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Editorial
AJDS Statement on Israeli action against the Gaza Convoy
1 June 2010
The terrible and deplorable deaths and injuries that occurred on board the Turkish flagged ship, the Mavi Marmara, one of a convoy of ships attempting to deliver humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, are not only heartbreaking for the immediate families of the nine people killed and the many injured, but a tragedy for all people who yearn for a resolution to the Israeli Palestinian conflict.
AJDS Statement of support for Overland editorial response to ‘some critics’.
Overland magazine has been attacked by an academic 'push' for publishing non-mainstream opinions on the Israel-Palestine issue. Here is the AJDS response.
The Executive of the Australian Jewish Democratic Society is in broad agreement with the views expressed by Jeff Sparrow and the rest of the Overland editorial staff in the final two paragraphs of their 3 May statement titled “Overland and Bias: a response to some critics.” They wrote:
Reverse the asylum seekers decision!
The following statement was issued by the AJDS’s
official spokesperson Les Rosenblatt.
The 9 April Australian government decision to stop processing the asylum/refugee entitlements of Afghanis and Sri Lankans – predominantly from the persecuted minorities of Hazaras and Tamils – combined with the threat to force their return to their countries of origin – based on completely untenable claims of “durable security” in these countries – is intolerably inhumane.
The Australian Jewish Democratic Society agrees with the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring
Stop those settlements! AJDS Editorial
Many people within the Jewish community, whose support for Israel is not in question, have watched and noted the way in which the occupation of Palestinian land has had a corrupting influence on Israel's soul. Many Jewish Israelis are blind to the indignity and abuse on a daily basis accorded to ordinary Palestinians passing through Israeli checkpoints. They are insulated from feeling the deprivation, frustration and powerlessness in the lives of people under occupation behind a wall and out of view.
Motion on the continuing Gaza Siege, AJDS Annual General Meeting, Feb 2010.
The Israeli government, while using propaganda to deny the facts, continues to besiege the Palestinian population though collective punishment for rocket attacks from Gaza. 13 Israelis have been killed by rocket attacks, 3 of whom were civilians.
Statement on the continuing Seige of Gaza by the AJDS
The civilian population of Gaza continues to suffer a a year after Operation Cast Lead.
The Israeli government, while using propaganda to deny the facts, continues to besiege the Palestinian population though collective punishment. The current protests against the siege by various international activists, Palestinians, and Israelis, though ignored by Israel, indicate that the problem will not just go away.
Israel and Palestine - the harsh truths of conflict resolution. The AJDS Position
THE US President’s recent speech in Cairo heralded a new beginning in relations between the US and the Muslim world.The Australian Jewish Democratic Society (AJDS) believes it is in the interests of all countries in the region to respond positively to the opportunity presented by this constructive re-engagement with
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
A Puzzling Report from the Anti-Defamation Commission
This was published as an opinion piece in the Australian Jewish News (2 April 2009) The AJDS is puzzled that the Australian Jewish News (26 March 2009) regards as front-page news an Anti-Defamation Commission report by Dr Phillip Mendes about events that took place nearly a decade ago.
Debate within our community on Arab-Jewish dialogue is always important, but a particular person's anecdotal experience with a now defunct academic organisation in which two out of three of his adversaries were Jewish, provides no basis to conclude that dialogue is worthless.
Getting Durban II in focus: our view
For many members of our community, the word "Durban" is indelibly associated with antisemitism. The primary reason for this is not so much the September 2001 World Conference against Racism as the associated NGO Forum, which was unquestionably marred by virulent antisemitic behaviour by a number of Non-Government Organisations.
Unfortunately, the bitter taste left by the NGO Forum has led to the stigmatisation of the whole UN anti-racism conference by overzealous critics who have not mentioned the positive aspects of the event. Of course not all the NGOs behaved appallingly, but the blatant antisemitism of some tarred the official gathering of government representatives as well. This is why, by conflating the NGO Forum with the main conference, many members of our community believe that the whole meeting was antisemitic.