Interestingly, The Age newspaper has just published two op-ed pieces on bigotry. The first, by Waleed Aly [executive committe member of the Islamic Council of Victoria] appeared yesterday.
Aly writes:
"The bombardment of Lebanon has spawned a humanitarian crisis. Hundreds have been killed. Well over half a million have been displaced. Basic amenities such as electricity are increasingly scarce.
Only last week, 25,000 Australian citizens were caught in the middle of this military bombardment, awaiting evacuation or perhaps a violent death. In such a situation, the only relevant question for the Australian Government is how, not if, to evacuate them. And indeed, notwithstanding the grievances of various community spokespeople about the evacuation's efficiency, this was precisely the Federal Government's response. Simple, really.
How then, did an unambiguously tragic humanitarian mess, and the consequent evacuations of Australian citizens, give life to what the Prime Minister last week acknowledged was an emerging debate on dual citizenship? Suddenly, against a backdrop of Lebanese rubble and emotional family reunions of Australian evacuees, Western Australian MP Wilson Tuckey is arguing that dual citizenship should be abolished; that people should choose one or the other. One might have supposed the crisis in the Middle East should precipitate debate about international law, diplomacy, military ethics, even the proper distribution of aid. But multiple passports?"
Today, David Bernstein [Letters Editor of The Age] writes:
"Several years ago, Britain's Chief Rabbi, Dr Jonathan Sacks, was asked by Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland how he had reacted when he read reports of Israeli soldiers posing with the corpse of a slain Palestinian. He replied: "There are things that happen on a daily basis that make me feel very uncomfortable as a Jew."
I — and I can only assume many other Jewish readers — felt much the same when we opened yesterday's Age and saw, dominating the front page, a huge picture of a rescue worker carrying the lifeless body of a Lebanese child from the ruins of an apartment building in the village of Qana, devastated by an Israeli bomb. The accompanying report said she was just one of 37 children killed in the attack, in which at least 50 people died."
All too sadly, bigotry in all its manifestations, is still with us. It is a scourge which just won't go away - especially if politicians are prepared to "play" the subject for their own political ends.
Read Aly's full piece here and that of Bernstein here.
Aly writes:
"The bombardment of Lebanon has spawned a humanitarian crisis. Hundreds have been killed. Well over half a million have been displaced. Basic amenities such as electricity are increasingly scarce.
Only last week, 25,000 Australian citizens were caught in the middle of this military bombardment, awaiting evacuation or perhaps a violent death. In such a situation, the only relevant question for the Australian Government is how, not if, to evacuate them. And indeed, notwithstanding the grievances of various community spokespeople about the evacuation's efficiency, this was precisely the Federal Government's response. Simple, really.
How then, did an unambiguously tragic humanitarian mess, and the consequent evacuations of Australian citizens, give life to what the Prime Minister last week acknowledged was an emerging debate on dual citizenship? Suddenly, against a backdrop of Lebanese rubble and emotional family reunions of Australian evacuees, Western Australian MP Wilson Tuckey is arguing that dual citizenship should be abolished; that people should choose one or the other. One might have supposed the crisis in the Middle East should precipitate debate about international law, diplomacy, military ethics, even the proper distribution of aid. But multiple passports?"
Today, David Bernstein [Letters Editor of The Age] writes:
"Several years ago, Britain's Chief Rabbi, Dr Jonathan Sacks, was asked by Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland how he had reacted when he read reports of Israeli soldiers posing with the corpse of a slain Palestinian. He replied: "There are things that happen on a daily basis that make me feel very uncomfortable as a Jew."
I — and I can only assume many other Jewish readers — felt much the same when we opened yesterday's Age and saw, dominating the front page, a huge picture of a rescue worker carrying the lifeless body of a Lebanese child from the ruins of an apartment building in the village of Qana, devastated by an Israeli bomb. The accompanying report said she was just one of 37 children killed in the attack, in which at least 50 people died."
All too sadly, bigotry in all its manifestations, is still with us. It is a scourge which just won't go away - especially if politicians are prepared to "play" the subject for their own political ends.
Read Aly's full piece here and that of Bernstein here.
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