"No faith, no religion, no set of beliefs should ever be used as an instrument of division or exclusion." (Shorten to front Christian lobby over his values, James Massola, Sydney Morning Herald, 25/10/14)
That's what federal Opposition leader Bill Shorten reportedly said to Australia's Christian lobby on the subject of same-sex marriages last Saturday.
One is left wondering how, if he really believes what he says, Shorten can reconcile this statement of principle with his unqualified support for Israel, a state which occupies, oppresses and dispossesses the Palestinians simply because they are not Jewish.
As historian Adel Safty reminds us:
"Had the Palestinians been Jewish, they would have been entitled by law in Israel to automatic citizenship, political rights, subsidized housing and medical care." (Might Over Right: How the Zionists Took Over Palestine, 2009, p 255)
Bill?
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5 comments:
"simply because they are not Jewish".... Talk about "simple"! That is about the most simplistic argument I've ever read. How about giving consideration to the possibility that SOME degree of the treatment meted out to Palestinians (for whom I have a great deal of sympathy, by the way) might be due to their abject refusal to even recognise Israel's right to exist, and their advocacy of the Palestinians Charter which calls for the extermination of Jews. If you are going to blog on this subject, do yourself a favour and at least try and portray a modicum of objectivity. Otherwise it's just another rant session, of no value to anyone that serves no purpose whatsoever.
You've never heard of Israel's biology-based Law of Return, Israel's test for entry and citizenship? Just click on the appropriate label and educate yourself.
Israel's right to exist? What? As an apartheid state based on the occupation, oppression and dispossession of Palestine's indigenous inhabitants? Don't be daft.
In response to the anonymous comment:
Show us the part of the Palestians charter that calls for the extermination of all Jews? If you're referring to the Hamas Charter, it is some semi-religious document that even Hamas does not take seriously. It would be like regarding the statements of Rabbi Yisrael as official Israeli policy:
http://www.islamagainstextremism.com/articles/pkfjt-jewish-talmudic-extremism-rabbi-yisrael-all-palestinians-must-be-killed-men-women-infants-and-beasts.cfm
In fact, similar statements have been made by several rabbis recently.
Hamas has accepted the existence of Israel:
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.587047
But it and the PA refuse to accept Israel as a "Jewish State". Would you or the many muslims, atheists, Hindus accept Australia as a "Christian State"?
So let's indeed have a modicum of objectivity!
Bill Shorten has already nailed his colours to the mast:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/01/bill-shorten-speech-on-israeli-settlements-stirs-palestinian-group
and
http://antonyloewenstein.com/2010/07/02/does-the-zionist-lobby-have-blood-on-its-hands-in-australia/
From the latter (in 2010):
"According to Sheridan, the plotters of the Labor Right in federal parliament, Mark Arbib, Bill Shorten, Joe Ludwig and David Feeney, all known supporters of Israel, were motivated, at least in part, by a concern that the lobby was sufficiently angry with Rudd to consider redirecting its money to the Liberals in the lead-up to the coming federal election."
Who would have believed aparthied South Africa if it had tried to mount the argument that opposition to it was tantamount to the refusal of the right to exist as a nation or as a people? The proponents of aparthied knew it was preposterous so they didn't try.
Apartheid South Africa did however try the two, or multiple, state solution. Just as the British and French tried in the greater Middle East following WW1.
Some advocates of the Bandit state are now pretending to seek "two states", just as the Balfour Declaration and countless others pretended, for public consumption, over the last hundred years, but have no intention of attempting to actually deliver this illusion as a "solution".
So long as the Bandit State is allowed to get away with the occupation of historic Palestine and the accompaning land grabs they know that they can talk and talk about "peace" and "two states" and then blame the victims for their own dispossession.
Just how do Gaza and the West Bank make one? Don't they really mean a three mini-statelett solution, with the Greater Bandit State staying on as the prison gatekeeper and overseer?
Ghettoism, apartheid, segeragation and Zionism, same horse, different stable, same outcome, same fate.
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