The land the Palestinians dream about returning to is no more, and the land that Israelis dream about possessing forever has turned into an immoral and unsustainable nightmare. The Australian Jewish Democratic Society grieves for the future of Palestinians and Israelis. The AJDS is also concerned at the deteriorating domestic political environment, particularly with the Continue reading »
Israel / Palestine
Over the last few weeks we have been bombarded with a number of assertions, advanced firstly as mere mantra, but then appearing as axioms, or self-evident truths. Israel has a right to defend itself; and Israel has a right to exist. I wish to question whether these two statements are as axiomatic as our Prime Continue reading »
There will be no end to the occupation and death until there is a political settlement with justice for both Palestinians and Israelis. Continue reading »
An older man, grey-haired but quite firm in his manner as he spoke to the ABC TV reporter on Palestine’s West Bank. He was an Israeli, he said, and he was claiming the building site because, ‘God gave us this land.’ He fingered what seemed to be a real estate contract tucked under his left Continue reading »
The UN is calling the Israel-Hamas war a ‘graveyard of children’…. an adult conflict, in which the young are suffering most. What we see on our TV screens every night is impossible to watch. Did Netanyahu see the young lad who had just carried the decapitated body of his friend from the rubble. If so, Continue reading »
Israel’s strategic choices, as Israelis see it, are rather like those sometimes argued for Australia. It wants powerful friends but cannot take them for granted. Ultimately it must depend on itself, if needs be alone. Surrounded by deadly enemies, it must make the cost of conquest so high, and so uncertain, that invaders are deterred. Continue reading »
It is journalistic malpractice for the media to still be repeating so credulously the Israeli military’s account of that day. The BBC’s Lucy Williamson was taken once again this week to view the terrible destruction at a kibbutz community just outside Gaza attacked on October 7. As we have been shown so many times before, Continue reading »
For decades, the western world has been fed Israeli/Zionist narratives about their country being exceptional, Palestinians not existing or being less than human. False Israeli accounts have been swallowed by a compliant media and by politicians scared of being accused of being even slightly anti-Semitic. This toxic narrative should have been challenged and stopped years go. Continue reading »
Australians have been assured by the Albanese government of greater transparency and accountability on defence. So soon after the 2022-23 parliamentary inquiry into how the country goes to war, that has already fallen over. The promised parliamentary debate before a deployment to overseas conflict hasn’t been held. The dispatch of 270 ADF troops and three Continue reading »
There is “a real risk” of the Occupied Territory of Palestine in the West Bank “spiralling out of control”, the UN said this week. This risk is driven by the rapid rise in uncontrolled violence being carried out by armed settlers supported by the Israeli military against unarmed Palestinians, particularly in the unprotected farming areas Continue reading »