented with the historical record would say: Oh I see! Gosh, I got it wrong!

Livingstone and people like him conform to a familiar pre-1933 – that is to say pre-Holocaust – type of anti-semite. This kind of anti-semite lived among journalists, politicians and others with access to newspapers, radio stations and other public forums. They could be relied upon to see the Jews behind every scandal, to give a “Jewish twist” to any issue of public concern.

When criticised, they dismissed their critics as in the pay of the special interests that they had exposed. Of course their enemies attacked them: didn’t that prove they were on the right track?

They mostly appealed to constituencies liable to resentment at others’ perceived success. They tended to cast themselves as oppositionists, progressives. Their constituents were down, when they should be up. The Jews were up, when they should be down. Why was this so? A ready answer was always provided.

This explains much in Livingstone’s own career. He found his pleasure in anti-semitic asides mostly in the long years of his own political opposition.

The Times, 7 April 2017

There are three questions that have been raised by the sorry affair. The first question is: does anything that Livingstone has said raise any interesting historiographical issues? The answer is no.

The second question is: why is the Labour Party unable to address the shame that his continued membership brings upon it? The answer to that is that his tastes are shared by too large a fraction of the party — or too large a fraction, at least, of its governing bodies.

And the third question: why are we unable to recognise Livingstone for what he is? The answer lies in the history of anti-semitism. If anti-semitism blinds people to the world, then the recent history of anti-semitism has blinded people to its earlier history. Specifically, the Holocaust has blinded us to the pre-Holocaust diversity of anti-semites. There any many species in the anti-semitic bestiary.

Anti-semitism has right-wing versions, but also leftist ones

There are religious versions – principally, Christian versions, and at least one Muslim version; political versions – principally, right-wing versions, but also liberal and leftist ones. And yet Hitler’s programme of genocide has come to define anti-semitism. It is as if the horror of Hitler’s mass murder of Jews has erased the assaults and exclusions, the slurs and defamations that conditioned their existence before Nazism. The pre-Nazi history of anti-semitism has been lost; non-Nazi contemporary anti-semitisms are inadequately acknowledged, when not altogether defined out of existence.

Imagine these various kinds of anti-semites as denizens of an ugly zoo. And imagine that they flourish there, attended by zoo keepers – let them stand as a sympathetic or neutral “state”. At different times, some beasts will flourish more than others. Some will draw the attention of visitors more than others. But they co-exist – the social anti-semites, the progressives, the Christian and Muslim and secular anti-semites, the reactionaries.

Then suppose that one night, while the management of the zoo sleeps, the ugliest and most dangerous of them all, the exterminationist anti-semite, breaks out of his cage and goes on a rampage in the town. After bloody battles, he is destroyed. The zoo itself is wrecked; many of the other beasts die or go into hiding. One or two, appalled by what has happened, abandon their home.

In due course, the townspeople forget about the zoo’s history; they remember only the moment of the rampage. In their minds, where once there was a variety of anti-semites, different in menace and in intensity of conviction, now there is just one type – and he is dead.

Quietly, patiently, with the assistance of the returning zoo keepers, the other beasts begin their work of reconstruction, inviting in other beasts from other zoos. The townspeople stop going to the zoo. And then one day, they wake up to find that it is flourishing once again."

Another video (not brand new but a two-year-old classic), wishing Jewish readers Chag Sameach:

Very interesting 26-minute video re the Rambam from Rabbi Lord Sachs:

"The Roth[s]childs Won The US Election": British Greens politician

Anti-Israel Welsh Greens leader Pippa Bartolotti, another British leftist manifesting the antisemitism that's now rife and respectable on that side of politics:

Meanwhile, Senator Tom Cotton on how Trump can dump the Iran deal:

Cherchez Les Greens: "We Must Force Israel into a Perennial State of Existential Anxiety"

Get Up! is an Aussie organisation that describes itself as politically progressive and supports "social justice".

On the Facebook page of its national director, Paul Oosting, it's described as "a people-powered social movement".

The sort of issues that turn its members on can be seen here 

As reported (behind a paywall) in today's The Australian by senior writer Sharri Markson:

'A director of activist group GetUp! supports a boycott of ­Israeli products and wants to “force Israel into a perennial state of existential anxiety”.

Fresh from revelations GetUp! chairwoman Sarah Maddison campaigned for the Greens during the federal election, comes news that another board member, Sara Saleh, publicly supports the Boycott ­Divestment Sanctions movement on Twitter.

In a speech in March, Ms Saleh said the media fabricated news in support of Israel and claimed Israeli soldiers were banned from taking their phones into Gaza so they could not post to Facebook photos of them doing unspeakable things to dead Palestinians.

