9th Sep­tem­ber 2015
The Exec­u­tive Coun­cil of Aus­tralian Jew­ry has wel­comed the announce­ment today by the Aus­tralian gov­ern­ment that Aus­tralia will reset­tle an addi­tion­al 12,000 refugees who are flee­ing the con­flict in Syr­ia and Iraq.
“We agree with the government’s deci­sion to give pri­or­i­ty to those most in need of pro­tec­tion, includ­ing women, chil­dren and fam­i­lies of per­se­cut­ed minori­ties, who have sought refuge from the con­flict in Jor­dan, Lebanon and Turkey”, said ECAJ Pres­i­dent, Robert Goot. “We also com­mend the gov­ern­ment for com­mit­ting $44 mil­lion to the pro­vi­sion of human­i­tar­i­an sup­port to more than 240,000 Syr­i­an and Iraqi peo­ple who have been forced to flee their homes or seek refuge in neigh­bour­ing coun­tries”.
The ECAJ also gave its sup­port to the government’s deci­sion to extend Australia’s air strikes against Islam­ic State into Syr­ia, mark­ing the next phase of Australia’s con­tri­bu­tion to the inter­na­tion­al coali­tion effort to dis­rupt, degrade and ulti­mate­ly defeat Islam­ic State.
“It is not enough sim­ply to address the results of the ongo­ing atroc­i­ties being car­ried out by Islam­ic State and many oth­er groups in Syr­ia and Iraq”, Robert Goot said. “It is also nec­es­sary, in con­cert with oth­er nations, for there to be a forcible mil­i­tary response against those groups them­selves, as this seems to be the only way avail­able for the moment to pres­sure the per­pe­tra­tors against con­tin­u­ing their atroc­i­ties. In addi­tion, we would hope that behind the scenes strong diplo­mat­ic pres­sure is being applied to the Syr­i­an regime, whose shock­ing crimes against its own peo­ple – includ­ing the delib­er­ate use of chem­i­cal weapons and bar­rel bombs against civil­ians – have been at the very heart of the prob­lem. The Syr­i­an regime and its back­ers – Hezbol­lah, Iran and Rus­sia – have much to answer for”.
Con­tact:
Peter Wertheim AM | Exec­u­tive Direc­tor
phone: 02 8353 8500 | m: 0408 160 904 | fax 02 9361 5888
e: pwertheim@ecaj.org.au | www.ecaj.org.au