Letter

In response to Hedges Report: NPC Australia caves to Israel Lobby

NPC and Chris Hedges

When the National Press Club decides that a leading authority on the Palestine question should not be heard by its members, Australians’ immediate question to the NPC is, why not?

Having invited and then disinvited Chris Hedges from an event that promised to be booked out, the next question to the NPC is, who brought pressure on the club to do so?

If Hedges is replaced by the ambassador of Israel, a former IDF officer, another question arises: who insisted on that choice?

The Australian public is entitled to be concerned about the partisan censorship displayed, or not resisted, by the NPC.

The resulting publicity is likely to attract more interest in Hedges’ prolific and authoritative output.

But the working media members of the NPC will not be able to hear him speak about the displacement of Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank.

Not will they be able to raise Israel’s arrest of those aboard the Sumud aid flotilla, including six Australians, who Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir says are terrorists, let alone ask why the ambassador should not be expelled.

— Alison Broinowski from paddington