He said it was a reminder of the sport’s potential – and its pitfalls.

Shanan, who began a campaign to eliminate racism from Israeli soccer, and Suan, a well-known Arab-Israeli player, were part of a delegation of 10 Israeli Jews and Arabs in Britain for five days of anti-hooliganism training ahead of Israel hosting the UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship next month.

“It was amazingly cultural,” Shanan said. “It showed me soccer can be truly a cultural event, but [also] reminded me of the long road that lies ahead of Israeli soccer until we catch up to England.”

For the past decade, England’s Football Association (FA) has trained dozens of Israeli activists who hope to re-create what they view as the FA’s success in reducing widespread dis- plays of racism.

England is described as “a world leader in dealing with soccer racism and hooliganism” on the website of the New Israel Fund, the US-based social justice group that created and bankrolls Shanan’s Kick Racism Out of Israeli Football.

But a recent spate of anti-Semitic incidents in English soccer, and the FA’s refusal to fully adopt new European countermeasures, are making some question its suitability to instruct others in countering racist tendencies among fans.

“Clearly, Britain has not resolved its soccer racism and violence problem and is therefore no model for Israel,” said Manfred Gerstenfeld, a Dutch-born scholar of European anti-Semitism at the Jerusalem Centre for Public Affairs.

Recent racist incidents have prompted the Union of European Football Associations to introduce a 10-game ban on anyone caught engaging in racist abuse.

In England, the FA last week introduced a five-game ban, drawing sharp criticism.

But it was the FA’s Kick It Out program, which focuses on preventing racism, that inspired Shanan’s organisation.

“One lesson we learnt from England is to integrate Arab and Jewish children in one team instead of letting them play on opposite teams,” Shanan said.

As in Britain, Israeli soccer racism continues to be a problem, despite the efforts of police and activists.

The signing of two Chechen Muslims by Betar Jerusalem this year led to the torching of the team’s trophy room. Last year, Betar fans attacked several Arabs at Jerusalem’s Malha Mall.

Gerstenfeld, who moved to Jerusalem in 1968, acknowledges that racism exists in Israeli soccer, but said it’s nothing compared to the violence endemic in British and Dutch soccer.

Adam Green, a Londoner and Chelsea supporter who travelled to Amsterdam to watch his team battle Portugal’s Benfica in the Europa League final, offered a simpler distillation of the football hooligan’s credo.

“It’ll go fine if we win,” Green said. “But if we lose, you’re the enemy and we will burn this city the f*** down.”

Fortunately for Amsterdam, Chelsea defeated Benfica 2-1.

JTA

Cnaan Lipshiz

The historic ceremony took place on Tuesday at Parliament House, with NSW Jewish Board of Deputies (JBOD) president Yair Miller and CEO Vic Alhadeff in attendance.

O’Farrell said it was up to political leaders “to do everything they can” to stamp out anti-Semitism.

“It worries me that decades have passed since the end of World War II and yet there is still a need to speak out about abhorrent anti-Semitic activity,” he said.

“This is an issue above politics – which is why I am delighted it has bipartisan support.”

Robertson said it was an honour to sign the declaration “in a spirit of bipartisanship”.

“Leaders of political parties have a duty to speak out against anti-Semitism – and we speak stronger when it is with one voice,” he said.

“The horror of the Holocaust teaches us that evil and bigotry can take hold unless they are vigorously opposed and challenged.

“Hatred will always be defeated by reason, enlightenment – and the hearts of decent people.”

In Canberra, all 105 federal Coalition parliamentarians have now signed the declaration, with both sides of politics in Victoria also set to commit to the global initiative in the coming days.

Victorian Premier Dennis Napthine and Opposition Leader Daniel Andrews are expected to sign next week, with Jewish Member for Caulfield David Southwick having put pen to paper on Tuesday.

Southwick said the fight against anti-Semitism was of particular importance in Victoria.

“The fight against anti-Semitism is a global issue and is particularly important in Victoria due to our state’s place as a centre of the Jewish Diaspora. This declaration raises awareness of the issue of anti-Semitism and demonstrates that it cannot be tolerated,” he said.

“Anti Semitism – indeed all hate speech and discrimination targeted at any group – is not to be tolerated in civil society. That’s why Victorian Labor supports the signing of the London Declaration,” Andrews told The AJN.

