Secord champions Israel in parliament
NSW state Labor MP Walt Secord went to the extraordinary length of raising three points of order in defence of Israel during a speech by his own party colleague in the NSW Upper House last Thursday.
NSW state Labor MP Walt Secord went to the extraordinary length of raising three points of order in defence of Israel during a speech by his own party colleague in the NSW Upper House last Thursday.
Speaking to a motion acknowledging the NSW Parliamentary Friends of Israel’s study mission to Israel in January, MLC Shaoquett Moselmane launched a stinging diatribe that included describing the UN partition plan that led to Israel’s independence as a “corruption of justice”.
Moselmane also called Gaza “the world’s largest open-air prison camp”, accused Israel of operating “torture camps” in southern Lebanon, and compared Lebanese resistance to Israel’s operations in Southern Lebanon with resistance to Nazi Germany. “There was nothing fair or legitimate about the United Nations’ offer [to partition the British Mandate of Palestine] … but even this corruption of justice was not enough to satisfy the craving to take over people’s land,” he said. “Ever since 1948 the Israeli Zionist plan has been acquiring territory to expand the borders of the Jewish colonial state.”
Moselmane said he resented parliamentary members accusing the Lebanese resistance of being terrorist groups. “I salute them for their resistance,” he said. “Imagine what the response would have been in 1941 or 1942 if we had condemned resistance against Nazi Germany.”
Greens MLC David Shoebridge also made a similar speech accusing Israel of a number of atrocities.
In raising his points of order, Secord, who is deputy chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Israel, labelled Moselmane’s speech as “simply an anti-Israel rant”.
“The member [Moselmane] is not speaking to the motion and as the deputy chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Israel, I disassociate myself from his remarks,” Secord said in Parliament. Secord later told The AJN: “I completely disagree from the statements. I took the unusual step of doing so publicly in the NSW Parliament.
“I completely dissociated myself from the views. I make no apologies for taking a stand.”
NSW Jewish Board of Deputies CEO Vic Alhadeff, who was in the gallery for the three-hour discussion, commented: “It was very disappointing to hear such outrageous slurs and baseless comments made against Israel in an Australian parliament.
“Fortunately, they came from a handful of marginal MPs and were quickly and appropriately condemned by Labor and Liberal MPs such as Walt Secord and Peter Phelps.”
Vaucluse MP and Parliamentary Friends of Israel chair Gabrielle Upton “strongly condemned” the “highly offensive” statements. “I commend the Legislative Council members who took a stand railing against those statements,” she said.
Israeli Ambassador Yuval Rotem said: “It is immensely troubling to see a member of the NSW Labor Party, in an official capacity, using such contemptible tone and terminology. It was also very disappointing to see that only one member of the NSW Labor Party, Mr Walt Secord, stood up and spoke against these unacceptable, highly defamatory statements.”
GARETH NARUNSKY
Walt Secord at the Western Wall in 2012.
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