Politicians report on Israel visit
February 28, 2012 | Henry Benjamin
The Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council has hosted a meeting in Sydney at which three Australian members of Parliament told of their experiences on a recent visit to Israel.
Liberal Bob Baldwin member for Paterson near Newcastle, Shadow Minister for Regional Development and Shadow Minister for Tourism, Liberal Teresa Gambaro represents Brisbane and is the Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for International Assistance and Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Citizenship and Settlement and Tasmanian Liberal Senator David Bushby spent a week in Israel as guests of the Rambam Program which has in its ten years has hosted more than 500 journalists, politicians, youth leaders, union leaders and clergy on specially guided tours of the Holy Land.
The three politicians formed part of a group of six members of Federal Parliament.
AIJAC welcomes Australian support for further sanctions on Iran
December 6, 2011 | Colin Rubenstein
AIJAC welcomes the announcement by Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd that Australia will be pursuing additional sanctions against Iran, including measures that will “further restrict business with Iran’s petroleum and financial sectors.”
Hopefully, these measures will, when enacted, bring Australia into line with the international consensus developing, which includes the US, EU and Canada, that, in the wake of the latest IAEA report on Iran’s illegal nuclear program, the time has come to bring the maximum diplomatic/economic pressures on the Iranian regime before it is too late.
AIJAC says UNESCO vote “undermines genuine progress towards peace”
November 1, 2011 | AIJAC staff
The decision of the General Assembly of UNESCO to “further the folly and fiction” that there is a State of Palestine which can participate in international organisations “undermines genuine progress towards peace”, the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council said today, while stressing that “it is heartening to see that the Australian government was not party to the cynical and destructive political decision”.
“The Palestinian leadership is fully aware that they do not control a ‘State’ and rather than work on state-building and peace building are indulging in self-defeating grandstanding” Mark Leibler, National Chairman of AIJAC said.
AIJAC welcomes release of former researcher Ilan Grapel; “victim of judicial kidnapping”.
October 28, 2011 | Colin Rubenstein
The Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council has welcomed the release yesterday by Egypt of Ilan Grapel, who served as a visiting research fellow in its Melbourne office in 2009.
A law student at Emory University in Atlanta, USA, Mr. Grapel travelled to Egypt early this year to volunteer for a charity helping develop civil society there before being arrested in early June amidst allegations he was an Israeli agent. He was held for more than four months without any charges being formally laid against him…
AIJAC statement on reported deal to release Gilad Shalit
October 12, 2011 | Colin Rubenstein and Mark Leibler
This is a very hopeful announcement, given the many years of effort by successive Israeli governments, with the full support of the Israeli people and all with a genuine concern for morality. If Gilad Shalit is released this will indeed be a joyful end to a terrible violation of basic human rights…
AIJAC welcomes Federal Government decision not to participate in Durban III
August 24, 2011
The Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council today welcomed the announcement last night that Australia would refrain from participating in the UN’s tainted Durban III “anti-racism” conference in New York next month.
AIJAC welcomes Victorian Government’s request for probe into BDS movement
August 8, 2011
AIJAC welcomes the decision of the Government of Victoria to ask the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to investigate whether organisations campaigning for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel have been conducting “secondary boycotts for the purpose of causing substantial loss or damage”, in breach of section s45D of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010.
AIJAC welcomes Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd’s Visit to Max Brenner; Statements Against Boycott
July 15, 2011 | Colin Rubenstein
Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd and Federal MP Mr Michael Danby should be highly commended for their visit yesterday to a branch of Max Brenner in Melbourne, a target of recent anti-Israel protests, where they took a strong stance against the boycott of Jewish and Israeli-owned business. Two weeks ago, Palestinian supporters of the boycott launched a protest outside the café that took a violent turn, leaving three policemen injured and 19 protesters arrested. The Herald-Sun reported Rudd calling the boycott “archaic” and saying, “I went there deliberately to make a point and that is I don’t think in 21st century Australia there is a place for the attempted boycott of a Jewish business…I thought we had learned that from history.” The Age also reported Rudd stating that:
“As an individual citizen – that is me, K. Rudd – I am here because I object to the boycotting of Jewish businesses.”
AIJAC Congratulates South Sudan on its Independence
July 12, 2011 | Colin Rubenstein
The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council congratulates the Republic of South Sudan as it officially joins the family of nations. After so many years of conflict, there is now the potential for peace and reason for optimism.
Jones in high-level dialogue in Bosnia
March 11, 2011
Jeremy Jones, Director of International and Community Affairs for the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, was in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo for a series of high-level discussions last week. The visit, organised as a result of Jones hosting leading Bosnian religious and political figures for meetings in Australia over the past few years, was designed to strengthen the ties between Bosnians and Jews as well as Bosnia and Australia.