GARETH NARUNSKY AND ADAM KAMIEN

NSW Opposition Leader John Robertson, JBOD president Yair Miller and Premier Barry O’Farrell.

The event was also used to recognise the work of volunteers from the 24 Maccabi clubs.

Gocs, 22, was named the Outstanding Jewish Sportsman of the Year, after having won the Trans-Tasman Test series against New Zealand with Australia’s under-23 side.

“It’s wonderful to receive this award for my sporting achievements,” Gocs told The AJN. “It’s a great honour.”

Brown, 18, won the award for the Outstanding Jewish Sportswoman of the Year after starring for the Victory in the W-League and playing six games for the Matildas, including a debut international goal against Haiti.

She was able to share the occasion with her younger brother Jordan, 16, who took the Outstanding Jewish Junior Sportsman of the Year, and younger sister Jamie, 14, who was named the Outstanding Maccabi Club Junior Sportswoman of the Year.

“It was cool that we could all go up there and share it together,” said Ashley.

Jordan added: “It does make it a sweet a moment, because we’ve all grown up in the same house, we’ve trained and played with each other, and to get awards like this in front of all these people is really good.”

Champion walker Jemima Montag, 15, was recognised for her wins at the state and national championships with the Outstanding Jewish Junior Sportswoman of the Year award.

Lawn bowler Gail Nadelman and hockey veteran Norman Same took out the Outstanding Jewish Masters Sportswoman and Sportsman of the Year awards respectively.

Star AJAX footballer David Fayman’s outstanding 2012 saw him win the award for the Outstanding Maccabi Club Sportsman of the Year, while Asher Marks was recognised for his achievements on the track by taking out the Outstanding Maccabi Club Junior Sportsman of the Year award.

Harry Szmerling, who represents the Maccabi Toastmasters Club and has starred at several levels of competition, won the Outstanding Club Masters Sportsman of the Year award.

Maccabi Victoria also recognised its top administrators, with Adam Needleman named Outstanding Maccabi Club Administrator of the Year and Sharon Hamilton winning the Lenny Bogatin Award for Outstanding Service to Maccabi Victoria and Jewish Sport.

When Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005, it also evacuated four West Bank settlements – Kadim, Ganim, Sa-Nur and Homesh.

A strain of the settlement movement has been claiming since the disengagement that, with Gaza used as a base for launching rockets at Israel, it has been proved to be a mistake and must be undone. Its rallying cry has been “Homesh first” – repopulate Homesh and then the other evacuated areas.

Activists have held sit-ins and protests at the Homesh water tower, the only structure that remains there from the settlement, and campaigned widely, but last week the High Court ruled that the Palestinians who own the land can return to Homesh.

The lawyer who petitioned for the hand back, Michael Sfard, told The AJN: “The Homesh affair proves that the settlement project is reversible.”

Sfard, who acted on behalf of the human rights group Yesh Din, added: “With the cancellation of the seizure order, the evacuation of the settlement is complete.

“We will now have to secure the Palestinian owners’ access to their lands so that they could restore its use to pre-Homesh days.”

But the Homesh lobby was furious. One of the keenest advocates of a return to the former settlement, former National Union parliamentarian Michael Ben-Ari, hit out at the new government, criticising it for “not putting a word in the coalition agreement about the Land of Israel”.

In other settlement-related news, the government has decided to legalise four outposts that were built without state permission.

It is beginning the process of transforming Ma’ale Rehavam, Haroeh, Givat Assaf and Mitzpe Lachish I into bona-fide settlements, it said, responding to a court petition by the dovish group Peace Now.

Referring to peace-building efforts by America’s Secretary of State John Kerry, Peace Now called the decision a “slap in the face of Secretary Kerry’s new peace process and is a blatant reassurance to settler interests”.

NATHAN JEFFAY

A spokesperson for the board said that the co-founder of Independent Australian Jewish Voices, who wasn’t permitted to address Limmud-Oz in 2011 or its Melbourne counterpart in 2012, was this year accepted for a session, “The Wicked Son – Confessions of a Self-Hating Jew”, on the condition that he would not discuss Israel.

“The Limmud board decided that, where possible, it would ‘play the ball, not the person’ and assess sessions primarily based on their proposed content rather than the presenter,” the spokesperson said.

“Limmud-Oz acknowledges that many people in the community virulently disagree with Slezak’s views and feel antagonistic towards him.”

However, Slezak told The AJN this week that Israel would be a part of his presentation.

