Leader of the Labor Party Minister Merav Michaeli spoke this evening, Monday 18 July, after the results of the party leadership election were announced. “Good evening, friends, First of all, many congratulations to Luna Salpeter who won a bronze medal at the World Marathon Championships. That’s a very, very long distance run. Like Luna, tonight…
Following other states, South Australia has just adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of “antisemitism”. During the parliamentary debate, Greens MP Tammy Franks tried to prevent this from happening. “Let me be clear, antisemitism is a scourge and must be combated vigorously”, she told Parliament. “What is not as clear is what is a…
Jewish-Arab political partnership isn’t doing so well in June 2022. But by and large we are heading in the right direction. And there is a partner. First for some good news. Every day that passes since the formation of the current coalition normalises a situation in which Arab political representatives – with Palestinian identity –…
A crude hatchet job on the Australian Labor Party is not in the best interests of Australian Jewry: A response to the ultra-conservative Australian Jewish Association by Philip Mendes Every now and then, strange hatchet jobs appear in the political sphere. Most of them disappear without trace, either because the allegations are completely unfounded, or…
Passover is a sacred time for Jewish communities all over the world, offering an opportunity to reflect on the guidance of faith and the important lessons of hope and perseverance. To all those celebrating, Chag Sameach!
Labor’s deputy president in the Senate has attacked Israel for the “crime of apartheid” in an inflammatory parliamentary speech condemned by Penny Wong. In a speech in the Senate on February 8, Senator Sue Lines called on the international community to pressure Israel to “dismantle this cruel system” of apartheid, referencing a controversial Amnesty International…
Palestinians live under the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank or under the control of the terrorist group Hamas in Gaza. What of Israeli Arabs? As an Israeli Arab who grew up in Nazareth, Amnesty International’s recent report tries to distort my identity. The 211-page document constantly refers to an “apartheid” against “Palestinian citizens of…
Labor leader Anthony Albanese and opposition arts spokesman Tony Burke have refused to take a stance on the anti-Israel boycott disrupting the Sydney Festival, despite some ALP colleagues ¬privately voicing opposition to the campaign. Since December, the city’s premier cultural event has been embroiled in controversy after organisers approached the Israeli embassy and accepted a…
Dear Peter Gabriel, As a teenager in a cold and grey North Shields in the 1970s one of my treasured possessions was a red hooded sweat-shirt into which my friend Eddie Thomas had sewn the titles of Genesis albums in beautiful, flowing, many-colored silken threads. After school and paper rounds, we’d sit listening to Foxtrot…
