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White Australia’s foreign affairs policy

By Ali Kazak - posted Monday, 26 September 2016


More or less since the 1982 Lebanon War, the ECAJ and the ZFA allowed, and the Likud government encouraged, a blurring of the roles between the ECAJ/ZFA and the Israeli Embassy. These two bodies became quasi-diplomatic agencies, often filling the vacuum created by an undermanned and remote Israel embassy.

And on 20.8.1993 Helene Teichmann wrote in AJN:

…[the Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak] Rabin has praised the ZFA’s work and there has never been an indication from any Israeli government, publicly or privately, that the ZFA is not doing what is good for Israel and our community or that some other organ could do better. Nor does the ZFA act in splendid isolation. The Israeli Embassy and the Federation consult closely and completely agree as to their respective roles.

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The SMH reported Mr Mark Leibler on 3.7.1993 as revealing that:

ZFA receives funds from the Jewish Agency in Israel.”

In an article titled ‘Candidly Speaking: Australia’s new PM- a proven friend of Israel’ in the Jerusalem Post on 24.6.2010 the former Executive Council of Australian Jewry Isi Leibler wrote:

Jewish leaders have established a long tradition of strong public advocacy on behalf of Israel, and they can take much of the credit for the fact that successive governments have maintained a strong bi partisan support for Israel.

When the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator Gareth Evans criticised Israel’s human rights records during a visit to Israel in 1992 and echoed U.S. support for U.N. General Assembly Resolution 194 which calls for the repatriation of the Palestinian refugees ethnically cleansed by Jewish terrorism from their homeland in 1948, the Australian newspaper reported on 13.6.1992 the president of the ECAJ Leslie Caplan in an article ‘Jewish community pressures Evans on criticism of Israel’, saying:

Unless the Government stepped back from the views expressed by Senator Evans, it would cost the ALP significant Jewish support at the next federal election.” And Jewish MP, Barry Cohen, said “the Jewish community, particularly in Melbourne and Sydney, had always been a strong source of ideological and financial support for the ALP. That will be weakened whenever a government appears to be antagonistic towards the State of Israel.

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Also when Labor MPs criticised Israel’s violations of Palestinian human rights in 2003, there was the threat of withdrawing Jewish financial support to Labor, leading the former Federal Labor MP Julia Irwin to say as reported in the Australian:

The threat to withdraw financial support for the ALP because of perceived anti-Israel comments by Labor backbenchers is worrying. Not because the Labor needs the money, but because it suggests that all party members must toe the line even if their comments broadly agree with Labor policy.

And when Palestinian political activist Hanan Ashrawi was awarded the 2003 Sydney Peace Prize, businessman Frank Lowy and AIJAC were one of the most vociferous and he pressured NSW premier Bob Carr and the Sydney Peace Foundation from giving the award. Lowy and his Westfield company are big donators to both political parties. He told the NSW parliamentary inquiry into the Orange Grove affair in 2004 that:

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About the Author

Ali Kazak is a former Palestinian ambassador and head of delegation.

Other articles by this Author

All articles by Ali Kazak

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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