In describing 'swathes of the inner-city electorate of Marrickville as xenophobic', the NSW State Liberal candidate for the seat, Rosana Tyler, has demonstrated just how close the Labor & Liberal parties are in their defense of the Zionist rednecks who currently control the state of Israel & whose influence has pervaded both parties in Australia, to the point that no mainstream politician from either party will speak-out against the war crimes & crimes against humanity being perpetrated against the Palestinian people.

Tyler told The Sunday Telegraph the people of Marrickville - 38 per cent of whom were born overseas - "don't like foreigners", adding that "the community itself hates everybody".

Mrs Tyler, a solicitor, part-time lecturer and vice-president of the Newtown Synagogue, is running against Carmel Tebbutt, the incumbent MP, Deputy Premier and Health Minister.

Responding to questions about controversial decisions by the Greens-controlled Marrickville Council to boycott all Israeli goods and services, Mrs Tyler said xenophobia was entrenched in the area.

"The community itself hates everybody," she said. "One of the things I've noticed as I've been campaigning is people don't like foreigners. It's coming from everybody, from all different types."

Mrs Tyler, who is Jewish, said the council had a history of anti-Israeli sentiment.

"They've always done really stupid stuff on this council ... they've brought resolutions for various groups against Israel in the past," she said. "There are a lot of independents on the council ... and the Greens are pretty much anti-Israeli."

She said campaigning had shown her people were paranoid about new arrivals, which had "shocked" her.

"I'm not just talking about Israelis," Mrs Tyler said. "A lot of other people have said the same thing.

"They want to know what groups are moving into the area - quite a number of times people have said to me, 'What are you going to do about this group?"

The day after Mrs Tyler made these comments, she distanced herself from them and told The Sunday Telegraph the remarks she had referred to were made by only "about 12 people" from the 5,000 she had canvassed.

So, there you have it folks .... the genius of the beast on full display.

It would be easy for voters to become overwrought at the prospect of having to choose between the 'me to' Labor & Liberal machines: one corrupt, decrepit & broken & the other offering nothing as an alternative for the thinking voter.

My advice: vote green or find a worthwhile Independent but, whatever you do, send a message to both the major parties of disaster - 'Bugger Off!!!'  

The international campaign for Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions (BDS) against the Israeli occupier has just scored some points with the decision by Vanessa PARADIS to cancel her concert in Tel Aviv on 10th February & the announcement by John Lewis, a major chain store in the United Kingdom, as well as BAY in Canada, that they will no longer sell AHAVA cosmetics which are exported by Israel but are made in the Mizpa Shalem settlement in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

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."

Antony Loewenstein

Top Palestinian officials have questioned the veracity of leaked documents purporting to show offers of major concessions to Israel.

The documents, obtained by al-Jazeera, suggest the Palestinians agreed to Israel keeping large parts of illegally occupied East Jerusalem - an offer Israel apparently rejected.

But chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said the leaks were "a pack of lies".

The BBC has been unable to verify the documents independently.

Al-Jazeera says it has 16,076 confidential records of meetings, e-mails, communications between Palestinian, Israeli and US leaders, covering the years 2000-2010.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12263671

---------------------

A small Palestinian group linked to al-Qaeda was behind the New Year's Day bomb attack on a church in Alexandria in which 23 people died, Egypt says.

Interior Minister Habib al-Adli said Cairo had "decisive proof" that the Army of Islam carried out the attack in the northern Egyptian city.

The Gaza-based group immediately denied any responsibility for the attack.

Officials in Egypt have so far released very few details how they believe the attack was carried out.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12261668

Why is there no Palestinian state? Because the Israeli government's objective is not a Jewish state, but a Zionist one.

Al Jazeera’s release of The Palestine Papers helps to make clear why there is no Palestinian state. It illuminates a key flaw in Palestinian and western understanding of Israeli thinking. It is this flaw which helps explain why a state has failed to emerge – despite the many, many opportunities in the last nineteen years in which it could have.

The root premise has been, since the outset of the ‘process’, that Israel was intent on having and maintaining a Jewish ‘majority’ within Israel, and that with time – and a growing Palestinian population – Israel would have to acquiesce to a Palestinian state simply to maintain its Jewish majority: that is, by losing Palestinians into their own state, Israel’s Jewish majority could be conserved – and by these means, and only by such means, finally could such a majority be conserved.

It is a very compelling narrative. It suggested that a Palestinian state was inevitable: Palestinians simply had to ‘prove’ their readiness to assume statehood to Israel – and a state would be given them.

Professor Mushtaq Khan from London’s School of Oriental and African Studies argued in a recent talk that it was precisely this type of analysis that lay behind Fatah’s approach to Oslo. It explains, he argues, why the Palestinian leadership at this time never made real attempts to create serious bargaining power vis-à-vis Israel: the leadership simply did not think it necessary. They saw their task to be ‘confidence building’ with the Israelis. Professor Khan notes that Oslo was conducted not as a serious negotiation, but more as a confidence building exercise by the Palestinians. The Palestinian participants did not follow any real strategy, but sought only to achieve the minimum that they believed was ‘saleable’ to their own people – ’67 territories - and stuck to that. Yasir Arafat did not even bother to read the 400 page accord before committing to it. Such was the power of the idea that a Palestinian state was inevitable - being an Israeli self-interest.

