Dear Mr Albanese
Last year you wrote an open letter to the Australian Jewish Community for Yom Haatzmaut in which you said “No matter which party is in power here, Israel will have Australia’s friendship and support. As leader of the Australian Labor Party, I can tell you that you will always have ours”.
A little over a year on, I would like to reciprocate with an open letter back. Today, Israel did not have the friendship and support of the Australian Labor Party, and as the Government of Australia you have wound back Australia’s political position to one that is simply unfathomable.
Jerusalem Day
I thought you would like to see this picture. It was taken on Jerusalem Day, a few weeks ago. It is at the Western Wall, a retaining wall of the Temple Mount, where every day for the past 2000 years Jews throughout history have prayed for a return of Jewish self determination over the site where Jewish tradition holds that Adam and Eve were created, where Abraham bound Isaac, and where the ten commandments were housed and where two Jewish Temples stood.
Thousands upon thousands of our people revere this site and on a daily basis celebrate the return of the Jewish people to their homeland.
In 1967 Israel faced the threat of existential destruction, yet miraculously won the six day war and restored Jewish sovereignty to this land and the provinces of Judea and Samaria. This has prompted a renaissance, an era of economic prosperity and agricultural restoration. It has precipitated a hi-tech revolution of technologies that improve the quality of life and saves lives across the world. It is an unprecedented story of a people returning to their land and building a nation based on the morals and values that align with those of Australia and are deeply respected by the Australian people.
Today your Government described this site in the picture above as “illegally occupied territory”. In short, your Government denied the irrefutable historic connection between the Jewish people and its sacred heritage.
It can’t be that your foreign affairs advisors are unaware that since the start of 2023 more than 3,800 terrorist attacks have been perpetrated against Israeli’s. There have been 30 Israel’s murdered during this time through direct acts of terrorism. Thousands of missiles have been launched towards Israel, many of them intercepted in the air.
Since the days of the Oslo Accords, and the subsequent offers of peace by Israel to the Palestinian people, the Palestinians and their governing bodies have breached their obligations towards the peace process. They have continued to refuse to accept the existence of Israel. So Israel and its people have moved on. They have embraced a regional strategy of coexistence and economic prosperity through the Abraham accords, assuming that when the Palestinians are finally ready to live in peace that they too will be rewarded.
The Australian official policy change rewinds this progress and incentivises more hatred. It has the effect of encouraging more terrorism. More murder and maiming of people.
The ECAJ and ZFA, the representative peak bodies of the Australian Jewish community today issued a joint statement that correctly noted that “The change in language is inaccurate, ahistorical and counterproductive.” They were quoted rather diplomatically as saying that they are “deeply concerned about the Government’s statement”.
I would like to go a little bit further because this Jewish Australian is well beyond deeply concerned. The Government’s statement is an outrageous insult to all well intentioned Australian’s whose values of freedom and liberty have been breached. This change of position is a bastardisation of fact and a geopolitical mistake.
This land that you now deem as “illegally occupied” is in fact “disputed”. For Australia to assign a position to this dispute, while at the same time trying to suggest it is for the parties themselves to resolve is at best hypocritical. At worst, it is siding with a tyrannical regime, perpetuating conflict and rewarding terrorism.
Australia’s stance on Israel is no longer bipartisan, it is no longer reasonable, and it is downright dangerous.
With enemies like the official leadership of the Palestinian Authority, Israel and its Jewish Diaspora actually needs the friendship and support of Australia that you as the leadership of the Australian Labor Party promised. With deep regret, today you have committed a grave historic injustice against the Jewish people.
Language as you well know is important, because it extends a voice. So, if you really want to take sides how about adapting your own words to give a voice towards the legitimacy of Israel instead of denying its legitimacy?