“It would come then as no surprise that after years of indoctrination, most Western news outlets are biased in favour of ­Israel, skewed at best, one-sided at worst in their media reports,” Ms Saleh said, adding this ­included “fabrication of news”.

“Not only were journalists banned from Gaza but even IDF soldiers were barred from bringing in their phones, probably to avoid photos of them doing unspeakable things to the dead and then posting it up on Facebook for likes.”

At the Australians For Palestine forum in March, Ms Saleh also said: “We must crack their ethno-nationalist supremacy to the very core. We must go further than ­resisting through ­remembrance alone, we must force Israel into a perennial state of existential anxiety.’’

During the federal election, Ms Saleh was involved in the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network’s IvotePalestine campaign, which had the support of all 51 Greens candidates....' [Emphasis added]

Full text courtesy of that very group of Israel-haters, APAN, who are urging their members to rally to write letters in response:

That reminds me: Michael Danby, re-elected Labor MP for Melbourne Ports at the recent federal election, recently wrote a superb analysis of how the Greens have been stirring up anti-Israel acrimony.

See his article here

Meanwhile, the lowdown on NGOs and BDS:

Michael Danby on Bandt, Hodgins-May, and the Greens' "Policy of Appeasement & Surrender" (video)

Britain's going to the polls to (hopefully) vote in favour of leaving the monstrous European Union, fount of so much mischief, but here in Australia we have our minds mainly on our forthcoming general election.

Here's sitting member for Melbourne Ports Michael Danby telling The Shtick's Henry Greener why it's folly to vote for the anti-Israel "irresponsible Greens," party of Steph Hodgins-May with her "terrible insult" to a sizeable segment of the electorate, namely the local Jews, and of member for Melbourne Adam Bandt, of whom footage is shown at the end of the video addressing APAN (the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network) a few days ago.

(Ten minutes long)

Aussie Greens' Policy Imperils Israel (video) & Greens Candidate Digs at Danby's "Duality"

In the lead-up to the imminent Australian federal election (2 July), the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network sent questionnaires to candidates soliciting their attitudes towards Israel and Palestine.

Australian Greens member for Melbourne Adam Bandt (who used to be the Greens' deputy leader under former leader Senator Christine Milne, predecessor to Richard Di Natale) was among those who answered with alacrity, and with the answers APAN hoped to hear.

But there can have been no surprise, given Bandt's and his party's form on the subject.

Nor can there have been surprise at the alacrity with which he agreed to take part in an APAN forum, at which Sophie Ismail, Labor candidate for Melbourne, spoke.

Here's a video showing how dangerous Adam Bandt and the Greens are: frankly, any supporter of Israel who votes for the Greens in the forthcoming election needs his or her head examined.

To quote the uploader, Richard Livingwood:

APAN hosted Australian Greens MP Adam Bandt and Labor Member for Melbourne Sophie Ismail on 13/6/16 for a 1.5 hour discussion on "Palestine & Israel: Adopting a Just Position".

I selected what I believe are the most consequential quotes from Adam. Please be aware that I have cut and pasted these from this discussion and if that has caused them to be misconstrued it is not my intention, in fact I went to great lengths to ensure the quotes were left as they were said as much as possible for a short video.

As the 2016 Federal Election is coming up, I believe that this topic is of great interest to many Australians and they may benefit from understanding more about the stances of our politicians before voting.

I have also annotated this video in parts where I have found information that contradicts their statements as well as where it supports them. I have tried to use sources that are objective as possible knowing full well this is a very contentious topic. Following are the links to the sources referenced in this video.

Australian Greens Resolution Israel/Palestine:
https://greens.org.au/sites/greens.or...

Adam Bandt MP for Melbourne Arms to Gaza Conflict
http://www.adambandt.com/abbott_must_...

Hamas Charter:
http://fas.org/irp/world/para/docs/88...

UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
http://www.unhcr.org/

UN Relief Works Agency for Palestinians in the Near East (UNRWA)
http://www.unrwa.org/

2014 Israel-Gaza Conflict
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Is...

Hamas rocket launch pad revealed near Gaza homes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uE3fe...

A further reason to shun the Greens, as sitting federal Labor member for Melbourne Ports Michael Danby, staunch friend of Israel, reminds us ahead of the fight for his seat:

 He has "gone rogue"?!

What does Ms Hodgins-May mean by "duality"?

(Article she links to is here)

Ms Hodgins-May Not: More Aussie Greens' Israel hypocrisy

How's this for a double dose of hypocrisy?

