APRIL 2007
Jewish coalition calls for open debate on Palestine
Ben Cubby
March 6, 2007
Latest related coverage
- Warlike natures a turn-off (see below)
A COALITION of prominent Australian Jews, including the philosopher Peter Singer, publisher Louise Adler and Robert Richter, QC, has sparked a furore in the Jewish community by announcing it will challenge what it sees as extreme pro-Israeli bias among Jews in Australia.
The group, Independent Australian Jewish Voices, has been criticised by some Jewish authorities for calling for more open debate on Israeli's treatment of Palestinians.
The organisation yesterday launched an online campaign to have "alternative voices" heard in the media. One organiser claimed many Australian Jews were "basically brainwashed" into unthinking support for Israeli government policy towards Palestine.
The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, a major think tank, said the group was dangerous and unrepresentative.
"Some of the individuals are clearly committed to the delegitimisation of Israel," said Colin Rubenstein, the executive director of the council.
"They're simply using their Jewish ethnic background. It is clearly a small number of Jewish-born individuals who make their Jewishness known while they are being critical of Israel," Mr Rubenstein said.
A visiting British author, Melanie Phillips, last week nicknamed a British version of the group "Jews for Genocide", according to the Australian Jewish News. Phillips, who wrote Londonistan, a book criticising elements of the British Muslim community, could not be contacted to verify the claim yesterday.
Ms Adler, Melbourne University Press chief executive, a signatory to the group's petition, said she was outraged by the council's references to "Jewish-born individuals" when commenting on the group.
"When you are classified as Jewish-born or not, or who is a legitimate Jew - I don't want to use this analogy but you can only go back to the Third Reich," Ms Adler said.
"That criticism of Israel is automatically assumed to be anti-Semitism just equates to a way of shutting down debate. In Australia, in the early 21st century, we should be able to be more mature than that."
Mr Rubenstein said the coverage received by the group "made a nonsense of the claim that they are somehow suppressed or silenced".
The organisation is modelled on a similar Jewish group launched last month in Britain that includes the Nobel Prize winner Harold Pinter, the comedian Stephen Fry and the filmmaker Mike Leigh.
Peter Slezak, one of the Australian project's founders and a senior lecturer in history and philosophy at the University of NSW, said supporters wanted "to stand up and let it be known that we have the right to question Israeli policy, that we believe in fair treatment of Palestinian people as well as Israelis."
Professor Slezak, whose mother survived the Auschwitz concentration camp in World War II, said he had received a death threat at the weekend after his views were presented in the Jewish media.
"There are people out there in the community who respond to this dog whistling, these references to Jewish-born and so on," Professor Slezak said. "There are simply a lot of people in the community who have basically been brainwashed over the years."
He conceded that the group's views represented a minority of Australian Jews, but said many were "quietly disturbed" by outspoken support for Israeli actions.
The organisation, which opened a website with 120 signatures yesterday, is supported by a list of prominent Australian academics and activists, including the Greens MLC Ian Cohen, the UTS lecturer Eva Cox and the La Trobe University professor Dennis Altman.
It hopes to gather thousands more signatures in coming days, hold forums and encourage further debate about Israel's actions.
Warlike natures a turn-off
Deborah Cameron
March 6, 2007
THE mortal enemies Israel and Iran share common ground as the world's most reviled nations, according to a global poll that has confirmed a slide in the reputation of the United States.
Its "use and pursuit of military power" was a negative influence on the world, the poll found, as was North Korea, which tested a nuclear weapon late last year.
The BBC- Herald survey - of more than 28,000 people in 27 countries - has revealed that with most of the world, Australian opinion was strongly against Israel, Iran and North Korea. But in the Middle East crucible, heated by the rhetoric and actions of Tel Aviv and Tehran, public support was with Iran, which in 2005 called for Israel to be "wiped off the map". There were even some positive feelings for North Korea.
There had been "dramatic positive movements" in attitudes in the Muslim world towards Iran in the past year, the survey said. In Indonesia, for example, positive views of Iran rose to 50 per cent, compared with 39 per cent last year. By contrast, 71 per cent of Indonesians were against Israel.
"People around the world tend to look negatively on countries whose profile is marked by the use or pursuit of military power," said Steven Kull, the director of the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland, which conducted the poll with the polling firm GlobeScan.
The poll - which asked people to rate the influence of Britain, Canada, China, France, India, Iran, Israel, Japan, North Korea, Russia, the US, Venezuela and the European Union - is the third in a series that has also examined attitudes to Islam and the US.
The US, found to be a mainly negative force in a January BBC- Herald poll, was unpopular in all 27 countries in the survey. It also showed opinion was more kindly disposed to countries using "soft power" - propagating influence through culture and promotion of attractive values, Mr Kull said.
Signed up to express a wish for a just peace in Israel and Palestine
March 6, 2007
We are Jews with diverse opinions on the Middle East who share a deep concern about the crisis in the region and have formed a group, Independent Australian Jewish Voices.
We are committed to ensuring a just peace that recognises the legitimate national aspirations of both Israelis and Palestinians with a solution that protects the human rights of all. We condemn violence by all parties, whether state-sanctioned or not. We believe that Israel's right to exist must be recognised and that Palestinians' right to a homeland must also be acknowledged.
As Australians we are privileged to live in a democratic state that embodies the principles of tolerance and free speech. We feel there is an urgent need to hear alternative voices that should not be silenced by being labelled disloyal or self-hating. Uncritical allegiance to Israeli government policy does not necessarily serve Israel's best interests. Our concern for justice and peace in the Middle East is a legitimate opinion and should be met by reasoned argument rather than vilification and intimidation. In particular, we are concerned that the Jewish establishment does not represent the full range of Jewish opinion. Contrary to widespread concerns, anti-Semitism is not fuelled by Jews who publicly disagree with actions of the Jewish state.
Jews understand what it is to suffer racism and victimisation and therefore we are not only concerned about anti-Semitism but also the demonisation of all other minorities. We call upon fellow Jews to join us in supporting free debate to further the prospects of peace, security and human rights in the Middle East by signing our statement at http://iajv.org/.
Dr Peter Slezak Bellevue Hill and Dr Jim Levy, Antony Loewenstein, Professor Peter Singer, Robert Richter, QC, Louise Adler, Eva Cox, Professor Dennis Altman, Professor Arie Freiberg, Ian Cohen, MLC, Professor Ivor Indyk, Moss Cass, Dr Geoffrey Brahm Levey, Professor Andrew Benjamin, Henry Rosenbloom, Professor Andrew Jakubowicz, Professor Ephraim Nimni, Professor David Goodman, Hashomer Hatzair and more than 100 other signatories