How about Australia pays respect to the indigenous people of Israel, their elders, past, present and emerging, and acknowledge the land upon which they have an unbroken spiritual connection? How about a moving show of faith in Australian decency and Australian fairness to a people who have been given every reason to forsake their hope in both? How about we approach this task with humility and hope, because over 2000 years of broken promises and betrayals, failures and false starts demand nothing less?
It is time Mr Prime Minister to tell the truth – with clarity, with conviction.
19 thoughts on “Open Letter to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese”
Thank you for your balanced representation with accurate analogies. The Albanese Labour Government is perpetrating hard core race and identity politics which divides communities, fuels hatred and violence and is motivated by the hope of getting votes. Albanese made it much worse by bringing these un‐necessary and negative policies to be partisan politics. Just revolting. This is not what Governments are for. Labour will be voted out for doing these stupid things.
I don’t want to sound a pedant but the Australian Labor Party spells it’s name without, “u” because they just don’t care about, “u”.
Myth of the century. Occupied Palestinian Territory. The only nation that ever had sovereign rule over Judea and Samaria were the Jews.
Very astute comments. Politics, at times, smells very badly.
Dear Mr Albanese,
As a Jewish Australian whose Grandfather was murdered by the Fedayeen in 1936 in the land Israel, all I can say is “Here we go again”! You must know the truth but have corrupted Australia’s stance on the only democracy in the Middle East, for political expediency. Shame on you and shame on the Australian Lanor party.
The labour government never sticks to there word don’t vote labour
Your Labour government by this latest action is clearly racist. It also propagates Apartheid as does your advocating a YES vote
The land on which the Western wall of the Temple stands is neither disputed nor occupied it is merely the sacred home of the Jewish Faith
Thank you for this open letter
One must not forget the fact that statements by governments are often based on skewed and generalised information. Not all Israelis support the actions of the Government, and say so, because Israel is a democratic country.
Many individual Arabs/Palestinians live in harmony with Jewish people who live near them, and have done so throughout Israel for many decades. In Israel’s government there is in fact a party representing the Arab citizens, and they have seats in the Knesset. Jewish children in Israeli schools are taught Arabic – the converse of course is not true in the Palestinian territories, where all money goes towards feeding the flames of hostility and anger. There is even an Arabic University.
The Palestinian Government does not tolerate open dissent, it is not democratic, and its “citizens” do not, can not speak up. Compare this with the recent mass demonstrations in Israel against a legislation proposed by the Israeli government. Why does the Australian Government allow itself to fall prey to propaganda?
Israel is not a monolith, so it must not be judged as if it was a dictatorship like the Palestinian State.
Australia has far more values in common with Israel than with Palestine.
Israel, not unlike Australia, is the cradle of inventiveness, learning, progress and democracy.
Its existence had been guaranteed by the nations of the world.
It deserves International support in determining its own path in peace.
Absolutely and it must be noted that day in day out in Australia this government has lied to the people about the Voice. It will do exactly what Albo wants her apartheid and create a divided country not one united. Appalled at this as we were when hearing Albo and Penny Wong. An ex Labor Minister on Sky Michael Danby also appalled by this. Married to my husband also of Jewish decent appalled. Thank you for this great email and it is going far and wide.
Misrepresenting the true status of Israel by the Australian government, presumptuously on behalf of the entire Australian population, is an act made in the full knowledge that it is inaccurate, biased and will no doubt add to the already dreadful security situation in Israel.
Every Australian who is aware of the more than 2000-year history of the Jewish people and the unbroken residence of Jews in this land, together with its more recent 20th century history, knows that Jews have always sought peace and endeavored to live in harmony with the Arab population. However, the distortions by the Arabs and their cohorts with their determination to destroy both the state of Israel and indiscriminately kill Jews, is manifest by their actions in war after war, and in terrorist killings around the world on innocent people whose sole connection to Israel, in many instances, is that they are Jews.
Israel, and its Jewish population has, for more than the past 75 years, fought existential threats from dictatorships, corrupt individuals, governments and religious bigots. The lies of what the Jews have done and are doing and denials as to the history of the Jewish people by those entities is legion.
