Month: October 2011

Max Kaiser: the new AJDS Community Organiser.
The AJDS has a new part-time paid staff member to help with the many demands that the organisation faces in planning functions, communicating with our members and more actively pursuing the role of a progressive voice amongst Jews and a Jewish voice amongst progressives.
We’ll let Max give a brief sketch of himself–
I’m 24 years old, grew up in Brunswick and currently live in Coburg. I recently graduated from Melbourne University with a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in social theory.

Max Kaiser: the new AJDS Community Organiser.
The AJDS has a new part-time paid staff member to help with the many demands that the organisation faces in planning functions, communicating with our members and more actively pursuing the role of a progressive voice amongst Jews and a Jewish voice amongst progressives.
We’ll let Max give a brief sketch of himself–
I’m 24 years old, grew up in Brunswick and currently live in Coburg. I recently graduated from Melbourne University with a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in social theory.

A very strong motion was carried overwhelmingly on the voices at the Victorian State ALP Conference (8 Oct 2011) and has been made available to AJDS by Robin Rothfield who is active in Labor for Refugees.

Sol Salbe, a former long-serving member of the AJDS executive and newsletter editor, has had an opinion piece published in the widely circulated 972+ website (972 is the Israeli International Dialling Code). Kol ha-kavod lo –all honour to him!
=============
After the torching of a mosque last weekend in Israel, an anti-occupation activist wrote on Facebook that alongside recent anti-minority legislation passed in Israel, a publication permitting murder on religious grounds, and the appalling role of the army, police and politicians in supporting religious-nationalistic terrorism, Israel today is reminiscent of the 1930s. Other friends of mine rejected this comparison, observing that Israeli politicians, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had condemned the perpetrators. “What more response do you expect from politicians,” wrote one.
What more do I expect? Good question. Below is the response that I want. I would have liked for Benjamin Netanyahu to deliver the following speech on national television to the Israeli people…
[for the rest of the article, go to 972+ website].

Robin Rothfield, a member of the AJDS Executive, has long been an advocate of refugee rights, and has had two letters published recently in the press:
[The Australian, 19 Sept 2011]
THE first step for the Prime Minister to take in reforming the ALP is to abide by decisions of the ALP National Conference, the supreme policy-making body of the party, as embodied in the Natiional Platform, 2009. Chapter 7, paragraph 157 of the Platform states: “Protection claims made in Australia will be assessed by Australians on Australian territory.”
Consistent with the platform the Prime Minister must therefore scrap plans for offshore processing.
[The Age, 15 September 2011]
What platform is that?
ACCORDING to your report “Abbott muddies water on boats” (The Age, 13/9), Senator John Faulkner explained to the Labor caucus that under Labor Party rules legislation could not be in breach of the ALP platform. Your report continues that Julia Gillard told a news conference that the plan was in accordance with Labor’s platform.
The ALP National Platform states, chapter 7, paragraph 157: ”Protection claims made in Australia will be assessed by Australians on Australian territory”, which is a clear endorsement of onshore processing. Moreover, the Prime Minister, the Minister for Immigration and all Labor MPs would have signed a pledge as parliamentary candidates: ”To do my utmost to carry out the principles embodied in the platform.”