“I never agreed not to discuss Israel,” Slezak said.

“I’m talking about self-hating Jews and the source of my problems are problems with Israel.

“They want to make sure I don’t say something scandalous. It’s no secret I want to talk about Israel.”

In the wake of Slezak’s comments, The AJN contacted the Limmud-Oz board. The spokesperson said that if the conditions reached between the two parties were breached, then they would have to discuss how to proceed.

At the time of going to press, it was unclear how the Limmud-Oz board would handle the situation. But senior members of the community confirmed the board would be meeting to consider cancelling the session.

NSW Jewish Board of Deputies president Yair Miller said Slezak should not be provided a ­platform.

“While everyone has the right to freely express their views, that does not impose an obligation on others to provide them with an opportunity to do so.

“If Dr Slezak has given a commitment to not speak about Israel, but now insists on doing so, it would be highly offensive to the mainstream Jewish community if his session were to take place.

“It is our view that this would not be an educational session and would therefore fall outside the guidelines of Limmud, and communal policy.”

Zionist Council of NSW honorary life president Ron Weiser said that in 2011 the Limmud-Oz organisers decided not to give Slezak a platform and they should have stuck by that policy.

“I’m extremely puzzled by this development after the issue arose in 2011,” Weiser said.

“The decisive action that the Shalom Institute took in 2011, I had assumed, ended the matter then, and into the future.”

Limmud-Oz will be held from June 8-10.

JOSHUA LEVI AND SOPHIE WEISZ

Dr Peter Slezak.

Rabbi Freilich praised the article, “The Shunned”, that appeared in Saturday’s edition of The Australian, because he said that whatever can be done to stamp out the scourge of sexual abuse of children in society is to be commended and encouraged, but said that being misquoted was disappointing.

“I believe that the vast majority of rabbis in Australia firmly and categorically support the immediate reporting of child abuse to the police,” Rabbi Freilich said in a letter to The AJN and The Australian this week.

“This was always the official stance of the ORA.”

Senior writer at The Australian Kate Legge apologised to the rabbi when she was contacted by Rabbi Freilich this week.

“We will clarify the comment on the letter page next week,” the journalist said to Rabbi Freilich.

But in response to the article, which caused concern throughout the community because of the claim, the Rabbinical Council of Victoria (RCV) restated its policy on child sexual abuse to the community.

“The RCV has stated on numerous occasions that all cases of child abuse must be reported immediately to the police. The council’s resolution to this effect was adopted by the rabbis of Victoria unanimously and bears the name of each rabbi,” the statement read.

“The RCV’s widely publicised position that any and all cases of child abuse must be reported immediately to the police and relevant authorities has appeared numerous times in Jewish and wider Australian media,” RCV president Rabbi Meir Shlomo Kluwgant said.

Rabbi Kluwgant said there is no basis to the claim that 95 per cent of Australian rabbis prefer child sexual abuse cases be dealt with internally, and he said he was expecting a full and swift retraction by those responsible.

JOSHUA LEVI

Rabbi Dovid Freilich.

According to a report by France 2, Israeli gunfire killed Mohammed al-Dura in Gaza in September 2000, as he crouched behind his father. The channel’s footage was broadcast internationally.

But an Israeli government review committee concluded this week that “France 2 report’s central claims and accusations had no basis in the material which the station had in its possession at the time”.

A statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office said that the report “was edited and narrated in such a way as to create the misleading impression that it substantiated the claims made therein”.

Charles Enderlin, the journalist who provided the voice-over for the clip, is standing by the integrity of his report.

The committee claimed that it reviewed raw footage in which the boy was seen to be alive and found “numerous indications” that neither he nor his father was struck by bullets at all. It is “highly doubtful” that bullet marks in his vicinity came from Israeli fire.

The committee questioned why France 2 was the only station to record the alleged incident, even though there were other media crews at the scene, and stressed that the report relied entirely on the station’s local stringer.

Unaired raw footage showed “the boy was alive” when the France 2 camera stopped recording, according to the report, which also cited the lack of blood stains at the scene, among other findings.

Among other experts, the report contains testimonies by Dr Ricardo Nachman, deputy director of Israel’s National Centre of Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv, and Yehuda David, a French-Israeli physician who claimed that scars presented by Jalal al-Dura as evidence of Israeli violence in 2000 actually had been incurred eight years earlier at the hands of Hamas.