For your government, presumptuously on behalf of all of Australia, to take this hostile and knowingly inaccurate stance against the sole democracy in the Middle East is bad enough. To castigate that side and not the perpetrators of the wars, the lies and the corruption of the local Arabs is joining with terrorists, dictatorships and those expounding religious hatred.
No matter you and your government’s often-stated ethical social policies, by this single act you negate all your good works and intentions and are joining forces with terrorists, religious bigots, liars, dictators and 21st century violent tribalists.
To quote Golda Meir; ‘ If the Arabs laid down their arms, there would be peace. If the Jews laid down their arms, there would be no Israel.’ These words are as true today as when they were spoken.
Middle East peace encourages terror
To the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of The Occupied Aboriginal Terrotories.
As occupiers of this land for not much more than 200 years you have the audacity to deprive the rights of people who have been the occupiers of a land for over 3000 years.
Are you prepared to say the same to the occupiers of Red Indian Territories ?
Well said.
I’ll say…let these mentally challenged ‘nobodies’ stew in their own miserableness. They might prance around and pat each other on the back but ISRAEL (thanks to Bibi) will push on regardless.
They talk about a ‘two state solution’ that idea has been dead in the water since Abbas followed Whatshisname.
If I, from now on, ever come in contact with any Labour trash that agrees with Albo’n’Wong I won’t hold back expressing my disgust and I’ll make sure that they fully understand what bunch of traitors they are all are but even worst they are all gutless wankers.
I hope I wasn’t to tepid in my expressed opinions.
I’m not afraid nor am I shy( as you’ve seen) about putting my anger on FB & X
(Jewgle: comment edited)
The double standards of Mr Albanese is laughable. The voice of the indigenous people of the land of Israel is ignored and the land labelled as ‘ illegally occupied’ . Such hypocrisy while advocating for the YES vote can be described in one Hebrew word CHUTZPAH!
Mr Albanese. it’s about time you and that leftist monkey you have in your party Bob Carr revisits Israel to see for themselves the real situation, and not rely on TOTALLY ANTISEMITIC reports from your government’s so called democratic public servant’s.
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Jerusalem Post Opinion
Should Israel refer to Australia as occupied Aboriginal territory? – opinion
Australia’s Labor Party government ought to take a look in the mirror before hurling false and insulting accusations at Israel.
By STEPHEN M. FLATOW Published: AUGUST 13, 2023 05:04Email Twitter Facebook fb-messenger
AUSTRALIAN PRIME Minister Anthony Albanese speaks during a NATO summit in Vilnius, last month. (photo credit: KACPER PEMPEL/REUTERS)
AUSTRALIAN PRIME Minister Anthony Albanese speaks during a NATO summit in Vilnius, last month.
(photo credit: KACPER PEMPEL/REUTERS)
Australia has announced that it will resume using the term “Occupied Palestinian Territories.” Should Israel respond by calling Australia “Occupied Aboriginal Territory?”
Under the previous Liberal Party government, Australia recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and stopped using the obnoxious and historically erroneous term “Occupied Palestinian Territories.” But the Labor Party government that came to power last year has reversed both of those decisions.
There’s an important lesson for Israel and its supporters about the reliability of international promises. For decades, critics of Israel have been pushing the idea that the Israelis should surrender territory in exchange for “security guarantees” from the United States. That was the carrot dangled in front of Israel during the big push, in the 1990s, for Israel to surrender the Golan Heights.
To this day, there are supporters of the Palestinian cause who advocate stationing American or international forces in Judea-Samaria, in order to convince the Israelis that a Palestinian state there would not pose any danger.
The problem – as the Australia reversal reminds us – is that a government can offer a “guarantee,” or station troops somewhere, but then a new government can decide to cancel the guarantee or withdraw the troops.
