Maher Mughrabi, in an op-ed piece in The Age, writes:
"On May 20, Prime Minister John Howard will receive the Jerusalem Prize from the State Zionist Council of Victoria, the Zionist Federation of Australia and Israel's World Zionist Organisation "for his support of the Jewish community and Israel".
It's no secret that Israel enjoys support from both sides of the political establishment; Labor and Liberal leaders compete to secure the favour of Australia's Jewish community, but the matter goes deeper than that. From Kevin Rudd's stories of an ALP government casting the first vote at the UN for partition of Palestine to Tony Abbott's proclamation after Bali that "we are all Israelis now", Australian leaders promote the notion that this country is bound to Israel by shared democratic values against the backdrop of an undemocratic Middle East."
That the PM even considers accepting the award - whatever it's real worth other than curry favour with the Jewish community - is troubling enough more especially given the fact that the JNF is closely involved in the misappropriation of Palestinian land. Those actions have been condemned by numbers of UN resolutions. Then there is the fact that the message to Australia's Arab community [some half a million] is that Australia supports the actions of Israel. And finally the person presenting the award is a rabid right-winger, as Crikey has pointed out:
"What does trouble me is that he will share the podium with the hawkish chief guest at the dinner, American-Lebanese journalist Brigitte Gabriel, former newsreader for a televangelist TV channel and author of BECAUSE THEY HATE: A Survivor of Islamic Terror Warns America.
The book’s cover reflects Gabriel’s main thesis -- that “Islamic religious authorities … repeatedly state that they will destroy the United States”. The JNF’s official biography describes Gabriel as an innocent victim of the Lebanese civil war … "pitting the combined forces of militant Muslims and Palestinians against the Christian Lebanese".
Gabriel’s Lebanese upbringing is described as the "Arabic society, culture, and media [that] taught her that Israel and Jews were the devil". So, the entire Lebanese civil war was little more than Palestinians and Lebanese Muslims attacking Christians. I doubt too many people from any of Lebanon’s 18 religious sects would agree with such a simplistic explanation.
The JNF biography describes how a "barrage of Muslim rockets exploded in her house, leaving her wounded and buried under the rubble". I wasn’t aware that rockets actually had any religion.
Another biography of Gabriel is more telling. It describes the Lebanese civil war as "Lebanon … under Islamic attack". Gabriel expressed her views in an article penned for Frontpagemag.com. She dismissed the diversity of the Muslim world as “a canvas of hate decorated by different nationalities who share one common ideology of hate, bigotry and intolerance derived from one source: authentic Islam … They slither and they hiss, and they would eat each other alive, but they will unite in a hideous mass to achieve their common goal of imposing Islam on the world.”
For more on Gabriel, read here. Are these the types of views Howard wishes to be seen potentially endorsing on the eve of an election? Can Howard afford to share the podium with a far-right commentator with a track record of promoting conspiratorial religious hatred? Perhaps Howard’s office wasn't aware Gabriel was the guest-speaker. They know now."
"On May 20, Prime Minister John Howard will receive the Jerusalem Prize from the State Zionist Council of Victoria, the Zionist Federation of Australia and Israel's World Zionist Organisation "for his support of the Jewish community and Israel".
It's no secret that Israel enjoys support from both sides of the political establishment; Labor and Liberal leaders compete to secure the favour of Australia's Jewish community, but the matter goes deeper than that. From Kevin Rudd's stories of an ALP government casting the first vote at the UN for partition of Palestine to Tony Abbott's proclamation after Bali that "we are all Israelis now", Australian leaders promote the notion that this country is bound to Israel by shared democratic values against the backdrop of an undemocratic Middle East."
That the PM even considers accepting the award - whatever it's real worth other than curry favour with the Jewish community - is troubling enough more especially given the fact that the JNF is closely involved in the misappropriation of Palestinian land. Those actions have been condemned by numbers of UN resolutions. Then there is the fact that the message to Australia's Arab community [some half a million] is that Australia supports the actions of Israel. And finally the person presenting the award is a rabid right-winger, as Crikey has pointed out:
"What does trouble me is that he will share the podium with the hawkish chief guest at the dinner, American-Lebanese journalist Brigitte Gabriel, former newsreader for a televangelist TV channel and author of BECAUSE THEY HATE: A Survivor of Islamic Terror Warns America.
The book’s cover reflects Gabriel’s main thesis -- that “Islamic religious authorities … repeatedly state that they will destroy the United States”. The JNF’s official biography describes Gabriel as an innocent victim of the Lebanese civil war … "pitting the combined forces of militant Muslims and Palestinians against the Christian Lebanese".
Gabriel’s Lebanese upbringing is described as the "Arabic society, culture, and media [that] taught her that Israel and Jews were the devil". So, the entire Lebanese civil war was little more than Palestinians and Lebanese Muslims attacking Christians. I doubt too many people from any of Lebanon’s 18 religious sects would agree with such a simplistic explanation.
The JNF biography describes how a "barrage of Muslim rockets exploded in her house, leaving her wounded and buried under the rubble". I wasn’t aware that rockets actually had any religion.
Another biography of Gabriel is more telling. It describes the Lebanese civil war as "Lebanon … under Islamic attack". Gabriel expressed her views in an article penned for Frontpagemag.com. She dismissed the diversity of the Muslim world as “a canvas of hate decorated by different nationalities who share one common ideology of hate, bigotry and intolerance derived from one source: authentic Islam … They slither and they hiss, and they would eat each other alive, but they will unite in a hideous mass to achieve their common goal of imposing Islam on the world.”
For more on Gabriel, read here. Are these the types of views Howard wishes to be seen potentially endorsing on the eve of an election? Can Howard afford to share the podium with a far-right commentator with a track record of promoting conspiratorial religious hatred? Perhaps Howard’s office wasn't aware Gabriel was the guest-speaker. They know now."
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