The Palestine Papers show that still the Ramallah leadership misreads Israeli motives. What is even more striking is how they misread them, even when they are ‘hidden’ in full view. An angered Tzipi Livni, in a pre-Annapolis negotiating session with Ahmed Qurei, spells out Israeli motivations: “I think that we can use another session – about what it means to be a Jew and that it is more than just a religion. But if you want to take us back to 1947, it won’t help. Israel is the state of the Jewish people -- and I would like to emphasize the meaning of “its people” is the Jewish people -- with Jerusalem the united and undivided capital of Israel and of the Jewish people for 3007 years....”

http://english.aljazeera.net/palestinepapers/2011/01/201112412224387862.html

Roger Waters, once of Pink Floyd fame, has become a high-profile supporter of Palestinian rights and endorser of BDS:

In 1980, a song I wrote, Another Brick in the Wall Part 2, was banned by the government of South Africa because it was being used by black South African children to advocate their right to equal education. That apartheid government imposed a cultural blockade, so to speak, on certain songs, including mine.

Twenty-five years later, in 2005, Palestinian children participating in a West Bank festival used the song to protest against Israel's wall around the West Bank. They sang: "We don't need no occupation! We don't need no racist wall!" At the time, I hadn't seen firsthand what they were singing about.

A year later I was contracted to perform in Tel Aviv. Palestinians from a movement advocating an academic and cultural boycott of Israel urged me to reconsider. I had already spoken out against the wall, but I was unsure whether a cultural boycott was the right way to go.

The Palestinian advocates of a boycott asked that I visit the occupied Palestinian territory to see the wall for myself before I made up my mind. I agreed.

Under the protection of the United Nations I visited Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Nothing could have prepared me for what I saw that day. The wall is an appalling edifice to behold. It is policed by young Israeli soldiers who treated me, a casual observer from another world, with disdainful aggression.

If it could be like that for me, a foreigner, a visitor, imagine what it must be like for the Palestinians, for the underclass, for the passbook carriers. I knew then that my conscience would not allow me to walk away from that wall, from the fate of the Palestinians I met: people whose lives are crushed daily by Israel's occupation. In solidarity, and somewhat impotently, I wrote on their wall that day: "We don't need no thought control."

...

Artists were right to refuse to play in South Africa's Sun City resort until apartheid fell and white people and black people enjoyed equal rights. And we are right to refuse to play in Israel until the day comes - and it surely will come - when the wall of occupation falls and Palestinians live alongside Israelis in the peace, freedom, justice and dignity that they all deserve. 

The ongoing controversy over Sydney's Marrickville council backing BDS against Israel is getting the political and media establishment and Zionist lobby worried.

So what to do?

Find a compliant Federal politician who loves Israel to death and will do anything to defend Zionist occupation.

Victorian Liberal Mitch Fifield is your man. He's been on trips to Israel (alongside Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd late last year) and back in 2009 he talked about the glorious democracy in Israel.

Today he moved the following in the Federal Senate. The Greens voted against it and asked for it to be recorded in Hansard:

Senator Fifield: To move - That the Senate -

(a) notes:

(i) the boycott of Israel instigated by Marrickville Council - part of the Global Boycott Divestments and Sanctions (GBDS) - banning any links with Israeli organisations or organisations that support Israel and prohibiting any academic, government, sporting or cultural exchanges with Israel,

(ii) letters from Marrickville Council to Members of Parliament asking them to support the GBDS, and

(iii) reports of the intention of the Greens Marrickville Mayor, Ms Fiona Byrne, to seek to extend the boycott of Israel to the entire state of New South Wales;

(b) acknowledges that Israel is a legitimate and democratic state and a good friend of Australia; and

(c) denounces the Israeli boycott by Marrickville Council and condemns any expansion of it.

elsewhere .....

News Goo on Palestine and Wikileaks and our media's cluelessness

Why does the mainstream media report as it does? Corporate pressure? Reporter laziness? Set narrative?

A few months ago a few of us here in Sydney discussed the idea of a Democracy Now! show in Australia, a progressive and critical look at the world, views so often ignored by the MSM.

Sydney University's Jake Lynch took the lead and today the first edition of News Goo is released by New Matilda. It's (hopefully) the first of many episodes. More original reporting will happen, slicker presentation etc but the idea is to challenge even the so-called liberal media and presenters (like the invaluable Medialens does in the UK) on their prejudices and blindness:

The program's name comes from a rap by Polarity1, which contains the lines, "the more we watch, the less we know". This is something we've all felt from time to time, sitting in front of a TV screen - but is it true? If so, how come? And how could it be different?

In the launch edition of News Goo, Jake interviews Julian Burnside QC, and the journalist, author and film-maker John Pilger, about the investigative journalism of Wikileaks. They ask why Australia's media have been so slow to follow up on important leads from the Wikileaks disclosures, like the unmasking of Senator Mark Arbib as a US "protected source".

It's presented with the dry wit that NM readers have come to know from Jake's regular columns. Features include the "elephant in the room" - complete with picture and sound effects - as the spotlight falls on obvious angles left persistently unreported. And Welsh crooner Tom Jones is on hand to remind us of the most neglected question in journalism: "Why, why why, Delilah?"

