Labor silent on BDS, outspoken on “apartheid” Israel
Media, politicians from both sides of the divide, have made strong criticisms of Labor’s Senator Susan Lines following a speech in which she supported Amnesty International report branding Israel as an “apartheid” state.
Senator Sue Lines Photo: Screenshot
Anthony Albanese came under fire for voicing his distaste of BDS yet remaining silent when the Sydney Festival became a victim of BDS following an offer accepting a $20,000 sponsorship from Israel’s embassy in Canberra.
In the Senate, WA Senator Lines said: “The Amnesty International report published last week confirms Israeli policies against Palestinians fit the definition of the international crime of apartheid. The report follows a long list of other institutions and human rights organizations, international, Palestinian and Israeli that have analyzed and confirmed the policies of successive Israeli governments constitute apartheid. Amnesty International is calling on Israel to dismantle this cruel system and the international community must pressure it to do so.”
On Sky News, presenter and leading journalist Sharri Markson told her viewers: “This Senator Lyons is part of Labor’s Senate leadership team, and Anthony Albanese has praised often. at a press conference in June 2019. Albanese said he promoted Lines to the deputy president leadership.”
Former Labor MP Michael Danby told Markson: “She is slated to become president of the Senate. The third-ranking person in Australia, if there’s a change of government.
And her comments are just extraordinary. We’ve got an Arab party as part of the new Israeli coalition and many of the Arab states are making peace. Peace with Israel. Her comments are unfair and unjust.
Just this week, The Economist said Israel was one of the higher ranking democracies in the world and the highest-ranking one in the Middle East.”
Michael Danby farewells Canberra Photo: supplied
Danby claimed that Senator Lines had never said a single word about the million Uyghurs being held in concentration camps by the Chinese communists.
He added: “It’s a worry and a concern that people like her will be elevated if and when we’re elected into government.”
Nationals Senator Matt Canavan told Markson: “It’s a worry and a concern that people like her will be elevated if and when we’re elected into government. If after May, we have Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, it’ll be him who will be pushed and prodded by the left-wing forces of his party, including by people like Senator Lines. At the moment she is effectively the president-elect of the Senate. If the Labour Party were to win, she would be in the queue greeting world leaders.
He said the Amnesty International report is ‘incredibly biased’.
He added: “It completely ignores the inequities that exist in the Palestinian-controlled areas in the Levant. In Palestine for example, it is illegal for a Jew to buy real estate, and it punishable by death to sell it to a Jew.”
If you think Israel is apparently an apartheid state, what does it say about the PLA? What does it say about the Palestinian territories?
Liberal member for Wentworth Dave Sharma told The Australian: ““Albanese proudly told the Jewish community last year that he was firmly opposed to the BDS movement,” he said. “But he refuses to condemn it when it rears its head, and his parliamentary team has free licence to peddle this anti-Israel nonsense.” Mr Sharma described Senator Lines’ endorsement of the Amnesty report as “deeply worrying”, “wrong on the facts” and said it was “part of a pattern of behaviour by Labor figures who should know better but seek to dog whistle to the anti-Israel lobby”.
Hoping that jews will keep that in mind!! Labor/Greens/Democrats are NOT our friends!!
Remember: Hitlers party was labour too, and so was Stalin…