Upon receiving the committee’s report, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “It is important to focus on this incident which has slandered Israel’s reputation. This is a manifestation of the ongoing, mendacious campaign to delegitimise Israel.

“There is only one way to counter lies, and that is through the truth. Only the truth can prevail over lies.”

Yuval Steinitz, Minister of International Affairs, Strategy and Intelligence, called the al-Dura affair “a modern-day blood libel against the State of Israel” and claimed: “The France 2 report was utterly baseless.”

The al-Dura family reacted angrily to Israel’s conclusions, even saying that it is prepared to exhume the boy’s body to prove that the TV report was true. “Every year the Israelis come up with a new narrative,” Mohammed’s father Jamal al-Dura told the Palestinian Ma’an news agency. He maintained: “Israel committed that crime in cold blood.”

NATHAN JEFFAY 

The brainchild of Israeli-born photographer Moshe Rosenzveig, who established the Head On Portrait Prize in 2004, it has attracted widespread interest, encouraged by prize money that has grown to more than $80,000.

Four years ago, Rosenzveig broadened the event to become an annual festival, which opened with 900 photographers from Australia and overseas taking part at over 100 venues.

“It is amazing how much it has grown over the years,” says Rosenzveig of the event, which runs until June 23.

The Head On Photo Festival showcases the artistic, photojournalistic, commercial, technical and legal side of photography, as well as portraiture, landscapes, travel and fine art.

Rosenzveig says that photography has always been an evolving art form.

“There has been a massive rate of change in recent years and we try to accommodate new areas with the traditional material,” he says.

“We have photographers shooting with plastic cameras, new styles and technology. We don’t want to restrict creativity to a certain form or genre.

“It is all-encompassing. Everyone is a photographer; people take photos all the time and we are surrounded by images.

“One of the defining philosophies of Head On is inclusivity, so we have images from everyone, from the internationally-known photographers to people who are just starting out. We are very proud of this egalitarian attitude. People who come to the festival comment about all the amazing works that they never knew existed.”

Rosenzveig started the Head On Portrait Prize because he was frustrated that photographic competitions were mainly judged on the celebrity of the photographer or ­subject.

“Ten years ago the attitude was that only well-known photographers or well-known people got into portrait competitions and that was something I was frustrated with. There was a lot of good quality work that was not included and the public was missing out,” he says.

For the first time, the Head On Portrait Prize will be held at the State Library of NSW alongside the touring exhibition, Magnum on Set, which ­features more than 100 photos taken by Magnum photographers during the making of classic films including The Seven Year Itch, Rebel Without a Cause and Zabriskie Point, and stars such as Marilyn Monroe, Ingrid Bergman, Billy Wilder and John Huston.

Also on display at the State Library is the iAfghanistan exhibition by award-winning New York–based photographer Benjamin Lowy, who used mobile phone, plastic camera and digital camera to showcase everyday life in Afghanistan.

Beginning his career covering the Iraq War in 2003, Lowy has covered major stories worldwide. He has been a leader in mobile phone photography for professional photojournalism including the first Time magazine cover taken with a phone.

Lowy is in Sydney for the festival and will join Rosenzveig in an ABC panel discussion on photojournalism as well as lead a two-day workshop on mobile phone publishing.

Rosenzveig says: “Ben looks at the world through humble eyes using equipment such as a mobile phone, with the result that the images he takes are very different to those taken with a large camera.”

International photographer Marvi Lacar’s moving exhibition on depression, This is a Love Story, will be on display at Gaffa Gallery.

Sydney-based photographer and printmaker Sharon Zwi’s exhibition, Time Exposures: 60 Life Portraits, presents 60 composite grid photographs in black and white, each celebrating people whose achievements Zwi admires from childhood to the present life.

Among the well-known people featured are Eva Cox, Margaret Whitlam, Michael Kirby and David Stratton. All the subjects were chosen by Zwi because she felt they had made a significant contribution to society.

Other local Jewish photographers in Head On include Jimmy Pozarik, whose images were taken during a year spent at a children’s hospital; Gilbert Bel-Bachir, who photographed in Sydney for his exhibition Looking Through Glass; Glenn Lockitch, who spent 110 days aboard the Sea Shepherd’s anti-whaling ship in the Antarctic battling the Japanese whalers; and Su Garfinkle, who took to the streets of Sydney to capture a range of people with vibrant hair colour, hats and flair for her Out of the Ordinary exhibition.

