A fine statement:
Pip Hinman, the Socialist Alliance candidate for the NSW state electorate of Marrickville, has expressed strong support for Marrickville Council’s recent resolution to join the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israeli apartheid in Palestine.
She disputed claims by the ALP candidate for Marrickville, Carmel Tebutt, and the local federal Labor MP, Anthony Albanese, that the Council’s decision was on a matter beyond the range of concerns appropriate for local government. She congratulated the Mayor of Marrickville, Fiona Byrne, and the NSW Greens candidate for the state electorate, for her stand.
The whole point of the BDS campaign”, Hinman said, “is that despite national policy being skewed by the anti-Palestinian bias of both major parties, we can campaign for our trade unions, community organisations, campuses and local governments to not be economically or institutionally involved with Israeli oppression in Palestine.
For example, many Sydney councils outsource garbage collection to a multinational corporation that is also building a light rail system in the illegally occupied West Bank. Palestinians will be banned from using, or even crossing, this light rail system, which will connect illegal Israeli settlements while further carving up Palestinian communities.
People in this community care about what happens in the wider world”, Newtown resident Hinman said. “We don’t want our garbage collected by a corporation that builds infrastructure for apartheid. Our council’s resolution, the first of its kind in Australia, ensures that this won’t happen.”
Liberal candidate for Marrickville Rosana Tyler condemned the council’s resolution for pandering to “xenophobic” community sentiment.
To call our community xenophobic is quite absurd — 38% were born overseas”, Hinman said. “What Rosana Tyler calls xenophobia is a sentiment for our community’s engagement with the wider world to be ethical. Fiona Byrne and the Marrickville Council have recognised this sentiment. The failure of Carmel Tebutt and Anthony Albanese to do likewise is one of many reasons why they no longer hold safe seats.”