Resignation threat over Palestinian ‘ambassador’
ONE of the vice-presidents of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ), Manny Waks, is contemplating resigning his position after he was asked to cancel an event he has planned with the Palestinian head of delegation.
ONE of the vice-presidents of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ), Manny Waks (pictured), is contemplating resigning his position after he was asked to cancel an event he has planned with the Palestinian head of delegation.
Waks, president of the ACT Jewish Community and thus automatically a vice-president of the ECAJ, also runs a Canberra-based organisation called Capital Jewish Forum (CJF).
CJF, which Waks established, hosts guest speakers, usually diplomats or high-level public officials, with the aim of bringing Jewish people together to promote discussion.
The former Melburnian announced late last month he would be hosting CJF’s first event in Melbourne, with Palestinian head of delegation Izzat Abdulhadi as the guest speaker. In the absence of a Palestinian state, and by extension official international diplomatic posts, Abdulhadi is the de facto Palestinian ambassador to Australia.
While Waks received many RSVPs from the Jewish community, he was asked by Jewish and Zionist leadership to cancel the event.
Leaders would not speak on the record, but The AJN understands there were concerns Waks hosting Abdulhadi was inappropriate due to his ECAJ connections and commitments.
But Waks, a former executive director of the B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission, said he had not behaved inappropriately.
“I respectfully disagree with the opinion expressed by the ECAJ that there is any conflict of interest involved in me being a vice-president of the ECAJ, while holding the position of executive director of the Capital Jewish Forum,” he said.
But he admitted: “I would be willing to consider resigning from the position of vice-president of the ECAJ on the condition that this would be constitutional and the ACT Jewish Community board of management supports and accepts this resignation,” he said.
He added he had no intention of resigning his position as president of the ACT Jewish Community.
Waks has previously hosted Abdulhadi at a CJF function in 2009. At that event, the Palestinian official spoke mainly about the role of civil society in preparing the Palestinian people for statehood.
NAOMI LEVIN
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