The program also takes a closer look at the ABC's relaunched 7.30, with Leigh Sales and Chris Uhlmann, and its investigation of Australia's rusting fleet of naval vessels. Interviewed in the studio, Dr Hannah Middleton of the Australian Anti-Bases Campaign Coalition, says it continues a pattern in ABC reporting, of nitpicking over the details of "defence" spending, while ignoring the case for reducing military budgets overall.

And Jake is joined by the author and journalist, Antony Loewenstein, to discuss Channel Ten's 6PM with George Negus. A "pre-emptive buckle" prevents journalists from spelling out the facts about Israel and Palestine, Loewenstein says - which is why so many programs end up, like 6PM, rehashing the same set of clichéd angles and treatments - despite its claims to be "new and different".

News Goo is produced by a team of experienced professionals, giving freely of their time and expertise. Like the rest of New Matilda's coverage, it depends on YOUR SUPPORT! If you would like to see further episodes of News Goo in the future, please make your donation here.

Jake Lynch left his TV career to become Associate Professor and Director of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Sydney. He is also a member of the Executive Committee of the Sydney Peace Foundation, which staged the Wikileaks event in Sydney Town Hall on Wednesday 16 March.

Antony Loewenstein

It appears that once again the pro-Israel apologists have decided to single Israel out by making boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel a leading issue for the Marrickville electorate in the lead-up to the NSW state elections. Not surprisingly, the Palestinians are rendered invisible again as right-wing groups, politicians, the pro-Israel lobby and the Murdoch Press attack the Marrickville Council for their resolution to support BDS. That Palestinians living under Israel's 43-year-old occupation are being ethnically cleansed on a daily basis from their land, their neighbourhoods and farms seems to be of no concern to our Liberal and Labor candidates who are vying for seats likely to favour the Greens.

There would be no BDS campaign if Israel was not denying the Palestinians their basic human rights: the right of return, the right to citizenship, the right to equality, the right to self determination, the right to live free from occupation, the right to education, the right to freedom of movement, the right to security, the right to fair trials, and much else besides.

The call for BDS was initiated in 2005 by Palestinian Civil Society as a form of non-violent resistance that is rooted in international law and the universal declarations of human rights.  It aims to empower individuals to take action to end the conflict. Since 2005, BDS has had a steady rise in popularity amongst Palestinian and Jewish peace groups only to accelerate in 2009 when Israel attacked the Gaza Strip. The deliberate sidelining of the Goldstone report in the UN after the evident savagery of the assault, galvanized organizations and individuals around the world to join the BDS campaign and call for an end to Israel's criminal impunity and disregard for international law.

In the run up to the NSW elections, none of the politicians gave a thought to Israel's new round of attacks on Gaza.  Nor did the media, despite Israel's opposition leader Tzipi Livni calling for another "Operation Cast Lead" with the same chilling indifference she showed when she defended the earlier offensive as "necessary".

Instead, a smear campaign was waged against the increasingly popular Greens for their principled support of BDS, a call coming now from numerous mainstream organisations around the world, including a good number of unions here in Australia.  Besmirching the good character of Greens' candidates like Marrrickville Mayor Fiona Byrne, who is standing for the seat of Marrickville, as well as distributing false and sensationalist propaganda for political advantage, ought to sound warning bells for the local electorates and Australians generally.

If Ms Byrne is indeed an "extremist" then she is in illustrious company.   Nobel Peace Laureates Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela, as well as former US President Jimmy Carter, were also labelled "extremists" by blind supporters of Israel, for daring to criticize Israel's systematic discrimination and violations of International Humanitarian Law.

Nevertheless, as Israel expands its Jewish-only colonies, pushes its indigenous Palestinian population behind razor wires and tall cement walls, and strips them of any shred of freedom or dignity, our politicians continue to reward Israel.  A resolution moved by Liberal Senator Fifield condemning Marrickville's decision to implement a boycott was just passed in the Federal Senate.  The Greens were the only ones who opposed it.

The resolution acknowledges the friendship between Australia and Israel and this is no surprise at all since successive governments here in recent times have bent over backwards to embrace Israel.

Notwithstanding our politicians' blind support, Australia's relations with Israel have caused many Australians to question what business we could possibly have with a state that is entrenching its occupation of another people.   There is a growing recognition amongst Australians that Israel simply does not live up to its tired and discredited mantra of "the only democracy in the Middle East".

The idea that Israel is a democracy like Australia is simply not valid.  You cannot deny the rights of half of the people living under your control and still be called a democracy.  As if that is not enough, Israel has now made it illegal to hold events or ceremonies commemorating Israel's Independence Day as a day of catastrophe or "Nakba" for the Palestinians dispossessed of their homes and land in 1948.  And the Israeli Knesset has just passed a segregation bill, which prohibits Palestinian Israelis from living in Jewish localities built on land confiscated from them.

In light of such blatant discrimination, the call for BDS is neither extreme nor unrealistic.  More and more people around the world see it as a morally sound strategy for holding Israel to account. If anything, the spectacle of fear-mongering and name calling in Marrickville has shown how incapable some politicians are of having a rational conversation on Israel/Palestine, despite its importance to world peace and security.

