QLD Labor accuses Israel of ethnic cleansing
The Queensland Labor Party has passed a resolution at its state conference accusing Israel of “ethnic cleansing”.
At the conference Image: Twitter
The resolution passed by the dominant left-wing of the party also accused Israel of “ongoing Israeli annexation by stealth of Palestinian land”.
Shadow Treasurer Penny Wong stated: “Viewing any conflict from only one perspective will not advance the cause of peace.
It will take leaders recognising their respective roles in the cycle of escalation and conflict, and returning to meaningful dialogue and negotiation, for a just and enduring peace to be achieved.”
Australian community leaders were very critical of the resolution. The co-CEO of The Executive Council of Australian Jewry Peter Wertheim said: “There are a handful of people in the ALP in Queensland whose professed zeal for the Palestinian cause is matched only by their ignorance of the facts. The resolution they have engineered is a testament to their amateurishness in foreign policy. It is a ludicrously misinformed and one-sided resolution. For a start, there have been no “forced evictions” from Sheikh Jarrah. The civil case in which private parties are contesting ownership is awaiting a final court judgment. The resolution is also silent about the Hamas rocket attacks, Palestinian riots and the ‘Tik Tok’ assaults in Jerusalem, Palestinian leaders’ rejection of Israeli peace offers and their ongoing rejection of Israel’s right to exist.
Thankfully, there are still some adults in the room in the ALP when it comes to foreign policy. Shadow Foreign Minister Penny Wong is to be commended for her public criticism of the substance of this resolution and for breaking ranks with those in her own faction who were responsible for putting it forward.”
Jeremy Leibler, president of the Zionist Federation of Australia commented: “We welcome Penny Wong’s condemnation of the biased and factually incorrect resolution passed by the Queensland Labor party. Penny Wong is absolutely right that a blinkered view of the conflict ‘will not advance the cause of peace’.
Senator Wong also condemned the Hamas rocket fire into Israel during last month’s Hamas–Israel violence, when many other Labor MPs failed to do so. She also reaffirmed Labor’s support for the IHRA working definition of antisemitism at the ZFA Biennial Conference last November. This is especially important given the dramatic rise in antisemitism we have seen in Australia and around the world in the wake of the recent Hamas–Israel violence.”
That said, we remain concerned that the national Labor conference called for the next Labor government to reward Palestinians for refusing to negotiate with Israel by unilaterally recognising Palestine. The ZFA believes that a viable two-state outcome will only be achieved as a result of negotiations and is confident that the next Labor government will maintain the bipartisan consensus on this issue.”
The Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council’s executive director Dr Colin Rubenstein told J-Wire: “The Queensland Branch of the ALP has disgraced the party and embarrassed its national leadership by passing a morally reprehensible, completely one-sided and factually ludicrous resolution over the weekend, in which it demonised Israel and showed disregard for peace, justice and for the needs of the Palestinian people abused under the rule of Hamas.
The resolution went so far as to falsely accuse Israel of “ethnic cleansing”. By failing to even mention that Hamas initiated the conflict and fired more than 4000 rockets indiscriminately at Israeli cities, the Branch demonstrated a lack of interest in understanding the issues, or in contributing to a better future. AIJAC welcomes the timely, principled intervention of ALP Federal Foreign Affairs spokesperson Sen. Penny Wong helping to make much of this clear to the Queensland Branch. We call on other ALP figures to support genuine moves toward peace, and do more to reign in the unacceptable, destructive, one-sided statements and actions of the local party in that state and indeed, by too many other ALP members elsewhere in Australia.”
Retired federal Labor MP Michael Danby added: “It’s sickening for the Qld ALP to have its conference say that it’s “understandable” for Hamas to fire missiles on Israeli civilians’.
Also, the local context is relevant. It’s politically bankrupt that a socialist Left dominated conference last weekend in Brisbane would effectively support the women-hating,gay-bashing medievalists of Hamas.”
In the meantime, regular Israel-bashing former foreign minister Bob Carr had something to say on the subject on Twitter.
On the weekend the Queensland ALP conference carried a strong pro Palestine motion referring to the Nakbar, annexation by stealth through settlements, the forced removal of Palestinians from their homes in Sheik Jarrah and settler attacks on worshippers. Supported by all factions pic.twitter.com/7A4zmmZPN3
— Bob Carr (@bobjcarr) June 7, 2021
Sitting Federal Labor MP Josh Burns told J-Wire: “This is a disappointing and blatantly one-sided motion but rest assured it in no way represents Federal Labor’s balanced policy in support of Israel and a two-state solution and it will have absolutely no impact on Federal Labor policy.”
Liberal MPs and Senators have united to call out the disgusting anti-Israel resolution successfully passed by the Queensland Division of the Australian Labor Party that called Israel defending itself as an agent engaging in “ethnic cleansing”.
The decision of Queensland Labor to pass this resolution with majority member support follows a resolution by Federal Labor in March to withdraw support for a negotiated two-state solution and instead to recognise a state of Palestine unilaterally
Federal Liberal MPs and Senators James Paterson, Dr Katie Allen, Dave Sharma and Tim Wilson all united in their condemnation and have demanded that Federal Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese to call out the resolution and completely overturn it.
“We know Anthony Albanese has ‘palled’ around with Jeremy Corbyn in the past and is borrowing his campaign strategy and slogans, but it is deeply disturbing that the Labor Party is adopting his anti-Israel agenda too. Albanese has no choice but to call his left-wing factional allies who run Queensland Labor and demand the resolution to be overturned”, Victorian Senator James Paterson said today.
“This is now an issue of leadership for Anthony Albanese. It isn’t enough just to send out his Foreign Affairs spokesperson, he needs to personally condemn it. Australia’s Jewish community should be deeply disturbed by the anti-Israel and anti-Jewish sentiment proliferating inside the Labor Party and that they can’t trust Labor to be united and firm on Israel’s right to defend itself”, Member for Higgins, Dr Katie Allen, said.
“This resolution by Queensland Labor passes the hallmark tests of antisemitism: it seeks to delegitimise and demonise Israel and holds Israel to double standards. It makes no mention of the obstacles to peace on the Palestinian side, such as Hamas’s continued commitment to the destruction of the state of Israel. I urge Australian Labor not to follow the path taken by its UK Labor colleagues under Corbyn”, Member for Wentworth and Former Australian Ambassador to Israel, Dave Sharma said.
“While welcome that some Labor MPs have found the courage to call out the anti-Israel resolution, it also highlights that there is a dark anti-Israel underbelly to the Labor Party that doesn’t believe Israel and the Jewish people have a right to defend themselves”, Member for Goldstein, Tim Wilson said.
“The Parliamentary Labor Party is bound by its members’ policy resolutions so this cannot just be dismissed as the views of their rank and file in Queensland. If Mr Albanese does not overturn this outrageously one-sided motion which denies Israel’s right to defend itself, we will know where he really stands on this issue”, Senator James Paterson said.