A fortnight ago, the Australian Jewish News carried an article by Greens' candidate Steph Hodgins-May, who in the imminent federal General Election (2 July) is contesting the Victorian seat of Melbourne Ports  currently held by staunchly pro-Israel Labor MP Michael Danby.

In that article the youthful Ms Hodgins-May criticised Mr Danby for raising concerns regarding Israel's security and about the Green Party's despicable attitude towards Israel, and wrote that it would be more appropriate for candidates to raise bread-and-butter concerns facing voters in the constituency, as she intends to do.

That was, of course, most ironic and hypocritical, in view of the fact that the Green Party, home to such notorious Israel-denigrators as Senator Lee Rhiannon, is itself obsessed with the issue of "Israel/Palestine" virtually to the exclusion of any other international issue.

It is even more ironic and hypocritical now.

According to the 2011 federal Census (another Census is due this year) there are 19,563 Jewish residents in Melbourne Ports.  A debate between the three principal candidates for the constituency (Mr Danby, the Liberal Party's Owen Guest, and Ms Hodgins-May) was scheduled for 22 June, co-hosted by the AJN and Zionism Victoria at the Beth Weizmann Community Centre.

Chaired by AJN editor Zeddy Lawrence, it was arranged to enable Jewish voters to ascertain those three candidates' attitudes regarding a variety of issues, Israel, Iran, the terror threat, and peace in the Middle East among them.

But suddenly Ms Hodgins-May has announced she won't be attending.  As the AJN, in breaking news, now reports, it was in the middle of last month that she agreed to attend the debate.

'On May 30 AJN editor Zeddy Lawrence told Hodgins-May during an email exchange that it would be co-hosted by Zionism Victoria.

However, this Tuesday when questioned about her appearance via Twitter she told a journalist that it was his tweet that alerted her to Zionism Victoria’s involvement.

That prompted her withdrawal from the debate.

Quizzed by The AJN today over the email notifying her on May 30, she claimed she had missed it.Hodgins-May’s comments and withdrawal came as a shock to The AJN and the community because Greens MP Adam Bandt is attending a forum hosted by APAN next week titled, Melbourne candidate forum: Palestine and Israel: adopting a just position.Hodgins-May said it is not “appropriate and right” to speak at an event hosted by a politically active organisation, but APAN calls for people to “spend just one minute to email candidates asking them to pledge to support Palestine” and recently held an event to “bring awareness to and influence Australia’s public policy regarding the Israel-Palestine conflict.”

APAN also supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel.

After being informed that Bandt would be attending a function hosted by APAN Hodgins-May claimed she would not attend the forum because she didn’t like Zionism Victoria’s stance when it comes to the United Nations.

“I was unaware when I accepted that it was also being co-hosted by an organisation that holds strong political views, including in relation to the United Nations,” she said.

“As someone who worked at the UN and holds their work in high regard, I have chosen not to participate in the now co-hosted forum.”

The AJN has contacted Adam Bandt and Greens leader Richard Di Natale this morning for comment but has not received a reply.'

 Time to play that song again, perhaps?

David Singer: Why Di Natale Must Shred Rhiannon's Misleading Pamphlet

In the following article, entitled  "Palestine – Rhiannon Propaganda Pamphlet Threatens Greens' Political Integrity", Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer continues to focus his attention on anti-Israel propaganda  (example at left) propounded by the incorrigible Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon. 

Writes David Singer:

Australian Greens Leader Senator Richard Di Natale needs immediately to shred a misleading and deceptive pro-Palestinian pamphlet authorised and printed by Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon.

The pamphlet contains two statements purportedly made by Israel’s Moshe Dayan in 1969 and Ariel Sharon in 1973.

Dayan is quoted as saying:

“We came to a region of land that was inhabited by Arabs and we set up a Jewish State … Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages” 

Dayan actually said:

“We came to a region that was inhabited by Arabs, and we set up a Jewish state. In many places, we purchased the land from Arabs and set up Jewish villages where there had once been Arab villages.” 

Dayan’s statement refutes the canard repeated in Palestinian text books and media that 

“the Zionist gangs stole Palestine”

Why Rhiannon deleted Dayan’s highly significant remarks remains unexplained.

The authenticity of Sharon’s supposed statement is shrouded in uncertainty. Michael Shaik writing in the Green Left Weekly claimed the statement was made by a British journalist boasting at Israel’s National Press Club.