Samah Sabawi is a Palestinian-Australian writer, playwright, producer, political analyst, commentator and public speaker on human rights and is the Public Advocate of the Australian advocacy group Australians for Palestine.

Sonja Karkar is the founder of Women for Palestine and the editor of the Australians for Palestine news website.  Her articles have been published in Australian and overseas publications.

and ....

Sydney's Marrickville council embraced BDS late last year and since then we've seen a litany of hysterical attacks by the Zionist lobby, Liberal Party, Labor Party and Murdoch press.

The main "issues"? The Greens are anti-Semitic, want Israel destroyed and hate Jews. That's the kind of predictable drivel pushed by Labor MP Michael Danby (who never saw an Israeli war he didn't like).

Anything to avoid discussion about the Zionist treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

In the Australian, Bruce Loudon writes that Israel is nothing like apartheid South Africa because the Zionist state is a thriving democracy with rights for all. Palestinians? Well, there are "restrictions on people living in the occupied territories":

South Africa's apartheid was an indefensible system based entirely on race in its basest and most outrageous form, on whites believing they were superior by virtue of their skin colour, and insisting that blacks should be condemned to a life of servitude for white masters.

There is simply no basis for any similar condemnation of Israel. Yes, there are restrictions on the flow of people to and from Gaza - hardly surprising given Gaza's role as a hotbed of anti-Israeli ferment and violence and the power base of the murderous, Iranian-backed Hamas militants. How could Israel reasonably be expected to do otherwise?

Loudon is just the latest in a long line of old dopes who have no idea or don't care what Israel is doing in Palestine. Leading Israeli writers are despairing at the corrosive effects of the occupation but a Murdoch columnist in Australia thinks the Jewish state is praise-worthy. Good to hear.

Palestinian civilians are being murdered in Gaza, non-violent resistance to the West Bank occupation is growing and mainstream Israeli politicians are desperate to damn even American Zionists (like J Street) who don't embrace every Israeli policy.

That's why BDS is so essential. Everything else is just white noise.

and then this ....

Former prime minister John Howard will visit Israel as a guest of the Israeli government.

The trip is being treated as a state visit and will include a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The unusual honour for a former head of government reflects Mr Howard's reputation as an "unapologetic friend of Israel" - his own description while prime minister.

President Shimon Peres's trip to the United States appeared to begin on the right foot, however, this was soon marred by an ill-timed announcement by Israel of additional settlement building plans.

The Jerusalem Planning and Building Committee discussed the construction of 942 housing units in the Gilo neighborhood in the south of the city, beyond the Green Line on Sunday, and Haaretz was informed that same day that Defense Minister Ehud Barak plans to sign off on four settlement development plans.

The Defense Ministry, however, has only confirmed a new zoning plan for one of the four settlements.

The prospect of increased settlement building in the West Bank prompted the U.S. State Department to issue a statement Monday saying that "the United States is deeply concerned by continuing Israeli actions with respect to settlement construction."

U.S. 'deeply concerned' about Israel settlement expansion

meanwhile .....

The United Nations has warned that the demolition of the Palestinian residences by Israelis has been breaking the record for the past three months.

"The number of Palestinian buildings in the West Bank demolished by the Israeli authorities has hit a record high for the third consecutive month," said Chris Gunness, spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees on Sunday, AFP reported.

"The number of people forcibly displaced by these demolitions has also hit a record monthly high with 158 people forcibly displaced in March by demolitions, including 64 children," he said.

The official said respectively 29, 70 and 76 homes had been razed to the ground each month since January.

The policy clearly aims at "discrimination against one ethnic group," Gunness noted.

Tel Aviv is accused of implementing an apartheid system, under which it indulges Jews while withholding basic requirements from the Palestinians.

'Israel breaks demolition record'

It is ironic that the Greens candidates who dared to take a moral and non-violent stand against the Israeli occupation have copped the wrath of those who carry the political whips. Labels such as extremist, anti-Semitic and Nazi have been used as an emotional weapon to deride the lunatic left and mask many sobering facts. The antidote to a perceived vilification of Zionists appears to be to the vilification of the individual.

On cue, the major parties promptly paid their dues to Israel. Tony Abbott stated that "the Coalition completely rejects any campaign designed to weaken Israel...I call on the Prime Minister to pull her alliance partner into line". He referred to the BDS as "nonsense".

Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd said his government "did not condone nor support any boycotts or sanctions against the Jewish state".

Opposition Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Julie Bishop referred to Lee Rhiannon's pro-BDS comments as "extreme", "highly prejudicial" and "deeply troubling". This should come as no surprise given that Ms Bishop attended the Kevin Rudd-led delegation of 17 parliamentarians to the Australia Israel Leadership forum last December.

Trade Minister Craig Emerson referred to BDS as a "disgusting policy" and praised the Marrickville voters for rejecting this "Greens extremism". The applause from Israel was almost audible from Australia.

If any of these whip crackers bothered to research the facts about the BDS, they would struggle to find any extremism. The BDS campaign was founded in 2005, one year after the International Court of Justice found that Israel's wall, built on occupied Palestinian territory, to be illegal. Contrary to the scaremongering of its critics that compares the BDS campaign with Nazi propaganda, the Palestinian Civil Society BDS founder Omar Barghouti articulates the genesis and inspiration.

