Australian Jewish group slams Gaza invasion
SYDNEY, Australia (JTA) -- An Australian Jewish group slammed Israel's invasion of Gaza as "inhuman," "superfluous" and "abominable."
Independent Australian Jewish Voices, an offshoot of the British group founded in February 2007, said in a statement this week that while Israel has the right to self-defense, "this cannot be used as a pretext for the grossly disproportionate military assault on Gaza because it was Israel that violated the fragile truce on Nov. 4, 2008."
Among the 113 signatories to the statement are New South Wales Greens Party lawmaker Ian Cohen, and Moss Cass, a former minister in the Labor government of Gough Whitlam in the 1970s.
The statement claims that "the assault on the population of Gaza will only inflame hatred of Jews and of the State of Israel while doing nothing to protect the lives of Israelis. Above all, it will undermine the prospects of joining with peace-seeking Palestinians to negotiate a lasting, just solution to the conflict."
Jewish lawmaker Michael Danby blasted the dissenting Jews as a fringe group that "uses their ethnicity to enhance this, their latest anti-Israel outburst."
In a related development, two Australian academics of Jewish descent have launched the Committee for the Dismantling of Zionism.
John Docker and Ned Curthoys wrote in a Jan. 1 statement that Israel is a "genocidal settler colonial society that since its founding in 1948 continually seeks to destroy the foundations of life of the indigenous Palestinians."
This article was made possible by the support of readers like you. Donate to JTA now.
Discussions About this Article Elsewhere
Comments RSS Feed Reader Comments
Wow!
Some people never learn.
Idiots, Jews but still idiots.
Too bad they forgot the mantra “NEVER AGAIN”
Leave a Comment
To comment on this article, you must first be registered with JTA.
Not Registered?
There are real advantages to a FREE registration with JTA.org:
- Make your voice heard through comments on articles
- Receive our e-mailed Daily Briefing, an invaluable quick-read
- Help decide what Jewish news matters most with interactive tools
Register Now
Already a JTA member?
- Groups set major Iran push for September
- Opinion: Israel as a Jewish State
- Olympics hero Lezak finally opts for Maccabiah
- UJC taps Silverman as new executive
- Barak sees progress in Mitchell meeting
- So far, no new settlement building approved by Netanyahu gov’t
- Iranian blogger detained
- Field hockey family affair
- The Chosen: Jewish members in the 111th U.S. Congress
- Jackson kids’ Jewish mother could regain custody
- Guard shot at Holocaust museum dies
- Biden: Israel can decide for itself on Iran
- Canadian politician sues Jewish groups
- In endorsing two states, Netanyahu adopts popular Jewish position
- Some Jewish settlers turning against Israel
- Mass converts pose dilemma for Latin American Jews
Share
Email
Print
Trackback URL: http://jta.org/trackback/1002019/
No trackbacks have been created for this article, be the first to create one.