PA President Mahmoud Abbas. (credit: RONALDO SCHEMIDT/POOL/REUTERS)
PA President Mahmoud Abbas. (credit: RONALDO SCHEMIDT/POOL/REUTERS)
The other important lesson from Australia’s policy reversal has to do with the concept of “Occupied Palestinian Territories.” History books and maps have, for countless centuries, called those areas by their correct historical names, Judea and Samaria. In fact, the very name “Palestine” has no historical basis; it was invented not by the people living there, but by Roman conquerors 2,000 years ago in an attempt to stamp out the country’s Jewish identity.
Those territories have never been part of any state of Palestine. Its inhabitants never spoke a Palestinian language. Nothing about their history or culture was distinctly “Palestinian.” To call them “Occupied Palestinian Territories” is an insult to the historical record.
Occupied Australia
IF YOU WANT to find some genuinely occupied territory, look no further than the country of Australia. And I don’t mean just some small part of it. I mean the whole thing.
The indigenous inhabitants of Australia, known as Aboriginals, had been living there for more than 60,000 years when the English explorer, Lt. James Cook, suddenly arrived in 1770 and “claimed” the country for Great Britain. He didn’t ask the Aboriginals what they thought about the idea of being occupied by a foreign power. Racist European colonists regarded indigenous peoples as inferior and considered their wishes unworthy of consideration.
The British occupation of Australia got underway in 1788 with the creation of a penal colony there. Those British criminals were soon followed by illegal British settlers, who seized the Aboriginals’ territory and expelled or murdered the residents when they got in the way.
The occupiers also introduced various new diseases – smallpox, measles, tuberculosis – that took the lives of many locals. By 1900, the indigenous aboriginal population of 750,000 had been reduced to 93,000.
As the years went by, the extent of the occupation widened. Australia is a huge country – nearly 3 million square miles. The occupiers gradually occupied all of it.
The occupation and mistreatment of the Aboriginals continue to this day. Amnesty International reports that current Australian government policies still “take away indigenous peoples’ basic rights [and] force indigenous people to abandon their homes and communities.”
The younger generations of Aboriginals share “their relatives’ deep trauma and anger from losing their lands, culture, and families,” Amnesty notes, and “Australia’s indigenous kids are 24 times more likely to be locked up than their non-indigenous classmates.” Indigenous Australians are just 3% of the national population, yet they comprise 29% of the country’s adult prison population.
“Occupied Territories?” “Illegal settlers?” Australia’s Labor Party government ought to take a look in the mirror before hurling false and insulting accusations at Israel.
The writer is president-elect of the Religious Zionists of America. He is the father of Alisa Flatow, who was murdered in an Iranian-sponsored Palestinian terrorist attack in 1995, and the author of A Father’s Story: My Fight for Justice against Iranian Terror.
My friend Albo
A tongue has no bone what you said after election and now just opposite citizens like are in danger daily you knowingly know you made a drastic mistake it always takes two to tango I don’t think ever will be peace it sad to believe there will be peace Together we Stand Apart we beg
Last year your foreign minister says Jerusalem should not be a capital of Israel I deeply admire Trump the only and only President was for Israel
So proud to be Jewish – no matter what and how some try to put us down.
They may try. They will never achieve their unambiguous wishes.
Krowie
I wonder what opinions are after the Opera House was illuminated in Israeli flag colours this week? Who are the Palestinians then? Wasn’t Israel called Palestine first? What are they in all these comments? Just a bunch of nothing no land people who have no history there too? I found this article through googling “hypocrisy for supporting yes vote, but no to Palestinians” because the voice outcome (no) reminds me of the way Palestinians have been treated in their own land. It has been most interesting to read that some think that the Jews are the traditional custodians of the land….I’m not sure many indigenous Australians see it that way….I’ve only ever seen the Aboriginal flag flown alongside the Palestinian flag….I wonder what the connections there could be….