Reporting on a visit to Israel
Four recent visitors to Israel on AIJAC’s Rambam Israel Fellowship program, three Federal MPs and one from the media, reported on their visits to AIJAC supporters at a recent Melbourne function.
AIJAC National Chairman Mark Leibler, Zoe McKenzie MP, Michelle Ananda Rajah MP, Josh Burns MP, Gemma Tognini, AIJAC Executive Director Dr Colin Rubenstein
MPs Josh Burns, member for Macnamara, Michelle Ananda-Rajah, member for Higgins and Zoe McKenzie, member for Flinders, travelled to Israel in December last year, together with Shadow Foreign Minister Simon Birmingham and his Federal Liberal colleagues Senator David Fawcett and Andrew Wallace MP, while Gemma Tognini, a columnist for the Weekend Australian, went in June.
Josh Burns said that as soon as he arrived in Israel, he felt a sense of unity amongst the Israeli people. He saw firsthand an appreciation of the support from the Australian Jewish community. The group visited the Kfar Aza Kibbutz bordering Gaza, where Hamas carried out a massacre on October 7, and he said he was struck by the sheer scale of the Hamas atrocities. He was horrified by CCTV of the October 7 attacks, but as his colleagues also noted, was impressed by the warmth with which the group was welcomed by all Israelis, and the Israeli gratitude for the group’s visit. He said no country, including Australia, would tolerate the depravity of Hamas’ terror.
Michelle Ananda-Rajah said she didn’t hesitate to go to Israel, but nothing could have prepared her for what she saw there, which she now can’t unsee. She added that the Israel she saw was as united as could be imagined. She stressed that you can’t really understand the region without going there. We are living through a historic moment, she added, and it needs to be chronicled in the face of denialism which is already emerging. The context is a declaration of war by Iran, through its proxies, with the Palestinian people caught in the middle through Hamas’ design. She agreed that no country would tolerate a genocidal regime on its doorstep, adding it is part of a global battle. Closer to home, she noted that Australia’s Jewish community is experiencing unbelievable antisemitism, and there is a need to get the silent majority involved in fighting it.
Zoe McKenzie, said her first visit to Israel opened her mind and understanding, while this, her second, was an exploration of grief, in Israel and subsequently in Australia. She spoke of two contrasting experiences resulting from her trip. A social media photograph of her in Israel together with Josh Burns was greeted with a storm of hostility, which she described as hate, ignorance, stupidity and abuse, recognising that our community has had to endure much worse since October 7. Then, after she gave a television interview about her experiences in Israel, she received an avalanche of grateful letters from the Jewish community, which she treasures, although she found it strange to be thanked for simply doing what’s right. She noted that social media algorithms are very influential, and are encouraging anti-Israel feeling, and that we need to work through addressing the hate.
Gemma Tognini felt her visit gave her the authenticity to write on the issue, which she has been doing regularly in her columns since October 7. She was struck by how little of the money UNRWA receives seems to be improving conditions for Palestinians in a refugee camp her group visited, and the incongruity in Sderot of a town that needed bomb shelters dotted everywhere, but was still a thriving community. She also felt strange being thanked for doing what’s right, and said more needs to be done to improve social cohesion in the face of the upsurge in antisemitism. Those who are demanding a permanent ceasefire, she said, need to consider what’s next.
