This letter was written by Harold Zwier, a former member of the AJDS executive, and published in the Australian Jewish News on May 16. It does not necessarily represent the views of the executive: Alan Freedman’s argument (AJN letter 10/5/2013) in favour of excluding the Austral

Robin Rothfield wrote the letter below letter to Nina Bassat of the JCCV concerning attempts to expel it from the Jewish Community Council of Victoria and it is shared with his permission. For  the attached ‘note‘ alluded to in the letter, see the attachment. Readers may

The Hon Julia Gillard MP Prime Minister CC: The Hon Brendan O’Connor MP, Attorney General Mark Dreyfus Dear Prime Minister, The Australian Jewish Democratic Society (AJDS) commends the Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, and Governor-General Quentin Bryce for

In March – timed to coincide with Pesach – AJDS launched a new campaign entitled “Don’t Buy Settlement Products”. This campaign consists of a website and facebook page. The website provides information about why settlements located in the West Bank and Golan Heights are harmful for Pa

Gideon Levy made a far-ranging presentation at Wits University in S Africa on 18 April. It is a l o n g presentation (1 hr 45 mins), which includes remarks from the floor, but at almost every point in the talk, something interesting is said. You may wish to download it to your Ipod or

גדעון לוי מדבר על הצורך בהתנגדות מהכיבוש.העולם לא יסכים ל4 מיליון פלסטינים חיים ללא זכויות וישראלים צריכים להבין את זה (לחץ על תמונה)  

I caught up with Gideon Levy after a close to 2 hour talk by him to a packed room at Wits University in Johannesburg.  Let there be no doubt about it–his words would be discomforting to both the left and right, but for different reasons.  For the left, the enormity of the challe

Please send your own form letter through this link and see here  for more information and updates about what is going on and what can be done.  Please see below the text of a letter to Brendan O’Connor MP, Minister for Immigration cc: The Honourable Mark Dreyfus QC MP 15/04/2013 Dear

Ann Fink, an Australian-Israeli dual national resident in Israeli and supporter of the AJDS had the opinion below  published on Jwire in response to an attempt to brand AJDS as being outside the pale in an opinion by Philip Mendes where he states ” [AJDS] political loyalties alw

This article by  Antony Lerman appeared in the Guardian a number of years ago now, but it well explains the current right-wing takeover of Zionist politics in Australia and the take-no-prisoners attitude to dissenters. “Yet attacks on Jewish critics are becoming desperate, for o

There is controversy about the AJDS-supported campaign for people to not buy products from the settlements.  In response to an article on Galusaustralis, Harold Zwier made this comment, which is worth quoting in its entirety. Harold is long-standing member of the AJDS and retired memb

[ April 7, 2013; ] We're very excited to invite you to a special AJDS event: The AJDS is this year re-focusing our efforts on Jewish-Indigenous solidarity. To this end we’ve started an Indigenous solidarity group within the AJDS to make connections, run events and get involved in I

The AJDS executive has decided to place on the public record the following correspondence between the AJDS and the JCCV on the topic of our letter to Bob Carr. Please read and judge for yourself. Letter 1: AJDS to Bob Carr See PDF here The Hon. Senator Bob Carr Foreign Minister PO Box

“The real dispute is not between the one-staters and the two-staters, but between those who hold that the collective right of a settler people to self-determination trumps the human and civil rights of the indigenous natives, and those who do not. According to the former, the on

A personal opinion from Larry Stillman. AJDS has been accused of many things over the years, including being a supporter of terror or anti-Israel ‘fundamentalism’.  The Jewish Community Council of Victoria minuted that AJDS was antisemitic, though it has backtracked to a d

Harold Zwier, former member of the AJDS Executive and AJDS delegate to the Jewish Community Council of Victoria, made the statement below at the JCCV Plenum meeting on 4 March 2013.  The AJDS Executive stands wholly behind it. It is published here in the public interest. With what fol

AJDS is pleased to run this information from Rabbi Yehiel Grenimann of Rabbis for Human Rights: YESTERDAY (Thursday, 20th February) Zakaria and I went to visit the village of Kusra on the way up to meeting some Bedouin in the Northern Jordan valley regarding demolition orders they ha

Dr Larry Stillman interviewed on 21 Feb 2013 about Geert Wilders, the QSociety, their obsession with halal food,  and the right to free speech on the public radio network  program  The Wire. (from about 1′.50″ onwards).

“The Prisoner X scandal has shocked many Australian Jews because it flies in the face of their status as “insiders” to Israel. Liberty, justice and equality can be good substitutes for Israeli nationalism, writes Larry Stillman” An article by in New Matilda Mag

An uncontroversial question: Should Zionist Synagogues join their local Zionist Council? [This article appeared under a slightly different heading in the Australian Jewish News this week] Harold Zwier 15th February 2013 Recently, a small modern Orthodox Synagogue in East St Kilda, dec

Rabbi Yehiel Grenimann (ex Melbourne High and Monash Univ–and thus a  personal connection with many people–) has lived in Israel for about 40 years new.  A conservative rabbi (for those who don’t know, a ‘middle of the road’ denomination), he works for Ra

