<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Occupied Palestine | فلسطين]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[occupiedpalestine]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/author/hajarhajar/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[ei: Boycott vote in Sydney suburb sparks media furor, death&nbsp;threats]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<p><span class="text14">Sarah Irving, <em>The Electronic Intifada,</em> 24 January 2011</p>
<p><span class="content"> </span></span></p>
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<td><span class="text11">(Anne Paq/<a href="http://www.activestills.org/">ActiveStills</a>)</span></td>
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<p><span class="text14"><span class="content"><br />
On 15 December 2010, the councilors of Marrickville, a suburb of Sydney,  Australia voted by a 10-2 majority to support the Palestinian call for  boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS). A month later, they have  belatedly become the subjects of vilification in the press owned by  international media proprietor Rupert Murdoch and death threats from  Australia&#8217;s lunatic fringe.</p>
<p>&#8220;What does the desert theocracy of Saudi Arabia have in common with  Marrickville Council in Sydney&#8217;s Inner West?&#8221; howls an article in  Murdoch&#8217;s <em>Telegraph</em>, under a headline comparing the local  authority to North Korea. The piece &#8212; which manages to be factually  inaccurate on subjects as diverse as kosher food laws and Palestine  Liberation Organization factions &#8212; goes on to hail Israel as &#8220;one of  the most innovative and entrepreneurial countries in the world. Its  products and inventions find their way into computers, mobile phones and  medicines.&#8221; The online version of the article seeks to demonstrate  Israel&#8217;s virtues by illustrating it with both a photo gallery of Israeli  swimsuit model Bar Refaeli and a video of her writhing in the sand on a  photo shoot.</p>
<p>&#8220;This is what passes for &#8216;journalism&#8217; and commentary over  Israel/Palestine in Australia,&#8221; laments Antony Loewenstein, the  Sydney-based author of Australian best-seller <em>My Israel Question</em> and co-founder of Independent Australian Jewish Voices. His blog also  points out the inconsistencies and omissions in recent coverage of the  incident by <em>The Australian</em>, supposedly a more serious paper than the <em>Telegraph</em>. <em>The Australian</em> quotes Anthony Albanese, a member of the Australian federal parliament  whose constituency covers Marrickville council&#8217;s turf. Albanese claims  that &#8220;Foreign policy is a fair way outside the parameters of the role of  Marrickville Council&#8221; and suggests that the local authority stick to  &#8220;local&#8221; issues.</p>
<p>But Councilor Cathy Peters, who supported the boycott motion at  Marrickville, rejects the suggestion that boycotting Israeli products is  outside her remit as a council representative. &#8220;It&#8217;s not a matter of  foreign policy at all, but rather the right of a council to make  decisions regarding our purchasing policy and the relationships and  engagements we have with outside organizations,&#8221; she said in an  interview with The Electronic Intifada. &#8220;It&#8217;s completely within our  purview to make those decisions. We&#8217;ve done it before. We have an  ongoing boycott of companies involved in Burma. The council has a long,  proud tradition of making ethical decisions.&#8221;</p>
<p>Peters also stressed that many Marrickville residents had expressed  their concerns about Israeli actions towards the Palestinians to local  councilors. Marrickville mayor Fiona Byrne, writing on the Australian  Broadcasting Corporation website, also described how &#8220;Marrickville  Councilors interact with the people we represent on a day to day level.  We have spoken with many local residents, with community and multi-faith  groups who have told us of their feelings towards the unresolved issue  of Palestine and Israel and their desire to be able to take direct  action.&#8221; The boycott motion has also, she said, been supported by  members of Jews Against the Occupation, and she cited the many  Australian church and trade union organizations which have supported  whole or partial boycotts of Israeli products and organizations.</p>
<p>Anthony Albanese has in the past been supportive of Palestine solidarity  campaigns and critical of Israel&#8217;s human rights record, so his stance  has surprised some local people. Jennifer Killen, a Marrickville  resident who strongly supports the council&#8217;s twinning with Bethlehem and  its boycott initiative, commented to The Electronic Intifada: &#8220;I&#8217;m very  disappointed in my local member of parliament for not being more  supportive of our hard-working local councilors at this time.&#8221; Killen  also pointed out that the contact details of the councilors who voted  for the boycott motion are on the website of the Sydney-based Coalition  for Justice &amp; Peace in Palestine, and called on international  activists to support Marrickville where its MPs had failed to do so.</p>
