Calls to ban Bibi
A petition calling for Benjamin Netanyahu to be barred from entering Australia has gathered more than 3000 signatures.
A PETITION calling for Benjamin Netanyahu to be barred from entering Australia has gathered more than 3000 signatures.
Following Foreign Minister Julie Bishop’s invitation to the Israeli Prime Minister to visit the country next year, the online petition refers to him as “the war criminal Prime Minister of the Apartheid state of Israel”.
It further states, “As Australians united from all different races and religions we must come together in order to take a strong stance against this mass murdering war criminal.”
B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission chair Dvir Abramovich said, “To charge that Prime Minister Netanyahu is a racist war criminal is an odious form of incitement, and to accuse Israel of promoting the vile racial policies promulgated by the former apartheid government in South Africa has no basis in reality.”
Meanwhile, the Australian Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN) has also launched a campaign calling on MPs “to help salvage what remains of Australia’s honour and reputation by protesting Netanyahu’s visit”.
In a letter to Bishop, APAN president George Browning wrote, “Next year the Palestinians of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem will mark their 50th year living as non-citizens in their own country under a regime of apartheid that systematically denies their human rights.
“The significance of the Australian government’s decision to host a man who has devoted his political career to perpetuating and consolidating this regime in 2017 will not be lost on either Palestinians or Israelis.”
Browning said, “It is on behalf of a great many Australians who believe that an Australian Foreign Minister should be absolutely loyal to only one country, and who do not share your desire to welcome Prime Minister Netanyahu that I am registering this protest.”
Describing the protest letter from APAN as “drivel”, Zionist Federation of Australia president Danny Lamm said, “Their objections are beneath contempt.”
Executive director of the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council Colin Rubenstein denounced the letter as “a facile and extreme response to Netanyahu’s planned visit to Australia – not only referring to Israel as an ‘apartheid regime’ but implying that anyone who supports Australia-Israel relations, including even Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, is somehow not loyal to Australia”.
JOSHUA LEVI
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