It's democracy stupid

While the Murdoch press wants public debate over Israel/Palestine to focus on everything except what Israel is doing to the Palestinians, it's vital to move the goal-posts. Sydney University's head of Peace and Conflict Studies Dr Jake Lynch writes how in Crikey:

Some of the NSW Greens are peeling away, as leaves from a lettuce, from support for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, the people's campaign launched in response to Israel's serial violations of international law, and the quiescence of governments.

What should they do instead? Reframe the issue. Appearing to ditch principles for expediency would rob the Greens of their USP: the equivalent, in political communication, of Dutch elm disease. They have been labelled, in media and political discourse, as "extremists". So, turn the tables: put the focus on "mainstream" debate on the Israel-Palestine conflict, here in Australia, and ask just how reasonable and representative it is.

How did BDS arise in the first place? There's a clue in the exhaustive coverage by the Murdoch press over this past week. Of all the thousands of words shovelled over the NSW Greens, one is conspicuous by its absence: "occupation". Israel's ongoing, illegal occupation of Palestinian territory is the most salient single fact about the conflict. To succeed in making out BDS advocates to be "the problem" requires readers and audiences (in other words, voters) to be bamboozled into ignoring the elephant in the room.

...

We are being very poorly represented on this question. An online survey by Research Now of 1021 Australians last year, by Griffith University researchers Eulalia Han and Halim Rane, showed: "The majority (55%) understand the Israel-Palestine conflict to be about 'Palestinians trying to end Israel's occupation and form their own state'."

Antony Loewnstein

Weeks of media coverage of Israel/Palestine in Australia and the BDS campaign pushed by the NSW Greens and Sydney's Marrickville council and not a peep from Arabs or Palestinians. I mean, why should they be heard? It's only about their land in the Middle East but let's not focus on details. It's clearly too much to expect journalists to actually, you know, call people who aren't white and Anglo.

Last night's ABC Radio PM (no Arabs there), today's Murdoch Australian (obviously no Palestinians here or here), nothing on ABC news today (except Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd just saying BDS is "nuts", clearly a man who gets his talking points from the Israeli Foreign Ministry) and another story on ABC radio this morning; nobody supporting the Palestinians.

A lone and brave voice:

Greens senator-elect Lee Rhiannon says she will continue to advocate for a trade boycott on Israel, despite being reprimanded by her party's leader, Bob Brown.

Ms Rhiannon backs the so-called BDS policy - boycott, divestment and sanctions - which is also backed by several Greens councillors on inner Sydney's Marrickville council.

Senator Brown says a trade boycott of Israel is not party policy and says the issue cost the Greens votes at the recent New South Wales election.

But on Sky News, Ms Rhiannon has defended her position.

"It's not an anti-Israel position at all. It is about a boycott to bring forward policies that will work for Palestinians because at the moment, Palestinians just don't have a lot of the human rights we take for granted," she said.

Ms Rhiannon acknowledges there is a difference between her stance and that of some of her federal colleagues.

But she says the issue has only been highlighted by News Limited newspapers to try to damage the Greens.

Another version of this interview features Rudd's instructive comments on BDS:

Kevin Rudd has branded as "nuts" a NSW Greens call for a boycott of Israel, as Greens senator-elect Lee Rhiannon vowed to continue to support the policy.

Amid a growing split within Greens ranks on the issue, Ms Rhiannon backed the Marrickville council's proposed Israel boycott, which could see the Sydney council sacked by NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell.

Mr Rudd said the council should focus on removing rubbish and cleaning local parks.

"The action by the Greens frankly is just nuts. The bottom line is that any local authority in the country should get on with the business of what they are paid by ratepayers to do," Mr Rudd told the ABC.

"Foreign policy is the province of the national government and for any element of the Green party to go out there and call upon the nation's government to engage in a campaign to boycott goods and services, be it from Israel or China or any other country, is as I said plain nuts."

But Ms Rhiannon said she would not abandon the policy, which Greens leader Bob Brown recently condemned as a mistake which had cost the party votes at the NSW election.

"Yes, we have that position in New South Wales and I'll support the New South Wales position. But it's not something we're taking to the federal parliament. There are clear priorities," Ms Rhiannon told Sky News.

She said while Senator Brown was the party's foreign affairs spokesman, she would continue to advocate the policy.

She said it had a long history in various Australian communities, with the Wollongong council pursuing the policy in the 1970s.

Courage is sorely lacking in our political and media elites.

The Australian media's coverage of Israel/Palestine and BDS.

Palestinians and Arabs remain largely absent from discussion, lest they infect people's minds.

Instead, today we have a litany of articles that say nothing about the Middle East apart from craven white people desperate to pray at the altar of Zionist "democracy".

The Australian:

Right-wing union boss Joe de Bruyn has joined a backlash of trade unionists angry at a decision by Greens councillors to impose a commercial boycott of Israel.

As NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell warned Sydney's Marrickville Council of possible consequences if it did not rescind the ban, Mr de Bruyn said the proposal was further evidence the Greens were an "extremist party".

