Bravo Lee Rhiannon and as always the Murdoch Australian is incapable of framing this movement as anything other than outright anti-Semitism:
Greens senator Lee Rhiannon has again refused to back away from the anti-Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign, despite opposition from her leader, Bob Brown.
Her comments came as a group of federal MPs from both sides of politics, including Wayne Swan, gathered in a Max Brenner chocolate shop in Brisbane’s Southbank last night to show their opposition to the BDS campaign.
Max Brenner’s parent company, the Strauss Group, has its headquarters in Israel and has voiced its support for the Israeli Defence Forces.
The Southbank store was the target of a protest by BDS supporters on Saturday.
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“I see the value of that tactic as a way to promoting Palestinian human rights,” Senator Rhiannon told Sky News’s Australian Agenda yesterday.She compared the movement to the anti-apartheid campaign in South Africa.
“I am quite aware Bob Brown has a different view on this,” she said, but claimed there was growing understanding in the community for the campaign.
A spokesman for the Treasurer said: “The vast majority of Australians would think boycotts of individual business, like the rally . . . in Brisbane on the weekend, are misguided.”
The 40 or so BDS protesters on Saturday encountered a larger force of about 60 counter-protesters on Saturday. The two sides exchanged insults, separated by police.
One counter-protester, Logan City councillor Hajnal Black, said BDS supporters shouted anti-Semitic slogans.
“It’s shocking, the sort of things they were saying — that Jews kill babies, Jews are terrorists . . .” she said.
The BDS rally’s organisers, Kathy Newnam and Hamish Chitts, declined requests to be interviewed.