Melbourne photographer Jana Maré’s exhibition Around the House explores performance in front of the camera using the artist’s body. The works explore the psychology of the home left empty and forgotten with the body being used as part of the furniture.

Israeli photographer Liron Shimoni focused on albinos in Africa who are being persecuted because of the colour of their skin.

Rosenzveig, who is a ­photojournalist, commercial photographer, educator and TV producer/director, has had his work screened, published and exhibited in Australia and overseas for the past 30 years. Having complemented his photography, film and multimedia work over the past 10 years with teaching and lecturing at universities and institutions, Rosenzveig is now focusing on the annual festival.

Rosenzveig says he has been interested in photography from a young age. “At my bar mitzvah my presents included some money and I went and bought a decent camera and that was the beginning of the journey – it provided the big push into photography,” he says.

“When I was growing up in Israel, not many people had cameras. In my school class I was the only one with a camera so on all the excursions and sports carnivals I became the school photographer.

“I was always there with a camera, even in later years when I was in the army.”

The Head On Photo Festival also supports charities and social awareness. In the past it has raised money for Afghan photographers to show their country through their own eyes, working with indigenous photographers and educating schoolchildren through special workshops.

“Every year we try to do something for the community as part of the festival and prize. One year we had photography workshops for underprivileged children and at the end of the sessions we presented the work to the public. It was a fantastic result,” he says.

The winners of this year’s Head On Portrait Prize exhibition will be announced tonight (Thursday). For the first time there will also be new categories including the Head On Landscape Prize and the Head On Momento Photobook award.

All the Head On prizes come under the umbrella of the Head On Foundation, a non-profit organisation that was established in 2008.

The Head On Photo Festival runs from May 17 to June 23 at venues around Sydney. Enquiries: www.headon.com.au.

REPORT by Danny Gocs

PHOTO by Su Garfinkle for her Out of the Ordinary exhibition.

Director Gale Edwards’ production of Chess, created by Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus and Tim Rice, starred Silvie Paladino, Simon Gleeson, Martin Crewes, Bert LaBonte and Alinta Chidzey.

In the musical, the game of chess becomes more than an international tournament, encompassing romantic rivalries and East-West political intrigue. Among the show’s hits are I Know Him So Well, One Night in Bangkok and Anthem.

The annual Green Room awards, which recognise theatre, cabaret, dance, opera and musicals staged in Melbourne, were announced earlier this month.

Chess won awards for Outstanding Musical Production, best director (Gale Edward), best choreography (Tony Bartuccio), best actress in a lead role (Silvie Paladino), best actress in a supporting role (Alinta Chidzey) and two awards for lighting/sound and set/costume.

REPORT by Danny Gocs

PHOTO of Martin Crewes and Simon Gleeson in Chess.

Kellerman, who represented Australia at the London Paralympics last year, will be one of three athletes donning the green and gold for the inaugural Paralympic events at the Games.

The 22-year-old will join table tennis player Barak Mizrachi and swimmer Mark Velik as Australia’s first Paralympic representatives.

“We’re quite happy that we’ve now got the three of them, two of whom have competed at international level,” head of delegation Harry Procel told The AJN.

“Once we knew there was going to be a viable competition for them, we were in full support of the Paralympic events.”

With two months to go until the event begins, Maccabi Australia will host its final fundraising events in both Victoria and NSW, where the team uniform will be unveiled.

Freeman – who won the gold medal in the 400m race at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 – will headline the night’s proceedings in Victoria, where the Aussie icon will impart her wisdom on representing Australia on the international stage.

Sydney Kings legend and three-time Olympian Damian Keogh will do the same at the Sydney event.

“It’s a real coup to have people of the ilk of Cathy and Damian get involved,” Procel said.

“Sometimes some of our athletes take for granted the size and scope of the Maccabiah event … so these opportunities give first-timers and particularly juniors, but also everyone, a bit of a buzz as to how important this becomes.”

It is also chance for the community to farewell the athletes and help raise funds for the travelling contingent through auctions, with highlights including travel packages and some classic sporting memorabilia.

The 19th Maccabiah Dinner and Auction Night Fundraiser will take place on Thursday, May 23 at Brighton International (Melway: 67 E9).

Enquiries: Harry Procel 0418 548 241.

Ashley Shenker

Photo: Peter Haskin