<p>Councilor Cathy Peters, a Green Party member, emphasized that the  boycott motion at Marrickville had cross-party support and that the  former mayor of Marrickville, who visited its sister city of Bethlehem  in 2010, was a member of the Australian Labor Party. But Antony  Loewenstein and other Sydney commentators have suggested that the  realpolitik of upcoming elections could be behind Albanese&#8217;s  condemnation of the boycott vote. <em>The Australian&#8217;s</em> article mentions the risks to Albanese&#8217;s seat from the Green Party.</p>
<p>But it failed to highlight the fact that Carmel Tebbutt, the New South  Wales state legislature member for Marrickville who is quoted in the  same article, is also Albanese&#8217;s wife &#8212; and that her seat is under  threat from Marrickville Green Mayor Fiona Byrne in upcoming state-level  elections. The New South Wales Green Party adopted a strong boycott,  divestment and sanctions position in December 2010 and Albanese&#8217;s  attacks on the boycott motion could, Sydney commentators suggest, be an  attempt to put some political space between himself and his spouse, and  their Green challengers.</p>
<p>Outside the mainstream media, Australia&#8217;s nastier extremists have also  waded in on the Marrickville debate. An article on the Australian  Islamist Monitor website entitled &#8220;Australian Council Disgraces Itself&#8221;  berates the local authority, saying that &#8220;you have got it all wrong &#8212;  you have sided with the aggressors, the bullies, the friends of Hitler  and those whom Hitler considered his friends in their antisemitism  [sic].&#8221; The writer goes on to claim that &#8220;Israel is a tiny land  surrounded by aggressive Muslim nations and as David Horowitz has  pointed out repeatedly, the aim of those nations is to deny Israel the  right to exist.&#8221; David Horowitz, cited by the Australian Islamist  Monitor author, is an American commentator and founder of the Freedom  Center who claims that &#8220;free societies&#8221; are &#8220;under attack by leftist and  Islamist enemies at home and abroad.&#8221; As well as attacking Arab and  left-wing campaigners, he has also been accused of racism against  African Americans.</p>
<p>And one comment following the article reads: &#8220;This is insane I hate  these people. I would like to have a 22 and pick them off one by one for  target practice. Better still a suicide bomber in their midst. In fact I  might make a giant blow up of the photo and sell it to a shooting  range.&#8221; A &#8220;smiley&#8221; emoticon follows the comment. Immediately after it,  the same commenter, &#8220;Skipping Girl,&#8221; adds: &#8220;God Bless Israel.&#8221;</p>
<p>Despite its claims to be &#8220;anti-racist in all its forms&#8221; and to support  freedom of speech when this does not lead to violence, the Australian  Islamist Monitor site is rife with hysterical and sometimes violent  comments about Muslim people. A number of its contributors have links to  more extreme hate sites and have made openly racist comments in other  forums. The website&#8217;s membership is strictly controlled, with potential  members approved by a human moderator as well as by electronic tests.  However, in more than three weeks it has made no move to remove Skipping  Girl&#8217;s bloodthirsty comments.</p>
<p>Cathy Peters says that she has been made aware that some threatening  comments have been made regarding Marrickville councilors, but that the  matter has been turned over to the council&#8217;s general manager for  consideration. For her, the larger concern is how the issue of Palestine  is debated in Australia.</p>
<p>&#8220;I think it&#8217;s unfortunate that these kind of emotional comments have  been triggered by an overall reluctance by the Board of Deputies and  other groups to tolerate debate and criticism of Israeli policies  regarding Palestine and the occupied territories,&#8221; she says, rejecting  charges that Marrickville&#8217;s councilors have been influenced by  &#8220;political correctness&#8221; or ideology. Her fellow members, she points out,  include some &#8220;very experienced&#8221; local councilors with diverse  backgrounds and political opinions.</p>
<p>&#8220;The problem at the moment is one of groups trying to close down  dialogue on the subject,&#8221; Peters insists. &#8220;What is really needed at the  moment is a mature, calm debate on Israel&#8217;s policies on Palestine and  how Australians should respond to them.&#8221;</p>
<p><em><a href="http://www.sarahirving.co.uk/">Sarah Irving</a> is a  freelance writer. She worked with the International Solidarity Movement  in the occupied West Bank in 2001-02 and with Olive Co-op, promoting  fair trade Palestinian products and solidarity visits, in 2004-06. She  now writes full-time on a range of issues, including Palestine. Her  first book, </em><a href="http://www.plutobooks.com/display.asp?K=9780745330242">Gaza: Beneath the Bombs</a><em>, co-authored with Sharyn Lock, was published in January 2010. She is currently working on a new edition of the </em>Bradt Guide to Palestine<em> and a biography of Leila Khaled.</em></span></p>
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