The national secretary of the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Union said a boycott of Israel was not in the union's interest.

"Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East," Mr de Bruyn said. "To put a boycott on Israel sounds to me to be totally the wrong way around."

De Bruyn is the enlightened soul who opposes gay marriage.

The Sydney Morning Herald shows that even supposedly principled Greens can sometimes prefer rhetoric to action, especially when it comes to Palestine. Courage is sorely lacking:

Marrickville's controversial boycott of Israel is on the verge of collapse after a Greens councillor withdrew his support yesterday. Any boycott will now rely on the support of Labor, which is in doubt.

As the Foreign Affairs Minister, Kevin Rudd, joined a growing response of condemnation and the Premier, Barry O'Farrell, threatened to sack the council, the Greens councillor Max Phillips confirmed he would vote against putting the boycott into practice.

It also emerged that the Greens mayor, Fiona Byrne, had received death threats. The NSW Greens MP David Shoebridge said Cr Byrne had received the threats and the council's stance on Israel had shown courage.

What a shock to actually read something on this issue that discusses the reality for Palestinians under Zionist occupation:

Letter to Marrickville Council from concerned citizens of Israel urging you to stand firm in your support of BDS

We are Israeli citizens who witness first-hand the brutality of our government's policies towards the Palestinian people. We stand firm in our support of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) initiatives against Israel until it meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people's inalienable right to self-determination, and fully complies with the precepts of international law.

We reject the notion promoted by demagogues, that the 2005 BDS call from Palestine, and the BDS campaigns the world over which it has inspired, are rooted in anti-Jewish sentiment. On the contrary, BDS is an anti-racist movement against the daily, brutal occupation of Palestine and the virulently racist policies towards Israel's Palestinian citizens.

We also reject the assertion that cultural and academic boycotts of Israel defy the democratic principle of free speech. Research and development in academic institutions play a central role in designing and defending Israel's military and intelligence machinery. Prominent state-sponsored cultural institutions perpetuate the deception of Israeli democracy, and serve as propaganda tools. Moreover, the BDS campaign targets Israeli institutions, and does not bar Israeli individuals from conducting research with partners abroad or Israeli artists from performing abroad.

BDS was a key strategy in ending the white South African system of apartheid by applying international pressure.

We warmly commend the groundbreaking stand taken by the Marrickville Council in support of the Council in support of the democratic and non-violent BDS campaign for justice and human rights and urge the council to stand firm in the face of attempted intimidation and manipulation.

Sincerely,

Steve Amsel

Ronnen Ben-Arie

Matan Cohen

Adi Dagan

Prof. Rachel Giora

Rosamine Hayeem

Iris Hefets

Shir Hever

Yael Kahn

Dr. Anat Matar

Rela Mazali

Professor (emeritus) Moshé Machover

Dr. Dorothy Naor

Ofer Neiman

Amit Perelson

Itai Ryb

Herzl Schubert

Yonatan Shapira

Jonatan Stanczak

Ruth Tenne

Yana Ziferblat

On behalf of Boycott! Supporting the Palestinian BDS Call from within http://boycottisrael.info/

contact info

phone: 972-544-740825

boycottisrael.info

Dear Marrickvile councilors,

We the undersigned would firstly like to congratulate the Marrickville Council in Sydney's Inner West, Australia for their courageous motion (dated December 14, 2010) in support of the Palestinian-led global movement of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel until it complies with international law. The BDS campaign is deeply inspired by the South African anti-apartheid boycott and divestment campaign for freedom and equality. We understand the Marrickville councilors have come under immense pressure to reverse their decision.  After concerted political attacks laden with misinformation about BDS and its alleged costs to the council, a vote is being held on Tuesday April 19 to attempt a reversal.  As supporters of universal principles of human rights, we are writing today to appeal to all Marrickville councilors to uphold their principled motion in support of BDS.

Supporting BDS means first and foremost upholding universal human rights and the just and fair application of international law to end Israel's occupation and denial of basic Palestinian rights.  It does not in any way entail or necessitate adopting sweeping boycott or divestment measures that may have a disproportionately negative economic impact on Marrickville or any other council. BDS is not a one-size-fits-all formula; its endorsers around the world converge on the rights-based approach of the Call but apply context-sensitive measures that best fit their own reality and particular circumstances. Some boycott campaigns, such as the CodePink-led "Stolen Beauty," focus on one specific company that is implicated in Israel's occupation or war crimes, while others, like "Derail Veolia and Alstom," target a number of complicit institutions, companies or products.

The smear and intimidation campaign waged against the brave Marrickville motion and its supporters has neglected to mention that in 2005, an overwhelming majority of Palestinian civil society called upon conscientious citizens and civil society groups around the world to implement diverse, creative Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign based on the principles of human rights, justice, freedom and equality for all, irrespective of their identity [1].  The BDS movement appeals to people around the world to heed the call until Israel withdraws from all the lands occupied in 1967, including East Jerusalem, and removes all its colonies and walls in those lands; implements United Nations resolutions relevant to the restitution of Palestinian refugees rights; and recognizes the right of its Palestinian citizens to full equality [2]. On this last dimension, it is worth noting that the U.S. Department of State in its annual human rights reports has persistently condemned Israel's "institutional, legal, and societal discrimination" against its Palestinian citizens. [3] These three demands are firmly based in international law; by supporting this movement the Marrickville Council is expressing its solid commitment to human rights locally and internationally.

