Late last year Rupert Murdoch’s Australian newsletter ran a campaign against the head of Sydney University’s Centre of Peace and Conflict Studies, Jake Lynch, for bravely rejecting institutional links with occupation-supporting Israeli universities. Today former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd appears in the same paper with quotes implying that boycotts are anti-Semitic and concerned people should…
Showing all posts tagged Kevin Rudd

Hey look at me, says Murdoch stenographer, Israeli leader makes small talk with me
You meet the Israeli Prime Minister. You can ask him anything. Do you want to mention the occupation? Of course not. Much easier, as per Greg Sheridan in the Australian, to get Netanyahu to recall those glorious days in the Australian sun. Yes, this is Murdoch “journalism”: Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s Prime Minister, has very strong…

Assange; Australian government thinks its true master sits in DC
Julian Assange tells The Power Index that Canberra needs to grow a back-bone (fat chance): WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange remains frustrated by the lack of assistance from the Australian federal government over his prolonged overseas legal plight, three weeks ahead of his appeal against extradition in the UK Supreme Court. In an exclusive interview with… The…

This is how Australia handles Palestine; contempt with a smile
A Sydney-based friend wrote the following letter to members of the Labor Party in early November 2011: Dear Member I wake this morning to hear once more, with dismay, of the craven obeisance of the Australian Labor government to the wishes of the United States in voting against the recognition of Palestine at UNESCO.… At…

A letter to the Australian government in support of Julian Assange
I’m proud to sign this letter: This is an open letter to Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd and Attorney-General Nicola Roxon. It calls on the Australian government to take steps to ensure Julian Assange’s human rights are protected. It will be delivered on 19 December 2011, but we encourage members of the public to sign the…

CHOGM perfect place to hold Sri Lankan war criminals to account
My following piece appears in today’s ABC The Drum: In late September, the government of Sri Lanka released 1,800 former Tamil Tiger fighters. Colombo claimed they had been rehabilitated as President Mahinda Rajapaksa told them at a ceremony in the capital: “I hope you will work for peace and ethnic harmony in this nation of…

Roll up to see “liberal” Australian Zionist power-broker ignore occupation
The Australian Zionist lobby has spent years demonising Arabs, Palestinians and moderate Jews in the name of “saving Zionism”. The effect? A Jewish state with a serious image problem. That’s money well spent, people. Now, a more “moderate” Zionist lobbyist is around, Albert Dadon. There’s nothing really different here – “we want peace”, he says,…

Sydney Morning Herald editorial endorses fence-sitting on UN Palestine vote
Perhaps we should be thankful for small mercies but such thoughts are written in a bubble, utterly removed from the fact that a two-state solution will never happen. Occupation is Israel’s only reality: The United Nations General Assembly vote next month for unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state is designed to put pressure on Israel,…