I am the child of holocaust survivors. I cannot remain a member of a party which turns a blind eye to the ongoing persecution of millions of people who have a right to live in peace and freedom in the land of their ancestors.
On the 19th of May, 2023, I tendered my resignation from the Australian Labor Party and gave my reasons below in a letter to the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and to my local branch:
It is 75 years since the formation of the State of Israel and the consequent casting out of the Palestinians from their land. This event (named by Palestinians and others as the Nakba or Catastrophe) was memorialised for the first time three days ago by the United nations with a commemoration ceremony at UN headquarters.
Those who were forced out either by fear or violence have never been permitted to return and they with their progeny now live in neighbouring countries (Lebanon and Syria among others) often with no working rights and no opportunity for citizenship. Australia boycotted this ceremony along with many other countries including the USA.
At national Conferences in 2018 and 2021 the following resolution was passed:
- (The Labor party) Supports the recognition and right of Israel and Palestine to exist as two states within secure and recognised borders;
- Calls on the next Labor Government to recognise Palestine as a state; and
- Expects that this issue will be an important priority for the next Labor Government.
We now have “the next Labor Government” and rather than recognition of Palestine being “an important priority” the Labor party has boycotted the important UN Nakba commemoration and at the same time has published the following congratulations to Israel for its continued existence as a “democratic nation”.
Image: Supplied
No mention of the 2 million people living in an open-air prison in Gaza, blockaded by Israel and Egypt with no escape and the millions of Christian and Muslim inhabitants of the “West Bank” blockaded by a high concrete wall. Their water is rationed, they are unable to drive on well-formed roads but must make huge detours to access villages, and are under constant attack by their neighbours, the so called settlers who apparently are part of the great “democratic” nation of Israel and vote in Israeli elections.
Below the United nations conditions on the formation of the State of Israel. Bears no resemblance to the current state of affairs.
I am the child of holocaust survivors, below is a copy of my mother’s passport when she fled Vienna in 1939. As you can see it is stamped with a large red J for Jew.
I know from the devastation and displacement my own family suffered that I cannot remain a member of a party who turns a blind eye to the ongoing persecution of millions of people who have a right to live in peace and freedom in the land of their ancestors. I cannot continue to remain a member of a party that despite resolutions made at party conferences continues to ignore the reality of the situation to the extent that it boycotts the UN event memorialising 75 years since the “Nakba,” an acknowledgment of the terrible loss the Palestinians have suffered.
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