In light of the hundreds of UN resolutions condemning Israel's colonial and discriminatory policies as illegal, and considering the failure of all forms of international intervention and peace-making to oblige Israel to comply with international law, respect fundamental human rights and end its occupation and oppression of the Palestinian people, BDS has become the most urgent form of morally-consistent solidarity that can effectively further the demand for implementing Palestinian rights in accordance with international law. Marrickville Council is not alone in taking this moral stand, it has joined a long list of councils, civil society organizations, prominent artists and intellectuals around the world who have taken initiatives to hold Israel accountable similar to those used to end apartheid in South Africa [4].

We understand that some defenders of Israel's occupation and racial discrimination system have argued that it would be costly and difficult for Marrickville to implement its BDS policy. This is a little more than a cynical diversion by those who wish to protect Israel from being held accountable for its gross violations of international law. BDS need not be unduly costly - councils across the world have taken action in support of Palestinian rights at little or no cost. By being focused, nuanced, and tactical, Marrickville Council can implement BDS in a way that best suits the local context in which it operates while still making an important contribution towards just peace and respect for the rule of international law.

We warmly welcome your solidarity with Palestinians struggling for their inalienable rights. We believe that the time has come to apply BDS as a minimal, non-violent, yet clearly effective form of pressure on Israel, as was done successfully in the struggle against the apartheid regime in South Africa. Please uphold your boycott policy and stand firm in your commitment to human rights.

Victoria Brittain, journalist and playwright, London

Judith Butler, Professor, University of California, Berkeley

Hedy Epstein, Holocaust survivor and peace activist, Missouri

Chris Hedges, award-winning American journalist and author, US

Ronnie Kasrils, former South African government minister and African National Congress executive member

Naomi Klein, author and social activist, Toronto

Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Belfast

Miriam Margolyes, actress, London

Joseph Massad, Professor, Columbia University, New York

John Pilger, journalist and documentary maker

Sarah Schulman, Distinguished Professor of the Humanities, City University of New York

Clare Short, former UK government minister, London

Baroness Jenny Tonge, life peer and former UK member parliament, London

Salim Vally, lecturer, University of Johannesburg

South African Municipal Workers Union

COSATU-led Coalition for a Free Palestine (CFP)

[1] http://www.bdsmovement.net/call

[2] Ibid.

[3]http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2010/nea/154463.htm

[4] http://www.bdsmovement.net/2010/five-years-statemen-4602

Australian Federal Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese cares about Palestinians as much as he loves feral cats. His party's abiding dedication to Zionism is what matters; words are cheap and actions only say backing for Israeli occupation.

So his latest comments are no surprise (in a party where principle left through the back door years ago):

Marrickville council's boycott of Israel has been slammed as "costly, clumsy and unproductive" by Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese, who says the resolution should be dropped immediately.

Mr Albanese took a swipe at the Greens-inspired policy, claiming it had caused widespread division and had put local Sydney ratepayers out of pocket by more than $100 million.

"It's time, when the council meets tomorrow night, to put aside this division and to say that the council, should prioritise getting back to basics ... not trying to be an alternative foreign government for Australia that has brought the local community I'm proud to represent into a state of ridicule across the country," said Mr Albanese, who is federal MP for Grayndler, which includes Marrickville.

"This is about self-indulgence and playing politics by the Greens party locally - it's about time they cut their losses, acknowledge it was a mistake and move on."

...

Mr Albanese would not say if he too lobbied the local councillors, but said they "had made it clear" they would vote against the boycott.

"The problem with the BDS is that it is a one-state solution, it doesn't provide a way forward," he said.

"I think we need policies that promote a win-win - that don't have to be anti-Israeli to be pro-Palestinian - and I think that is very important in moving forward on these issues."

Marrickville BDS debate showed how little Palestine is understood in Australia

This has been the week of Sydney's Marrickville council putting Palestine on the national and global map by daring to support Palestine (though sadly giving in to bullying and rescind BDS). At this week's fiery public meeting, it was clear how many Zionists have vested interests in not acknowledging the devastating effects of Israel's occupation on Palestinian lands. Far better to talk about Hamas, Hizbollah, terrorism, "democracy" etc.

In today's Sydney Morning Herald, reporter Jo Tovey gives voice to those who rarely receive it in the corporate press:

Accusations of one-sided media coverage of the issue were also rife at Tuesday's meeting. The academic Peter Slezak, of Independent Australian Jewish Voices, said Jewish critics of Israel and supporters of the BDS campaign had not been heard, particularly in the Jewish media.

Samah Sabawi, a Palestinian-Australian, said their voice had been lost. "I don't feel we were able to discuss and debate the issue rationally and I don't feel the door was open for Palestinian voices to discuss what the BDS was about."

Antony Loewenstein

Not so long ago Mark Arbib was Australia's No. 1 political powerbroker.

He was convenor of the Labor Party's ruling Right faction, member of the party's all-powerful National Executive Committee and a favourite of the prime minister who he helped ascend to the top job.

