BDS rears its ugly head at the City of Sydney Council
The City of Sydney has voted to adopt a BDS against suppliers involved in “human rights abuses in Palestine”.
David Ossip
Lord Mayor Clover Moore has voted with those supporting the motion brought by Greens councillor Sylvie Ellsmore.
The Australian reported that the motion was to ask the council’s CEO “to ensure that council’s investment policy 2023 fully consider companies involved in, or profiting from, any human rights violations, including the illegal occupation of the settlements in Palestinian territories, and the supply of weapons”.
Liberal councillors Shna Jarrett and Lyndon Gannon did not vote for the motion.
President of The New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies David Ossip told J-Wire: “Such a move does nothing to advance peace in the Middle East, but does everything to foment division and further disrupt social harmony here in Sydney.
In the interests of its ratepayers and residents, the Council needs to resist its inclination to make forays into foreign policy.
It is particularly galling that the Council has chosen to demonise Israel at a time when it is fighting a multi-front existential war against Iran and its proxies.
We thank Councillors Gannon and Jarrett for their principled opposition to this resolution and continued support of our community.”
Peter Wertheim
Peter Wertheim, co-CEO of The Executive Council of Australian Jewry, commented: “Sydney City Council has shown spectacular ineptitude in its latest foray into international affairs.
It has acknowledged the terrorist atrocities committed by Hamas in Israel last year but has decided to punish not the perpetrators but the victims for having the temerity to defend themselves.
Appeals to principle seem to have no impact on the muddled morality of Sydney City Council. Perhaps it will find economic considerations more persuasive when it recalls the fiasco of the aborted Marrickville Council decision to boycott and divest from Israel in 2011.
The idea was abandoned after an internal Council report showed that a boycott of Israel would cost rate-payers a minimum of $3,700,000.00. How many millions of dollars would it cost the ratepayers of Sydney City Council in 2024? A body that struggles to achieve competence in collecting the garbage and fixing potholes might be overreaching itself just a tad in its pretensions to forge peace in the Middle East.”
The City of Sydney Council’s CEO, Monica Barone, will report to the council after three months,
It would be helpful if you provided email addresses to the Council and Clover Moore for us to lodge complaints. These emails matter. They are taken into consideration.
Great comment, Peter Wertheim. Indeed, let the SCC look to its garbage collection and pot holes instead of playing international peace-keepers.
What a bad joke. What an pathetically ill-informed decision.
pathetic!
No doubt these geniuses will be throwing their computers and phones in the bin and desisting from using WAZE to get around central Sydney’s appalling traffic.