What to do with dwindling friends?

The saga of the “controversial” play Seven Jewish Children continues in the letter’s section of today’s Age newspaper:

Amid the anger over Jewish Care’s decision to cancel the performance of Seven Jewish Children, I feel facts have been neglected in the debate. The performance was sponsored by Australians for Palestine, a virulently anti-Israel lobbying group, to commemorate “al-Nakba”, or the “catastrophe”, of Israel’s creation in 1948.

There is a reason that pro-Israel voices declined to participate in the panel discussion. I speak from experience. Attending an Australians for Palestine-sponsored talk at the University of Melbourne by Palestinian academic Ghada Karmi in 2007, I and some fellow Zionist students attempted to make our voices heard at the end of her speech. We were shouted down, booed and abused by the audience, before being asked to leave the venue. Is this the kind of “debate” Miriam Margolyes and others participating in the play were hoping to provoke?

Australians for Palestine, and the producers of Seven Jewish Children, are only seeking to further delegitimise and demonise Israel to a wider audience than normally received. I see no reason for Jewish Care to assist them in doing so.

Ingrid Weinberg, North Caulfield

Support is fading

WHAT use are shows like Seven Jewish Children? The only people who go to them are those who already agree with the message. Israel’s friends just close their eyes and ears, stick their heads in the sand and try to shout it down with allegations of anti-Semitism. As the world moves on from events of the past to what it sees in the news today, the sympathy and support for Israel fades and the polls show it. Even in America.

One day they are going to wake up and discover they have no friends left. Of course, they just call that anti-Semitism too.

Gordon Drennan, Burton, SA

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