Hanson and Roberts get a change of venue
Melbourne organiser Avi Yemini has been forced to change the venue of a meeting for Independent Jewish Council of Australia at which One Nation Senators Pauline Hanson and Malcolm Roberts are scheduled to address.
Senators Malcolm Roberts and Pauline Hanson
Glen Eira Council are told Yemini that they cannot accommodate the meeting due to time problems and security issues.
The owner of the IDF Training in Caulfield told J-Wire that he will host the meeting at his gym.
Yemini posted in Facebook: “The event is happening! While the Glen Eira Council is continuing to play their games, we’ve decided to simply move the event to a private location.
Avi Yemini
I don’t think anyone really wants to live with division, violence and fear. We all want to live in peace, we just have very different ideas about how to go about it and this is the beauty of living in a democracy – we can.
There is nothing wrong with inviting two elected Australian senators to speak to my community. I don’t think there is anything wrong with taking the initiative and creating a chance for my community to meet with people in positions of power.
I am a Jew. My heritage is half Yemenite, half Eastern-European. I am a proud Australian-Israeli, born and bred in St Kilda East, married to a half Chinese Australian and step father to two Afro-Brazilian kids. We’re hardly “white Australia”.
I voice my opinions and I am not afraid to be unpopular or to get things wrong or change my mind. I am completely unaffiliated and not particularly religious AND I am as much a part of the Melbourne Jewish community and the broader Australian community as anyone else.
I’ll never apologise for starting my own Jewish organisation when there are none that truly represent me.
I understand why the people who don’t agree with my views or Pauline Hanson’s, would rather discredit the whole event and sit behind their computer screen typing out statements, rather than make the effort to have a discussion. It is just so much easier.
I’m the last person to want to have a difficult conversation, just ask my wife – we disagree on SO many hot topics, so it is mostly difficult conversations at home. She is the smart one who pushes me to come to the table and talk and many times, having access to her way of seeing things influences me and helps me grow as a person.
It isn’t easy, but because we know we’re in this together, we work to make it work.
This is the thing. We are all part of the same community. If we want to be heard and understood, if we really care about unity, we need to be willing to come together and have a discussion instead of sitting outside making a vague and fractured statement or worse, getting violent and divisive.
This event is an opportunity and an invitation to the ENTIRE Jewish community, not just those who support my views or my right to express them, to come and discuss the issues that matter to them.
The police will be in attendance, so safety will not be an issue. Whether you want to challenge our senators or want to hear them speak, all civil, respectful members of the community are welcome.”
Mary Delahunty
Councillor Mary Delahunty posted on her FB page: “I would like to provide some clarification to recent press reporting and social media regarding an event proposed by the as yet unincorporated Independent Jewish Council of Australia with guest speakers Senators Pauline Hanson and Malcolm Roberts from the One Nation Party.
I strongly reject the assertion that our inability to provide a venue for this event is associated in any way with politics or religious views. Council has a long history of productive and valued relationships with the local Jewish community and its peak bodies, and I am highly offended that it would be suggested otherwise.
Yesterday I met with Senator Malcolm Roberts and expressed my outrage that commentary from his office was not only inaccurate, but serving to fuel discriminatory sentiment and division in our community. It’s offensive to me but it’s deeply offensive to those in the Jewish community who work hard staring down actual anti-semitic behavior everyday, Willful ignorance from people who hold high office diminishes this work.
Council’s facilities are available to all, but at short notice and at one of the busiest times of year, we were unable to safely accommodate a venue for 100+ people plus the associated protesters and demonstrators without cancelling other long held private bookings or community services on the day. Had the event organiser been up front with Council at the time of his initial telephone enquiry, we would have been able to make this clear.”
Chairman of the The B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission (ADC), Dvir Abramovich told J-Wire: ““ I call on Senators Hanson and Roberts not to employ this platform to scapegoat, single out and demonise any religious and ethnic group, which will only undermine the cohesive fabric of multicultural society and contribute to a climate in which bigotry and hatred become mainstream and acceptable.
We also call on Senator Roberts to take the opportunity to disassociate himself from the book Secrets of the Federal Reserve by notorious anti-Semite and Holocaust denier Eustace Mullins, which Senator Roberts cites as primary reference in his Why? Motives Driving Climate Change and to immediately remove that text from his report. Mullins accused Jews of being parasites, baby-killers and blood-drinkers and peddled his ugly rhetoric about international Jewish banking conspiracies, claiming that “The Federal Reserve Bank is really just the high Jewish bank”. Mullins’s writings, tarred with his vile racism, should never be cited or used in any debate, let alone by a parliamentarian.”
All is not well in the Caulfield District and Melbourne Ports Electorates.
Its hard to believe Yemeni trusts these One Nation People who have dangerous and nutlike views .
The Jewish community in Australia was not comfortable with the One Nation of 1998 which had many Holocaust Deniers and Racists and noting the many people who voted for One Nation in 2016 is bewildered again and believe One Nation dangerously too far out morally and politically .
According to the JCCV/ECAJ and their statement to be included as a main stream Jewish community member you must follow the Progressive ‘Group Think” on Multiculturalism , Immigration etc
and how dare AVi start a new Jewish group that may represent the views on some but not all without going to the JCCV office and ask permission , shame on you AVI..