How times change. In June 2010, less than two years after riding Kevin Rudd's coattails to the pinnacle, Arbib was one of the key conspirators in the coup that brought Rudd down, having already made the PM's execution inevitable by destroying his standing in the polls.

And we all know what has happened to Labor's fortunes since then.

''Arbib should be totally fucked,'' says one veteran Labor powerbroker, ''but no one has gone after him. He's lucky to have survived.''

More than anyone else, it was Arbib and his mate Bitar who trashed Rudd's reputation as a man of principle and vision when they persuaded him to ditch the emissions trading scheme in early 2010. And more than anyone else, it is Arbib who exemplifies the Labor government's current malaise.

So it's no surprise Arbib does not appear as our No. 1 Political Fixer. The miracle is he still makes the Top Ten.

''Arbib has no beliefs, he stands for nothing except power," says one Labor insider. ''I've known him for a decade and I've never heard him express a view about history, philosophy, international affairs or anything political apart from tactics. Karl Bitar is the same. It's all about polling.''

''For both of them the most important thing is to be controlling things. Power for its own sake is at the centre of their decision making ... how it will affect them.''

''Robert Ray and Graham Richardson [famous Labor numbers men] may have been pragmatists, but at least they both believed in something.''

Arbib made his name as a machine man in the NSW Labor Right, which spawned Richo, John Ducker, Joe Tripodi and Eddie Obeid, and which has run NSW for decades.

In 2004, he was installed as NSW General Secretary, the same job that set Richo on his road to power. And against all the odds, he managed to unite the party's warring Left and Right factions into an even more powerful machine, that came to dominate federal Labor. He did this by making a deal with the hard Left's Anthony Albanese.

Arbib's enemies admit he has charm, energy and flair and treats people with respect. Most even confess to liking him, which is most unusual for such a powerful person. And that's how he managed to win support from both sides of the party in 2007 when he scored the No. 1 spot on Labor's NSW senate ticket. But few would defend his political record which has led to Labor's annihilation in the premier state and the prospect of a similar thrashing for the party at the next federal election.

Smooth and suave with sharp suit and shaven head, Arbib is the epitome of a modern ALP apparatchik. He has served his time as an organiser for the Transport Workers Union, but he's also university educated and is as comfortable in the boardroom as he is on the shop floor- perhaps even more so. His wife Kelli works for Macquarie Bank and he spent five months at stockbrokers Bell Potter Securities before taking up his Senate seat. He is said to have rejected the chance of a safe House of Representatives seat because he wasn't prepared to live in Sydney's western suburbs.

Arbib's father, Eric, was born in Libya and grew up in Italy before moving to Sydney in the 1960s, where he made money as a property developer. He drowned in the surf at Bondi in the early 1980s, leaving the 11-year old Mark to be brought up by his mother in Chippendale, in the city's inner west.

Young Arbib's epiphany came a decade later as a student working for Sizzler, when he organised restaurant workers in a fight for better pay. In 1992, aged 21, he joined Young Labor and began to learn the dark arts of vote winning. So smart was he that he made it to president within three years.

Back in those early days he drank with his fellow fledgling powerbrokers, Joe Tripodi and Karl Bitar, every week after Labor Council meetings. On the weekends he went door-knocking for the master, Morris Iemma, who was organising tirelessly to win the seat of Hurstville. The two men became friends on the hustings, spending more time with each other than they did with their families.

Arbib put Iemma into power as premier in 2005, ran a brilliant campaign to win the 2007 election, then dumped the NSW premier a year later when electricity privatisation and a string of scandals put Labor on the nose with the focus groups that Arbib set so much store by. He later repeated this make-and-break cycle with Rudd.

''He's always going to be the bloke who is bringing down a leader or making a leader,'' one ALP insider told The Sydney Morning Herald in 2010.

But will the party faithful listen to him again if the focus groups tell him to dump Gillard? And does he still have the clout?

Arbib is now Minister for Sport-sporting chinos and blazer-and claims to have forsaken factional games to concentrate on his career. ''He wants to be a serious player in government,'' says one Labor activist friend, ''so he doesn't want to be seen as a plotter.''

He packed in his job as convenor of the Right in September 2010 and gave up his seat on the national executive committee that runs the party. But he is said to be behind recent attempts to remove Daryl Melham and Robert McClelland from safe Labor seats in southern Sydney and find a place for the Australian Workers' Union's ambitious national secretary, Paul Howes.

In his maiden speech to the Senate three years ago, Arbib promised to leave ''no stone unturned'' in his ''efforts to benefit humanity'' . He spoke with feeling of his grandmother's struggles in the Great Depression, and the importance to Australia of education and reconciliation, which chimed in nicely with Rudd's agenda at the time. He also singled out climate change as an issue that couldn't be ducked.

''If there is a fight worth fighting,'' said Arbib, ''Australia always leads the way. And so it must be on climate change.''

Yet when it came to that fight, he was the first to retreat. ''He's not the sort of person you want in the trenches next to you as you fix your bayonet, because you'd find yourself going over on your own,'' one veteran Labor powerbroker told The Power Index. ''When you lose he's gone. He's stepped out of the battle at half time.''

''The only thing he's good at," he concludes, ''is not being blamed.''

Paul Barry