Max Blumenthal writes it was made in a private chat with Winston Churchill’s grandson in 1973. On 18 July 2002 George Hishmeh  – an Arab-American journalist based in Washington  – elucidated: 

"Winston S. Churchill III, grandson of the famed British prime minister, recalled last October [11 October 2001 – Ed] at the National Press Club here a telling encounter he had had in 1973 with the hawkish Ariel Sharon, now the Israeli prime minister, about Zionist objectives. “What is to become of the Palestinians?” Churchill asked. “We’ll make a pastrami sandwich of them,” Sharon said. Churchill responded, “What?” “Yes, we’ll insert a strip of Jewish settlements in between the Palestinians, and then another strip of Jewish settlements right across the West Bank, so that in 25 years’ time, neither the United Nations nor the United States, nobody, will be able to tear it apart.”

Hishmeh identified as his source Geoffrey Aronson:

“who is recognized in the US as the preeminent American expert on the Israeli settlement movement, loves to relate this significant exchange as he did in an interview with The [Lebanon – Ed] Daily Star on two different occasions.”

Churchill recounting a 1973 private discussion in such precise detail at the Washington National Press Club twenty eight years later – is highly suspect.

Churchill never made any mention of this conversation with Sharon in his published speech at the Press Club – although he could have recalled the conversation as an aside or in some discussion with Aronson or others afterwards.

Churchill’s bombshell revelation seems to have gone unnoticed as this contemporaneous report indicates.

No other reports have been found.

I have been unable to listen to or download a copy of a tape that apparently exists and could possibly shed some light on what Churchill said.

Please help me retrieve it if you can.

Whether that tape surfaces or not, a question mark must hang over the accuracy of Sharon’s previously unpublished 1973 private remarks – only disclosed by Churchill in 2001.

Sharon and Churchill are not alive to confirm or deny what was said – yet the terms of this private conversation are quoted with unerring accuracy and entrenched as gospel in Rhiannon’s pamphlet.

Rhiannon’s continuing use of Sharon’s “statement” – compounded by her excluding part of Dayan’s statement  –  raises questions as to the propriety of the Greens using this pamphlet to garner votes in the upcoming July Federal elections.

Shredding these pamphlets has become an urgent priority.

The Greens' political integrity requires its support for the Palestinian Arabs be based on solid grounds – not shaky foundations.

Aussie Senator Defames Israel & Adelaide Museum Allows Nakba Plaque

"The great crime of the 20th century is now the great crime of the 21st century."

That's how, according to an excellent must-read  report from J-Wire, the Israel-hating BDS-loving part-Jewish Greens Australian Senator Lee Rhiannon, the daughter of hard left parents, described the Nakba at this year's "Nakba Day" rally in Sydney.

As J-Wire noted, and as seen in the Sydney Daily Telegraph, she also authorised rally leaflets and a poster using parliamentary funds, material that denies Israel's right to exist by dating the "Occupation" to 1948.   (Read and see more at J-Wire here)

Some faces in the crowd:

Yes, it seems that all of Israel-hating human life was there.

The ludicrous "Jews Against The Occupation" also turned up, but since they'd fit inside an old-fashioned telephone booth and still have space over I haven't bothered to include them.  

I trust that Senator Rhiannon, a staunch feminist who nevertheless denounces "Islamophobia"

deplores the overt antisemitism seen among Nakba Day demonstrators such as this bozo at the rally:

I think we should be told.

Meanwhile:

 The Anti-Israel-obsessed Left is lobbying hard.

 "Nakba Day" has also seen a squalid development in Adelaide.

The Migration Museum  in that city is a South Australia state government institution that according to its website "works towards the preservation, understanding and enjoyment of South Australia’s diverse cultures. It is a place to discover the many identities of the people of South Australia through the stories of individuals and communities".

However, on Sunday 15 May political divisiveness and demonisation of Israel intruded upon the multicultural ethos, since the Museum permitted a "Nakba Day" event under the auspices of AFOPA (Australian Friends of Palestine Association) to take place for the purpose of unveiling a plaque headed "Palestine" commemorating the "Nakba, or Catastrophe" (text shown close-up below).

As I noted recently, AFOPA's patron is Adelaide barrister Mr Paul Heywood Smith, whom I mentioned here recently with regard to his writings concerning Israel.

AFOPA's thrust can be seen in such image as these:

In his speech at the unveiling Adelaide resident Dr Ibrahim Elassaad reminisced about his Palestinian Arab family's experiences (and I'm sure no one begrudges him his memories nor his feelings), but the political nature of the event at a publicly funded Museum was a propaganda exercise which enabled one-sided denunciation of Israel to go unchallenged:

"We suffered greatly as a result of our displacement. We became a stateless people.

We lived as refugees, struggling for recognition, struggling for survival and waiting for the day when we can go back home. We still wait for the day when we can go back home.