In response to a recent letter (see here)  to the Minister from the AJDS, the following response has been received and the text is below and the original attached. Senator the Hon Bob Carr Minister for Foreign Affairs, Canberra [9 Jan 2013] I refer to your letter of December 5, 2012,

[ February 24, 2013; ] All members are invited to come to the AJDS Annual General Meeting 2013. See flyer here. The AGM will be held on Sunday, 24th February at 8 Yarraford Avenue, Fairfield. BBQ at 1 pm, AGM at 2.30 pm. Please bring your own meat and wine etc. All members m

This letter was submitted to the Australian Jewish News on January 21, 2013,  ahead of a major fundraising drive by the Jewish National Fund. The editor has indicated that he will not publish it. Once again, the Australian Jewish community is being hindered from hearing other voices b

by George Stein Hamra Checkpoint17 October 2012 On 17th October 2012, JVS volunteers joined two women from the Israeli organisation Machsom Watch in their visit to Hamra and Tayasir checkpoints in the Jordan Valley. This visit was prompted by a recent document issued from the Israel

22/12/2012 by George Stein On Saturday morning, the army, police and Nature and Parks authority confronted Kher Al Din at his home in Jiftlik, the Jordan Valley. Kher is our neighbor and we were asked to come and witness what was happening and offer our support. About eight men, six o

by George Stein Bir El Eid is a small village in the South Hebron Hills, located in Area C, which makes it exist under the administrative control of Israel. Because of this, if Palestinian residents want to build structures, they must seek permission from the Israeli authorities. The

At a public event to celebrate Hanukkah in Wellington,  NZ,  the Klezmer Reb band spoke out against the occupation.  Dave Moskowitz spoke  directly to the Israeli Ambassador who claimed to have not heard Dave (despite the presence of audio etc).  It’s great to see solidarity acr

[ December 10, 2012; ] UPDATE:  This was a very well attended event, and fortunately, there are mp3 audio files.  Abu Sarah was introduced by Jordy Silverstein and the meeting was chaired by Sivan Barak-Baroda of the AJDS Executive. If you want to save the mp3s, use your right hand mo

http://tinyurl.com/czkjlel Congratulations to Harold Zwier for getting national coverage in the Fairfax stable on 30 Nov 2012. Sanity over hysteria. Update: Leunig’s own response on 11 Dec 2012  to the controversy which resulted from his cartoon ON NOVEMBER 21, The Age publish

The AJDS has sent this letter to Senator Carr (attached)   The Hon. Senator Bob Carr Foreign Minister PO Box 6100 Senate Parliament House Canberra, ACT  2600 5th December 2012 Dear Senator Carr, Our organisation supports the compromise decision of the Australian government to abs

The ‘Honest Reporting’ outfit, a well-resourced international organisation that engages in hasbarah is engaged in classic media distortion by selective quotation from Harold Zwier’s opinion piece in the Melbourne Age. It makes out that Zwier was saying precisely the

Jordy Silverstein was recently interviewed on ABC News 24 the Youtube link is here. Unfortunately, the sound is out of sync, but it is the content what counts.

Larry Stillman There seem to be several lessons from the recent politics around this episode in the Australian public sphere. It has demonstrated that the so-called official leadership of the Australian Jewish Community (the “Lobby”) overplayed its hand in trying to influe

Larry Stillman Harold Zwier While the Australian government abstained from voting for the proposed UN General Assembly resolution on the recognition of the “non-member observer state” of Palestine, the Australian government, which already accepts the right of the Palestini

The following letter has been communicated to  Jewish Cultural Centre and National Library Kadimah, by the AJDS Executive in response to their cancellation of an event booked with them. —————- The Australian Jewish Democratic Society is very disappointed

by George Stein *Leila (name has been changed for job security) Leila was born in Al- Jiflik in 1962. Her family were refugees from 1948, originally from Al nfaat village, near Al khdarah which is located in the north of Palestine, around Haifa. Leila tells us, “I have never be

The AJDS Executive found itself with two different viewpoints over the current outbreak of violence between Israel and the Hamas Government in Gaza.  While there was much in common, there were different emphases. We felt that it was best to present the two points of view to the AJDS m

Time for some self-criticism. In the ordinary course of things, one would have expected many opinions and articles from AJDS on its website in response to the current outbreak of violence between Israel and Hamas and we have been discussing a response, but are yet to produce. But as w

by MJ Rosenberg reposted from here Today I received an email inviting me to a rally to express solidarity with Israel signed by the major mainstream pro-Israel and Jewish organizations ranging from those on the extreme far right all the way to J Street. J Street! J Street is, of cours

by George Stein I visited a family friend while in Palestine on my current visit. She is part of a group called ‘ayalim,’ which aims to encourage students studying in Ben Gurion University in the Negev to consider permanent settlement in the area, to increase the population of Jews in

by George Stein “Aid … undermines the Palestinian’s political struggle, ‘normalises’ the situation of the occupation, and postpones a permanent solution” – Shir Hever in The Political Economy of Israel’s occupation: Repression beyond Exploitation. In the early 1990′s a ser

[ June 1, 2013; 3:00 pm; 3:00 pm; ]   The AJDS would love to invite you to our next Israel-Palestine discussion group meeting with our guest - Vivienne Porzsolt, long-time activist with Jews Against the Occupation in Sydney. For three months last year, Vivienne spent time i