Today marks the 68th anniversary of the Al Nakba - the Catastrophe of Palestine. Today I am sad to say that the Palestinian displacement and suffering has not stopped.... The Israeli Separation Wall, which is illegal under International law and which has destroyed any possibility of a contiguous Palestinian land, continues.

And today we witness the siege of more than two million Palestinians in Gaza. Gaza stands as the world’s largest and most densely populated open air prison, with the Palestinians denied autonomy over access to their land, and denied autonomy over their sea and air space.

The list goes on.

And the intention of the Israeli Occupying powers is clear: it is to make Palestinian life so miserable so as to force the remaining Palestinians to leave....

Today we are calling for all people who believe in human rights and all governments who proclaim democracy, equal opportunity and justice to stand by the Palestinians. To help them regain their freedom; their rights and their autonomy.

We are grateful and indebted to the Australian people for their support, and we are indebted to the Migration Museum of South Australia for acknowledging us and for commemorating the suffering of the Palestinian people; and for acknowledging the contribution of the South Australian Palestinian community with this plaque...."

[Emphasis added]

Of Spots & Leopards & Weasel Words Regarding A "Jewish State"

Following George Galloway's defeat as Respect Party MP for Bradford West at the May General Election some wag posted this image on Facebook.

And sure enough, on London Galloway has set his sights, since as most readers will know by now he's announced his candidature for the elected office of Lord Mayor, presently held by Boris Johnson, who won't be seeking a third term in 2016 since he's now an MP.

Here's an interview Gorgeous George gave a few days ago, setting out his credentials for what is already becoming a hotly contested job:

And here, parading their bile outside the Israeli Embassy last month, are some of the types who will no doubt be voting for him:

And the Gorgeous One is not the only dedicated Israel-demoniser who's thrown his hat into a leadership contest, veteran leftist MP Jeremy Corbyn having announced his ambition to become leader of the Labour Party.

Just something that caught my eye yesterday

Meanwhile, Senator Richard Di Natale, leader of the Australian Greens (remember my post here?) has moved to distance himself from what he replied to the Australian Jewish News (AJN) when its representative asked him whether Mahmoud Abbas should acknowledge Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state:

“Of course. How can you have a two-state solution when you refuse to acknowledge the right of one state to exist?

It’s ­patently nonsense.”

But such a furore did Di Natale's remarks unleash in the hardcore Green Left that Di Natale has backed down from his stated position, his office telling the AJN:

“In Richard’s full response to the interview question, it is clear that he is talking about a state for Israelis and a state for Palestinians.

He had no intention for his comments to be interpreted as support for establishment of a ‘Jewish state’. It’s not a phrase that he used.”

Di Natale himself told the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) this week:

'.... I have never believed that the establishment of a "Jewish state" (as opposed to an "Israeli state") is conducive to this outcome [a two-state solution] and I absolutely do not support that goal.'

 Observed Zionist Federation of Australia president Danny Lamm:

'Senator Di Natale's revised position ... should ... be assessed in the light of Articles One and Four of the Palestinian Basic Law (2003) that respectively declare "the Palestinian people are part of the Arab nation"; and "the principles of Islamic sharia shall be the principal source of legislation".

It would be useful to ask whether Senator Di Natale's objection to ethno-religious identity applies solely to a Jewish Israel, or extends to an Arab/Muslim Palestine as well?"  [My emphasis]

As the AJN's editor, Zeddy Lawrence, comments in the current issue of the paper:

"Ignoring the fact that the Jewish State has existed for almost 70 years and is recognised in international law" Di Natale has in his revised statement "not only sought to turn the clock back to before 1948 but also to before two weeks ago ..."

And Aussie Foreign Minister Julie Bishop [pictured] has condemned Di Natale's volte-face and what triggered it.

To quote from a report in The Australian newspaper:

 '.... Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has accused Greens leader Richard Di Natale of “caving in” to ­extremists after he denied ­endorsing Israel as “a Jewish state”....

Ms Bishop said she was “dis­appointed” by the episode.

“Richard Di Natale has caved in to the anti-Semitic boycott, ­divestment and sanctions activists in the green movement,” she said.... [My emphasis]

Executive Council of Australia Jewry head Peter Wertheim said the senator had “been bullied by the far-left zealots in his party into adopting a position on this issue that is intellectually and morally untenable”.

“I now look forward to the Greens withdrawing recognition from the Arab Republic of Egypt and the Islamic Republic of Iran because of the unacceptable ­ethnic and religious identifiers in the official names of these states,’’ he said.

“To lecture other countries about their identity, and to refuse to recognise and respect the way they define themselves, is a truly unique approach to international relations.” ....'

Altogether now, boys and girls, you should know this by heart (no pun intended) by now: