Our policies

Preamble

Tracing its origins to the Jews who arrived in Australia aboard the First Fleet on 26 January 1788, the Aus­trali­an Jewish community is unique among Diaspora com­munit­ies. Aus­trali­an Jewry has played a prominent and recog­nised part in Australia’s history and has made positive con­tri­bu­tions, out of pro­por­tion to its numbers, to the devel­op­ment of Aus­trali­an society.

For the Jewish community, Australia has indeed been the lucky country bestowing upon us the blessings of freedom and respect for human life and dignity. Quite simply we are at home here, something that sadly has not always been the Jewish exper­i­ence in other parts of the world.

We celebrate the efforts and accom­plish­ments of talented and hard­work­ing indi­vidu­als and groups from within the Aus­trali­an Jewish community and are proud of the part they have played in the many cultural, sporting, sci­entif­ic, political, social and economic achieve­ments of this great diverse country. Not least among our number have been Jewish men and women, many of whom paid the ultimate price, who have served at home and abroad in times of war to defend Australia and the prin­ciples of freedom and justice which our country cherishes.

What follows is the current policy platform of the Executive Council of Aus­trali­an Jewry (ECAJ). These policies are derived from the beliefs and values of the Aus­trali­an Jewish community, which we are confident enhance general Aus­trali­an values of democracy and human rights; indi­vidu­al freedom and the rule of law; social justice and com­pas­sion; mutual under­stand­ing and respect; and a fair go for all.

This Council:
1.1 NOTES that it is the vision of the ECAJ to create and support a community in which all Aus­trali­ans, including all Jewish Aus­trali­ans: (a) feel valued and their cultural dif­fer­ences are respected; (b) have a fair oppor­tun­ity to meet their material and other needs; and (c) are equally empowered as citizens to par­ti­cip­ate in and con­trib­ute to all facets of life in the wider community;
1.2 NOTES that as Aus­trali­ans we take great pride in what we see as the uniquely Aus­trali­an values of social egal­it­ari­an­ism, “mateship” and a “fair go”;
1.3 REAFFIRMS our profound com­mit­ment on behalf of the Aus­trali­an Jewish community to the dignity of dif­fer­ence, gender equality, and a belief in the equality of humankind;
1.4 PROUDLY AFFIRMS our ongoing com­mit­ment to recon­cili­ation with indi­gen­ous Aus­trali­ans, to a mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism that draws people into, rather than separates them from, Aus­trali­an life, and to an Australia that is inclusive for all Aus­trali­ans and respects gender equality;
1.5 ACKNOWLEDGES that in the Jewish community, social exclusion may result from a number of factors including: lack of edu­ca­tion­al or voca­tion­al oppor­tun­it­ies; low levels of income; mental or physical illness or dis­ab­il­ity; immig­ra­tion without social support; or sexual ori­ent­a­tion, gender identity/expression or sex char­ac­ter­ist­ics, and that such exclusion most often results in indi­vidu­als being prevented through no fault of their own, from building a better future for them­selves and their families;
1.6 NOTES that poverty amongst Aus­trali­an Jews is no less prevalent than in other sectors of the Aus­trali­an community and that aspects of inequal­ity from which poverty stems and which require further invest­ig­a­tion and support are:
  • Work oppor­tun­it­ies par­tic­u­larly in the case of immig­rants, families with young children, large families and reli­giously observant families and older people and people with a dis­ab­il­ity;
  • Access and Equity in the util­iz­a­tion of services – where members of the community do not have access to contacts, groups and oppor­tun­it­ies which empower them to access the main­stream Jewish community and the wider society. This can arise from the inability to speak English, or lack of education and inform­a­tion, or lack of suf­fi­cient income to par­ti­cip­ate;
  • Social stigmas where indi­vidu­als exper­i­ence social exclusion from the community as a result of mental illness, dis­ab­il­ity, or sexual ori­ent­a­tion, gender identity/expression or sex char­ac­ter­ist­ics;
1.7 ACKNOWLEDGES that across Australia there are numerous Jewish organ­isa­tions whose role is to assist members of the Jewish community to overcome social exclusion and ameli­or­ate poverty. There are community services, aged care services, and dis­ab­il­ity services, and there are edu­ca­tion­al insti­tu­tions and syn­agogues that, inter alia, con­trib­ute to this work;
1.8 RECOGNISES that the role of the ECAJ is to encourage organ­isa­tions across Australia to: identify and rectify gaps in services that ought to be provided; encourage such organ­isa­tions to seek oppor­tun­it­ies to reach out to and provide services for those who are mar­gin­al­ised, and to engage Federal gov­ern­ment depart­ments to assist the community to ensure that the most com­pre­hens­ive services are provided;
1.9 RECORDS its belief that the maximum benefit across Australia will only be achieved by the Jewish community working at both national and State levels;
1.10 SUPPORTS the devel­op­ment of projects, espe­cially in smaller and regional com­munit­ies, which bring hope encom­passing a range of policy and program domains at many levels: education, training, employ­ment, afford­able childcare, assist­ance with housing, a range of dis­ab­il­ity and aged care services – support for care-givers; and above all – building up at community levels a network of sup­port­ive services, amenities and access­ible transport facil­it­ies and social mentoring which reduce stigma and social exclusion from the networks and vibrant life of our community;
1.11 WELCOMES the efforts of the Fed­er­a­tion of Jewish Aged and Community Service Organ­isa­tions in assisting to achieve these object­ives.
This Council:
2.1 DEPLORES all mani­fest­a­tions of racist action and speech, including antisemitism;
2.2 SUPPORTS the work of the Aus­trali­an Human Rights Com­mis­sion and other public programs to educate Aus­trali­ans regarding the irra­tion­al­ity and evil of racism;
2.3 CALLS ON leaders of all main­stream political parties to con­sist­ently artic­u­late a vision of Australia which embraces cultural diversity and in which respect for the dignity and rights of each Aus­trali­an is guar­an­teed;
2.4 CALLS ON all main­stream political parties to place racist divisive and extremist can­did­ates in the last positions when alloc­at­ing electoral pref­er­ences;
2.5 CALLS ON political, civil and religious leaders to play public, lead­er­ship roles in emphas­iz­ing the unac­cept­ab­il­ity of racism;
2.6 WELCOMES the appoint­ment by the Aus­trali­an Gov­ern­ment of a Race Dis­crim­in­a­tion Com­mis­sion­er within the Aus­trali­an Human Rights Com­mis­sion separate to other Com­mis­sion­er roles.
2.7 WELCOMES and supports the adoption and imple­ment­a­tion of the National Anti-Racism Strategy launched by the Aus­trali­an Gov­ern­ment in August 2012

This Council:

3.1NOTES the activ­it­ies of extremist organ­isa­tions, the currency of certain racist myths, the pro­lif­er­a­tion of racist material on the internet and the tolerance given to racist com­ment­ary by some sections of the main­stream media;
3.2NOTES the incidence of racial vili­fic­a­tion and racially-motivated violence in Australia;
3.3AFFIRMS that effective responses to racism include moral and political lead­er­ship from public figures, legis­la­tion to give victims of racism legal remedies, and on-going public education;
3.4COMMENDS those public figures who have taken a lead­er­ship position against racism, including antisemitism;
3.5CALLS ON the Federal Gov­ern­ment to strengthen legis­lat­ive measures to combat racial vili­fic­a­tion in the public domain and espe­cially on the internet and to provide more stream­lined, exped­i­tious and effective remedies to indi­vidu­als and groups who are the targets of public acts of racial vili­fic­a­tion.
3.6NOTES that the pro­vi­sions of Part IIA of the Racial Dis­crim­in­a­tion Act have served the community well and have assisted in pub­lic­ally exposing racist behaviour and in having such behaviour pro­scribed.
3.7EXPRESSES CONCERN at proposals to amend those pro­vi­sions in a manner that would reduce or remove important pro­tec­tions against racial vili­fic­a­tion.
3.8RESOLVES to renew the efforts of the ECAJ to explain its support for existing legis­lat­ive pro­tec­tions against racial vili­fic­a­tion and to advocate the retention and enhance­ment of the those pro­tec­tions.
3.9OPPOSES any proposals for winding back the pro­tec­tions against offensive behaviour based on racial hatred presently provided under Part IIA of the Racial Dis­crim­in­a­tion Act, 1975 (Cth).
3.10NOTES WITH DISAPPOINTMENT that current sections 80.2A and s.80.2B of the Criminal Code 1995 (Cth) are unwork­able because:

a. the elements of the offences created by those sections have been for­mu­lated so restrict­ively that it is effect­ively impossible for a pro­sec­utor to prove those elements to the criminal standard; and

b. the avail­ab­il­ity of defences under section 80.3 to charges under these sections is com­pletely mis­con­ceived.

3.11

CALLS ON the Federal Gov­ern­ment to pass legis­la­tion to create an indict­able offence based on the following model:

§*** (1) A person who, otherwise than in private, inten­tion­ally or reck­lessly promotes or advocates the use or threatened use of violence against, or who harasses or intim­id­ates (although no actually bodily harm is occa­sioned), another person or group of people because of, or by reference to, the actual or presumed:

(i) race, colour, descent or national, ethnic or ethno-religious origin; or

(ii) religious belief or affil­i­ation; or

(iii) sexual ori­ent­a­tion; or

(iv) HIV/AIDS status; or

(v) gender identity/expression; or

(vi) sex char­ac­ter­ist­ics,

of the other person or of some or all of the members of the group, commits an indict­able offence.

(2) “Harasses” includes making threats or engaging in serious and sub­stan­tial verbal abuse.

This Council:

4.1RECOGNISES Abori­gin­al and Torres Strait Islander people as the first Aus­trali­ans, with unique cultures, languages and spiritual rela­tion­ships to the land and seas;
4.2PURSUES a vision of an Australia that provides equal rights and life chances for all;
4.3AFFIRMS the fun­da­ment­al import­ance of recon­cili­ation as the basis of an Aus­trali­an Community which respects the diversity of values, cultures, ideas and the con­tri­bu­tion of all people;
4.4SUPPORTS Recon­cili­ation Australia’s National Program of Action which encour­ages organ­isa­tions and indi­vidu­als to turn their good inten­tions into action;
4.5

AFFIRMS that the ECAJ will continue to develop and implement a Recon­cili­ation Action Plan that includes actions, time­frames for imple­ment­a­tion and per­form­ance measures;Areas for action may include the ECAJ using its networks to:

  • raise Community awareness and under­stand­ing of the historic, social and economic factors which con­trib­ute to the current levels of dis­ad­vant­age con­front­ing many Abori­gin­al and Torres Strait Islander people and com­munit­ies.
  • influence gov­ern­ments and busi­nesses to address the systemic issues that keep many Abori­gin­al and Strait Islander people and their com­munit­ies in poor health and poverty.
  • support human rights based approaches to economic and social devel­op­ment programs in Abori­gin­al and Torres Strait Islander com­munit­ies; and
  • lead inter-faith alliances to develop and provide targeted financial and capacity building support to selected projects which strengthen Abori­gin­al and Torres Strait Islander organ­isa­tions’ gov­ernance, man­age­ment, service delivery and pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment.
4.6ENCOURAGES the Jewish community in Australia to increase its knowledge and under­stand­ing of the identity and exper­i­ences of Abori­gin­al and Torres Strait Islander peoples and reflect this awareness in our social rela­tion­ships and our support for their advance­ment;
4.7CALLS UPON the gov­ern­ments, business and civil com­munit­ies and people of Australia to take action to reduce the relative dis­ad­vant­age many Abori­gin­al and Torres Strait Islander people may face by improving education, health, housing, employ­ment, gov­ernance, social and communal rela­tion­ships and law and justice;
4.8CALLS ON Jewish organ­isa­tions around Australia to speak out in favour of recon­cili­ation, actively par­ti­cip­ate in the annual events, Week of Prayer for Recon­cili­ation and National Recon­cili­ation Week
4.9NOTES that the Uluru Statement from the Heart (‘the Statement’) was made by Indi­gen­ous Aus­trali­ans directly to the Aus­trali­an people as a whole, having been endorsed by a gathering of 250 Abori­gin­al and Torres Strait Islander leaders following a four-day First Nations National Con­sti­tu­tion­al Con­ven­tion held at Uluru, which in turn followed a con­sulta­tion process that was unpre­ced­en­ted in Aus­trali­an history for its scale.
4.10

ENDORSES as just, reas­on­able and achiev­able the Statement’s call for:

  • a First Nations Voice to Par­lia­ment in the form of an advisory body on policy affecting Abori­gin­al and Torres Strait Islander people, to be enshrined in the Aus­trali­an con­sti­tu­tion.
  • a Makarrata Com­mis­sion to oversee agreement-making between the Aus­trali­an gov­ern­ment and Indi­gen­ous people.
  • a truth and recon­cili­ation process to be facil­it­ated by the Makarrata Com­mis­sion.
4.11AFFIRMS its belief that bringing the Statement’s vision to fruition is important to all Aus­trali­ans; for Indi­gen­ous Aus­trali­ans it would mean the vin­dic­a­tion of the truth of their story and the beginning of justice; for all other Aus­trali­ans it would mean at long last address­ing the most important item of unfin­ished business in our national history.
4.12ACKNOWLEDGES that the First Nations of Australia, who have inhabited the Aus­trali­an continent for more than 50,000 years, have endured much suffering since the advent of European set­tle­ment, yet they continue to show great dignity, patience, tenacity and gen­er­os­ity of spirit, appealing to all that is noble and decent in our society and inviting us to walk with them on the road to truth-telling and healing.
4.13ACCEPTS the invit­a­tion of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, and pledges to work with First Nations, Federal and State politi­cians, local and city author­it­ies, religious, ethnic and civil society organ­isa­tions, business leaders and our fellow citizens in moving together towards a shared future, which in every way lives up to our own robust, dis­tinct­ively Aus­trali­an, standards of fairness.
This Council:
4a.1 RECALLS with gratitude and respect that on the 6th December 1938, several weeks after the campaign of anti-Jewish violence during Kristallnacht in Germany, William Cooper, the Secretary of the Aus­trali­an Abori­gines’ League and an elder of the Yorta Yorta people, headed a del­eg­a­tion of Abori­gin­al people to the German Consulate in Melbourne to deliver a petition which condemned the “cruel per­se­cu­tion of the Jewish people by the Nazi gov­ern­ment of Germany.”
4a.2 RECALLS FURTHER that:
  1. the action taken by William Cooper and his sup­port­ers occurred at a time when Abori­gin­al people them­selves were denied cit­izen­ship and other basic human rights in Australia and were fre­quently subjected to appalling physical, social and economic priva­tions; and
  2. William Cooper was a fearless advocate for Abori­gin­al people in seeking direct rep­res­ent­a­tion in par­lia­ment, enfran­chise­ment and land rights on their behalf;
4a.3 NOTES with pride and sat­is­fac­tion that the memory of William Cooper has been honoured by the Jewish community in Australia in cere­mon­ies with his des­cend­ants in Melbourne and Sydney.;
4a.4 APPLAUDS:
  1. the action taken by the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Israel to com­mem­or­ate the courage of William Cooper by dis­play­ing a plaque in a Memorial Garden in his honor; and
  2. the estab­lish­ment by the Inter­na­tion­al Institute for Holocaust Research at Yad Vashem of an academic chair (pro­fess­or­ship) for the study of the Res­ist­ance during the Holocaust in tribute to William Cooper;
4a.5 CALLS UPON the Aus­trali­an gov­ern­ment as soon as possible to introduce a suitable form of national com­mem­or­a­tion of the life and work of this great Aus­trali­an.
This Council:
5.1 AFFIRMS its support for Australia’s policy of mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism, which has served Australia well as a basis for the social harmony which for all Aus­trali­ans to enjoy;
5.2 Welcomes the Aus­trali­an Government’s com­mit­ment to mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism as a policy which respects the right of all Aus­trali­ans to express their indi­vidu­al cultural identity, and to maintain and share their cultural heritage, within an over­rid­ing com­mit­ment to Australia and the basic values of Aus­trali­an democracy and the rule of law;
5.3 COMMENDS the Government’s policy of ensuring access and equity in the provision of gov­ern­ment services, including the provision of mech­an­isms to address the barriers faced by immig­rants who are not yet familiar with Aus­trali­an culture and language; and
5.4 WELCOMES the estab­lish­ment of the Aus­trali­an Mul­ti­cul­tur­al Council as a body dedicated to artic­u­lat­ing and promoting a dis­tinct­ively Aus­trali­an model of mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism in accord­ance with clause 5.2.
5.5 CALLS ON the Federal Gov­ern­ment to pass a national Mul­ti­cul­tur­al Act which makes mul­ti­cul­tur­al prin­ciples the policy of the nation, which binds the Crown and which requires all agencies and providers of Com­mon­wealth Gov­ern­ment services to report to Par­lia­ment annually how they are planning effect­ively for people of cul­tur­ally and lin­guist­ic­ally diverse back­grounds, and to report on progress on imple­ment­a­tion of those plans.
This Council:
6.1 NOTES the value of the Internet in com­mu­nic­at­ing inform­a­tion, knowledge and ideas but notes also that the Internet is increas­ingly being abused by indi­vidu­als and organ­isa­tions for the purpose of propagat­ing racism including antisemitism;
6.2 RECOGNISES the com­plex­it­ies involved in any system of reg­u­la­tion of on-line services;
6.3 AFFIRMS the view that any com­mu­nic­a­tion by tra­di­tion­al means which is unlawful is and should be equally unlawful if it is effected through on-line services;
6.4 SUPPORTS moves to bring in a Code of Practice for Aus­trali­an Internet Service Providers and other reg­u­lat­ory measures for the Internet based on the prin­ciples that:
  • Nothing that it is unlawful to print or broadcast should be able to escape legal pro­hib­i­tion merely because it is published or com­mu­nic­ated through on-line services.
  • No person, entity or organ­isa­tion should be punished for an act they could not reas­on­ably know has been committed.
  • The right to freedom of speech must be respected, bearing in mind that in demo­crat­ic societies this right (as with all other rights) is not unlimited and, for example, does not permit the com­mis­sion or promotion of unlawful acts, or other behaviour harmful to the community or any section of the community.
  • Gov­ern­ments have a respons­ib­il­ity to counter the activ­it­ies of those who harass and/or promote contempt and hatred for any section of the community.
  • In these respects, the Internet should not be regarded dif­fer­ently to other means by which speech and ideas are dis­sem­in­ated.
This Council:
7.1 NOTES with grave concern the increase in the number of people around the world who have been made refugees as a result of war and civil conflict;
7.2 RECOGNISES the dif­fi­culties faced by suc­cess­ive Aus­trali­an Gov­ern­ments in balancing the Government’s oblig­a­tions to its citizens to carry out proper screening (including health and security checks) on all potential new entrants to Australia, in par­tic­u­lar unau­thor­ised arrivals, and the Government’s human­it­ari­an oblig­a­tions under the Inter­na­tion­al Con­ven­tion on the Status of Refugees (1951) (the Refugee Con­ven­tion) and the 1967 Protocol to the Refugee Con­ven­tion, as well as under customary inter­na­tion­al law;
7.3 RECALLS WITH SHAME that espe­cially prior to, but also during and imme­di­ately after, World War II many thousands of Jewish refugees attempt­ing to flee per­se­cu­tion in Europe were denied entry into other countries or forced to engage “smugglers” to try to escape to freedom;
7.4 RECALLS that the Refugee Con­ven­tion came into existence in belated recog­ni­tion by the inter­na­tion­al community of the great wrong that had been done by ostens­ibly civilised nations in refusing to grant asylum to Jewish refugees fleeing from Europe prior to and during World War II, and as a prin­cipled and com­pas­sion­ate response to the moral imper­at­ive of assisting European Jews in seeking new homes after the Holocaust;
7.5 NOTES the important and positive con­tri­bu­tion that Jewish and other refugees, from many countries, have made to Aus­trali­an society and the devel­op­ment of Australia;
7.6 NOTES that in the past, after proper pro­cessing of their claims by Aus­trali­an officials, the vast majority of those seeking asylum in Australia have been found to be genuine refugees who had fled their country of usual residence because of a well-founded fear of per­se­cu­tion;
7.7 NOTES:
  • that asylum seekers, whether they are unau­thor­ised maritime arrivals, or people waiting in camps in Africa and Asia who have applied to come to Australia via the UNHCR, should be regarded as indi­vidu­al human beings who have hopes and aspir­a­tions and dreams and feel the same pain and suffer the same grief as each of us;
  • that the admission of asylum seekers is a human­it­ari­an act, and suc­cess­ive Aus­trali­an Gov­ern­ments (both Labor and Coalition) have accepted that this engages Australia’s inter­na­tion­al oblig­a­tions;
  • the import­ance of dealing with policy con­cern­ing the admission of asylum seekers in a fair, humane and appro­pri­ate way prefer­ably without par­tis­an­ship; and
  • the regret­table absence, after many years of public debate and shifts in public opinion and gov­ern­ment policy, of an overall policy that is widely accepted as the morally correct one.
7.8 ACCORDINGLY CALLS UPON the Aus­trali­an Gov­ern­ment:
  • to process applic­a­tions by persons seeking asylum in Australia as exped­i­tiously as possible and in a spirit of com­pas­sion, regard­less of whether those applic­a­tions are made through the offices of the United Nations High Com­mis­sion­er for Refugees;
  • to work con­struct­ively with other gov­ern­ments and appro­pri­ate non-gov­ern­ment organ­isa­tions, to ameli­or­ate the plight of refugees around the world and in Australia;
  • to encourage each of our regional neigh­bours not yet party to the Refugee Con­ven­tion and the 1967 Protocol to become parties;
  • to implement in good faith and with humanity, Australia’s important legal and moral oblig­a­tions with respect to refugees;
  • not to hold women and children asylum seekers in mandatory detention while their applic­a­tions for recog­ni­tion of their refugee status are processed; and
  • to desist from actions that are likely to result in persons who seek asylum in Australia being sent to countries which are not parties to the Refugee Con­ven­tion;
  • to recognise that all asylum seekers are entitled to:
    • have their indi­vidu­al claims and cir­cum­stances assessed fairly and within a reas­on­able time;
    • not be subjected to unsafe or harsh con­di­tions while that is occurring;
    • not be subject to non-review­able detention or unsafe or harsh con­di­tions while that is occurring; and
    • be effect­ively protected against refoule­ment.
7.9 URGES all Aus­trali­ans to engage in dis­cus­sion of the issues in a con­sidered and respect­ful manner and without resorting to pejor­at­ive gen­er­al­isa­tions, and prefer­ably without par­tis­an­ship.
This Council:
8.1 NOTES decisions by a number of instru­ment­al­it­ies which recognise and support the right of all staff to meet their religious and cere­mo­ni­al oblig­a­tions, regard­less of religious, ethnic or cultural back­ground;
8.2 RECOGNISES the right of all Aus­trali­ans to observe religious and cere­mo­ni­al oblig­a­tions;
8.3 SUPPORTS the work of the Aus­trali­an Human Rights Com­mis­sion in enhancing religious freedom in Australia;
8.4 CALLS UPON gov­ern­ment and employer organ­isa­tions to respect and accom­mod­ate, as a matter of policy, the right of employees to meet the oblig­a­tions of their faiths; and
8.5 CALLS UPON the Aus­trali­an Gov­ern­ment to make provision in Australia’s indus­tri­al relations legis­la­tion to ensure that religious and cere­mo­ni­al oblig­a­tions can be observed without attract­ing the threat of loss of employ­ment.
This Council:
9.1 NOTES the decision of the Aus­trali­an Gov­ern­ment to abandon the proposal to introduce an Aus­trali­an Charter of Human Rights;
9.2 NOTES that the Aus­trali­an Gov­ern­ment has published a ‘National Framework of Human Rights’ which, among other things, proposes ‘har­mon­isa­tion’ of State and Federal laws pro­hib­it­ing racial and religious dis­crim­in­a­tion and vili­fic­a­tion;
9.3 NOTES the sig­ni­fic­ant dif­fer­ences that exist between Federal and State law on these issues and between the laws of the various States;
9.4 CAUTIONS the Aus­trali­an Gov­ern­ment against embracing any concept of ‘har­mon­isa­tion’ that might result in the adoption of a ‘lowest common denom­in­at­or’ legs­lat­ive regime which would wind back hard-won legal pro­tec­tions that are now in place in some jur­is­dic­tions in Australia but not in others including, but not limited to, Western Australia’s criminal sanctions against racial intim­id­a­tion and har­ass­ment.
This Council:
10.1 NOTES the affirm­a­tion by the Aus­trali­an Gov­ern­ment in 1987 that Australia must not serve as a haven for indi­vidu­als who par­ti­cip­ated in crimes against humanity during the course of the Nazi Genocide;
10.2 RECOGNISES the dif­fi­culties encountered in the trials of alleged Nazi war criminals thus far conducted in Australia;
10.3 RECOGNISES that major legal and political obstacles needed to be overcome to establish extra­di­tion treaties with some of the countries which were the scene of the crimes of the Holocaust;
10.4 RECOGNISES that extra­di­tion of Nazi war criminals to the countries of their origin and where their crimes took place is not a sub­sti­tute for effective Aus­trali­an legis­la­tion but is a welcome com­ple­ment to it;
10.5 SUPPORTS the process of devel­op­ing extra­di­tion treaties between Australia and all countries in which indi­vidu­als may have par­ti­cip­ated in genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes prior to arriving in Australia; and
10.6 CALLS UPON the Aus­trali­an Gov­ern­ment to amend Australia’s cit­izen­ship laws so as to allow for indi­vidu­als who were born outside Australia and who, at the time of entering Australia, concealed their involve­ment in genocide, war crimes or crimes against humanity in any context, to have their Aus­trali­an cit­izen­ship removed, regard­less of the length of time they have held cit­izen­ship.
This Council:
11.1 HONOURS the war service of Aus­trali­ans of all gen­er­a­tions, memori­al­ised through public cere­mon­ies and popular culture, which helped to shape Australia’s national character, and to define the values our nation cherishes.
11.2 NOTES that the First World War cost Australia more than any other war in terms of deaths and cas­u­al­ties. Of the 416,809 Aus­trali­ans who enlisted, approx­im­ately 60,000 were killed and 156,000 were wounded, gassed, or taken prisoner, out of a total pop­u­la­tion at that time of less than five million.
11.3 RECOGNISES that official com­mem­or­a­tions of World War I in Australia have tra­di­tion­ally focused on the Gallipoli campaign, marked by Anzac Day on April 25, and on the main theatre of the War, which was the western front in Europe, marked by Remem­brance Day on November 11.
11.4 FURTHER NOTES that the third theatre of oper­a­tions in which Aus­trali­ans fought in World War I was the Middle East where: (a) in contrast to the battles at Gallipoli and on the western front, the Aus­trali­ans fought a mobile war against the Ottoman Empire in con­di­tions com­pletely different from the mud and stag­na­tion that featured in the other two theatres; (b) the Aus­trali­an light horsemen and their mounts had to survive extreme heat, harsh terrain, and water shortages; (c) cas­u­al­ties were nev­er­the­less com­par­at­ively light, with 1,394 Aus­trali­ans killed or wounded in three years of war.
11.5 RECOGNISES the vital con­tri­bu­tion made by Aus­trali­an forces to the Allied victories in the Middle East, espe­cially at Beersheba on 31 October 1917, when some 800 bayonet-wielding Aus­trali­an Light horsemen won immortal fame by charging across a 6 kilometre plain and over-running Turkish defences before entering the town.
11.6 REMEMBERS WITH GRATITUDE that the Allied victories in the Middle East gave further impetus to the national revival of the Jewish people, and that out of the defeated Ottoman Empire emerged the inde­pend­ent Arab States that lie to the east of the Medi­ter­ranean Sea and also, in 1948, a new Jewish com­mon­wealth in the ancestral homeland of the Jewish people, the first such polity to exist in more than 1800 years.
11.7 CALLS UPON THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT to recognise that the achieve­ments of Aus­trali­an troops in the Middle East theatre in World War I are as deserving of annual, public recog­ni­tion as the achieve­ments at Gallipoli and on the western front, and to designate one day each year on which Aus­trali­an gov­ern­ment and military dig­nit­ar­ies will attend a formal ceremony in Israel to honour the memory of Aus­trali­an soldiers who served in the Middle East theatre between 1916 and 1918, and to com­mem­or­ate their extraordin­ary achieve­ments, for their sake and for our own self-under­stand­ing, and that of future gen­er­a­tions of Aus­trali­ans.
This Council:
11a.1 CALLS ON the local, State, Territory and Federal Gov­ern­ments and non-gov­ern­ment organ­isa­tions to recognise that national cere­mon­ies, cel­eb­ra­tions and memorials should be inclusive and not make use of religious words and symbols that may effect­ively exclude some Aus­trali­an citizens.
This Council:
12.1 NOTES with great pride, that Australia has a strong record for provision of day school education and that the Jewish Community maintains a number of inde­pend­ent day schools through­out the nation which are essential to Jewish learning and our community’s con­tinu­ity;
12.2 STRESSES the import­ance of Jewish day schools and other Jewish education providers having high quality Jewish Studies and Hebrew curricula;
12.3 RECONFIRMS the respons­ib­il­ity of leaders of Aus­trali­an Jewry to seek to ensure that no Jewish child is denied full-time Jewish education due to financial con­sid­er­a­tions; and the continued respons­ib­il­ity of leaders of Aus­trali­an Jewry to support organ­isa­tions that provide Jewish education of children who are outside of the Jewish day school system to ensure Jewish con­tinu­ity for all;
12.4 NOTES with great pride, that Australia has a strong record for provision of day school education and that the Jewish Community maintains a number of inde­pend­ent day schools through­out the nation which are essential to Jewish learning and our community’s con­tinu­ity;
12.5 NOTES that the provision of Jewish education to Jewish students who do not attend Jewish day schools, par­tic­u­larly through the Academy BJE and NSW Board of Pro­gress­ive Jewish Education in New South Wales and the United Jewish Education Board in Victoria, is essential to ensuring Jewish learning and our community’s con­tinu­ity for those outside of the Jewish day school movement and organ­isa­tion;
12.6 CALLS ON all Jewish Day Schools and Boards of Jewish Education and Boards of Pro­gress­ive Jewish Education to sub­stan­tially increase the teaching of modern Israel and con­tem­por­ary issues facing Israel and world and Aus­trali­an Jewry in programs offered from Year 6 to Year 11;
12.7 RECORDS its appre­ci­ation to the Federal Gov­ern­ment for its ini­ti­at­ives in granting funds to inde­pend­ent schools (including Jewish day schools) to assist them to meet their security costs and in granting tax deduct­ib­il­ity for gifts to funds estab­lished by them to meet such costs.
12.8 EXPRESSES SUPPORT for the Zionist Fed­er­a­tion of Australia Biennial Aus­trali­an Jewish Educators’ Con­fer­ence which plays host to several hundred teachers of Jewish Studies from most of Australia’s 18 Jewish day schools, informal Jewish educators from Zionist youth organ­isa­tions and teachers from the sup­ple­ment­al Jewish school system, together with pro­fes­sion­al Jewish educators from New Zealand, Israel and elsewhere
This Council:
13.1 CALLS ON Jewish communal and fund-raising organ­isa­tions to explore addi­tion­al methods of alle­vi­at­ing financial con­straints affecting Jewish day school education and the ability of Jewish day schools to provide the highest quality Jewish education;
13.2 CALLS ON Jewish communal and fund-raising organ­isa­tions to explore addi­tion­al methods to ensure that these bodies are properly and adequately resourced, and to establish similar bodies and/or Jewish education providers in other States and Ter­rit­or­ies of Australia and in com­munit­ies outside the major centres of Jewish life; and
13.3 CALLS ON Jewish communal and fund-raising organ­isa­tions to invest in teachers and the teaching of Hebrew and Jewish studies and to see that invest­ment as a critical con­tri­bu­tion towards Jewish con­tinu­ity in Australia.
This Council:
14.1 AFFIRMS the con­tinu­ing vital import­ance to the safety and security of school­chil­dren in Jewish day schools in Australia of the Secure Schools program, and the need for a con­sist­ent and equitable national approach to the alloc­a­tion of funds to Jewish Schools under that program;
14.2 NOTES with appre­ci­ation the Aus­trali­an government’s decision to continue that program;
14.3 NOTES FURTHER with appre­ci­ation that the Aus­trali­an Gov­ern­ment has also estab­lished the Safer Com­munit­ies Fund, which is to provide local councils and community organ­isa­tions grants of up to $1 million to boost efforts to address crime and anti-social behaviour and protect organ­isa­tions that may be facing security risks asso­ci­ated with racial or religious intol­er­ance.
14.4 CALLS ON all organ­isa­tions within the Aus­trali­an Jewish community to work closely with the ECAJ and with their respect­ive State Jewish communal roof bodies and CSGs to co-ordinate the Jewish community’s efforts to seek funding from the Safer Com­munit­ies Fund.
This Council:
15.1 NOTES the devel­op­ment of Jewish tertiary education and encour­ages Jewish students, par­tic­u­larly day-school graduates, to take advantage of the learning oppor­tun­it­ies at these insti­tu­tions and welcomes all ini­ti­at­ives to fund academic positions and offer schol­ar­ships and financial support to enhance this devel­op­ment.
This Council:
16.1 NOTES that some Aus­trali­an Uni­ver­sit­ies treat exchange programs with Israeli uni­ver­sit­ies less favour­ably than exchange programs with other Western countries’ uni­ver­sit­ies;
16.2 CALLS upon all Aus­trali­an Uni­ver­sit­ies to treat exchange programs with Israeli uni­ver­sit­ies no less favour­ably than exchange programs with other Western countries’ uni­ver­sit­ies.
This Council:
17.1 NOTES the import­ance of the rela­tion­ship between Israel and Aus­trali­an Jewry;
17.2 APPLAUDS the success of many Israel exper­i­ence programs operated by Aus­trali­an Jewish organ­isa­tions in part­ner­ship with Israel and in par­tic­u­lar Jewish day schools, AUJS, Zionist Fed­er­a­tion of Australia and the Zionist youth groups;
17.3 RECOGNISES the central role of the Zionist Fed­er­a­tion of Australia in promoting and facil­it­at­ing such programs;
17.4 APPLAUDS the estab­lish­ment of the Israel Exper­i­ence Fund/birthright Program in Australia by the Zionist Fed­er­a­tion of Australia with the support of the United Israel Appeal.
This Council:
18.1 NOTES the import­ance of the Jewish community basing its decisions and planning on the most reliable inform­a­tion available;
18.2 NOTES that the data available to the community from each Aus­trali­an Bureau of Stat­ist­ics Census is an important resource;
18.3 WELCOMES whole­heartedly the pub­lic­a­tion in September 2009 of the initial results of the Aus­trali­an and New Zealand Jewish Pop­u­la­tion Survey under­taken by the Aus­trali­an Centre for Jewish Civil­isa­tion, with the support of a range of organ­isa­tions in the Aus­trali­an Jewish Community (the Gen08 survey) and warmly commends all those who conducted, supported and par­ti­cip­ated in the Survey, and also the second such survey conducted in 2017 (the Gen17 survey); and
18.4 CALLS FOR Jewish communal organ­isa­tions to make full use of the Survey data in their future planning.
This Council:
19.1 COMMMENDS the steps taken by Aus­trali­an police forces to provide visible pro­tec­tion for Jewish communal gath­er­ings;
19.2 NOTES the improve­ment in measures taken by law enforce­ment agencies to identify and prosecute indi­vidu­als respons­ible for arson attacks on syn­agogues, assaults and har­ass­ment;
19.3 NOTES that still too often the per­pet­rat­ors of other acts of antisemitic violence against people and property remain uniden­ti­fied and therefore remain at large;
19.4 CALLS ON state and federal law enforce­ment agencies to urgently upgrade their capacity to pursue and apprehend the per­pet­rat­ors of acts of racist violence and vandalism and to fund both public and Jewish communal strategies to achieve those ends; and
19.5 RECORDS WITH APPRECIATION the Federal Government’s legis­la­tion in 2008 designed to alleviate the costly security burden borne by Jewish com­munit­ies Australia-wide by enabling donations for the purpose of the provision of security to Jewish insti­tu­tions to be tax deduct­ible.
This Council:
20.1 NOTES the import­ance to the Jewish community of the avail­ab­il­ity to its national lead­er­ship of accurate data con­cern­ing the nature and extent of anti­se­met­ic violence, vandalism, intim­id­a­tion and har­ass­ment in Australia;
20.2 NOTES that the only communal bodies which are in a position to act on behalf of the entire Jewish community in each state and territory are the con­stitu­ents of the ECAJ, which in Victoria is co-ordinated with the ADC;
20.3 STRESSES the import­ance of state con­stitu­ents making known to the Jewish and wider com­munit­ies their role in collating inform­a­tion relating to antisemitism;
20.4 REAFFIRMS that all community organ­isa­tions should promptly forward reports of incidents of antisemitism to the Con­stitu­ent bodies of the ECAJ.
This Council:
21.1 NOTES that some indi­vidu­als and organ­isa­tions in Australia continue to propagate Holocaust Denial including as a means of attacking the Jewish Community;
21.2 NOTES the deception employed by Holocaust deniers in the way they present their hatred in quasi-academic guise;
21.3 NOTES THAT Holocaust Denial has been found by the Federal Court of Australia to con­sti­tute unlawful behaviour;
21.4 CALLS ON Jewish organ­isa­tions to continue their policy of not engaging Holocaust deniers in any public debate which could give credence to Holocaust Denial but to clearly and publicly identify Holocaust deniers as people engaged in antisemitism and promotion of extremist ideo­lo­gies.
This Council:
22.1 RECOGNISES the dis­tinct­ive character of the Aus­trali­an Jewish community as part of the Jewish people, with a shared history, tradition and lin­guist­ic and religious heritage, and as a vital and vibrant component of mul­ti­cul­tur­al Australia;
22.2 RECOGNISES the plur­al­ist­ic nature of Aus­trali­an Jewry and the complex nature of the various eth­ni­cit­ies of Aus­trali­an Jewry due to diverse language, cultural origin and national back­ground;
22.3 ACKNOWLEDGES the right of any Jewish organ­isa­tion to identify as an ethnic, religious, ethno-religious or cultural organ­isa­tion through the choice of the mem­ber­ship of that organ­isa­tion or through its specific aims, object­ives and programs con­sist­ent with policies and programs of the gov­ern­ment relating to ethnic affairs;
22.4 VALUES the friendly cooper­a­tion and cordial rela­tion­ship between Aus­trali­an Jewry and other ethnic, religious, ethno-religious and cultural groups and roof bodies within Australia;
22.5 ENCOURAGES close liaison between Jewish organ­isa­tions, ethnic com­munit­ies councils and other Aus­trali­an groups in the pursuit of common policies in the best interests of the whole Aus­trali­an community.
This Council:
23.1 CONGRATULATES members of the Aus­trali­an National Dialogue of Chris­ti­ans, Muslims and Jews, the Anglican Jewish Aus­trali­an Dialogue, The National Dialogue of the Uniting Church in Australia/ECAJ and Aus­trali­an Catholic Bishops Committee/ECAJ Annual Con­ver­sa­tion on the conduct and outcome of their meetings;
23.2 APPLAUDS the devel­op­ment in Sydney of the Women’s Inter­faith Network which now has four branches;
23.3 WELCOMES the devel­op­ment of multi-faith events and contacts between bodies rep­res­ent­ing many diverse faith groups;
23.4 APPLAUDS activ­it­ies which improve the basis for dialogue between Jews and Chris­ti­ans;
23.5 AFFIRMS past efforts at improving Jewish-Muslim relations, par­tic­u­larly those which have recog­nised common concerns in areas such as religious liberty, racial tolerance and recog­ni­tion of religious rights;
23.6 SUPPORTS dialogue and cooper­a­tion between Federal, State and Territory rep­res­ent­at­ives of the Jewish community and all other Faith com­munit­ies with a view to common action for communal tolerance and inter-community cooper­a­tion;
23.7 CALLS on all religious groups to respect the dignity and right of all people to maintain their own religious tra­di­tions;
23.8 APPLAUDS the work of APRO, The Aus­trali­an Part­ner­ship of Religious Organ­isa­tions;
23.3 SUPPORTS the expansion of the dialogue process to include other partner organ­isa­tions rep­res­ent­ing religious com­munit­ies.
This Council:
24.1 NOTES that, in the past, SBS Tele­vi­sion and Radio have been a cause of concern to the Aus­trali­an Jewish community with regard to the mani­fest­a­tion of anti-Israel bias in some of its news and current affairs pro­gram­ming and content and that common fairness standards have not been applied to material broadcast in languages other than English;
24.2 WELCOMES recent improve­ments in the quality and fairness of the news and current affairs pro­gram­ming and content of SBS Tele­vi­sion and Radio with regard to Israel;
24.3 NOTES nev­er­the­less the con­tinu­ing absence of any inde­pend­ent com­plaints mechanism for SBS and the decision of SBS not to comply with the Aus­trali­an Standard on Com­plaints Handling in issuing its 2006 revised Codes of Practice; and
24.4 CALLS ON the Federal Gov­ern­ment to implement an immediate and effective review mechanism which at the very least will require SBS to comply with the Aus­trali­an Standard on Com­plaints Handling and implement an inde­pend­ent complaint res­ol­u­tion tribunal.
This Council:
25.1 RECALLS the import­ance for the ABC to maintain the resourcing of religious pro­gram­ming, so as to provide insights into religion and the place of religious movements in public life and to provide Australia with an inform­at­ive and stim­u­lat­ing religious pro­gram­ming mix including in its move to suc­cess­ful digital growth, and to commit publicly to those object­ives;
25.2 RECALLS that together with other faith com­munit­ies, in February 2009, it expressed its concern at the reduction in religious pro­gram­ming on ABC Radio National;
25.3 NOTES that at that time, the Managing Director of the ABC said that the ABC had no plans to scrap the religion unit or to scrap spe­cial­isa­tion in reporting, but that it proposed to continue to modify pro­grammes, and that in addition to other pro­gram­ming slots, religion will feature in “Back­ground Briefing” which will reach a broader audience and allow for in-depth reporting;
25.4 FURTHER NOTES the assurance that the effects of the religious pro­gram­ming decisions made in 2008 are being con­sidered within the review of ABC radio currently underway. The appoint­ment of a new head of radio in mid-2009 will be of sig­ni­fic­ance to the review. The review will provide scope to better artic­u­late questions on spe­ci­al­it­ies, digital media and rural broad­cast­ing;
25.5 CALLS UPON the Committee of Man­age­ment to monitor progress in relation to these matters and report to the Council.
25.6 EXPRESSES its long-standing concern about anti-Israel bias exhibited by the ABC in some of its coverage of Israel and the Middle East;
25.7 NOTES that from time to time antisemitic posted comments and images appear on ABC’s Facebook pages and are not moderated at all or remain unmod­er­ated for extended periods; and
25.8 CALLS UPON the ABC Board and Managing Director to take all necessary measures to ensure fair and accurate coverage of Israel and the Middle East, and to keep antisemitic content off the ABC’s Facebook pages.
25.9 CALLS UPON the Aus­trali­an gov­ern­ment to replace the ABC’s internal com­plaints unit, known as ‘ABC Audience and Consumer Affairs’, with an inde­pend­ent, external com­plaints unit.
This Council:
26A.1

RECOGNISES that Jews from Arab-majority countries and Iran (Mizrahi Jews) are an integral part of the Aus­trali­an Jewish community, and that some of their families have had a con­tinu­ous physical presence in Jerusalem and the Land of Israel since ancient times, thereby exem­pli­fy­ing the ancient and con­tinu­ous con­nec­tion of the Jewish people to Jerusalem, the Land of Israel and the modern State of Israel.
26A.2 RECORDS with great sadness that, in response to the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, the over­whelm­ing majority of Jews then living in Arab-majority countries and Iran, numbering approx­im­ately 800,000 people, were expelled or otherwise uprooted from their homes, effect­ively ter­min­at­ing more than two millennia of con­tinu­ous Jewish history in those countries.
26A.3 ENCOURAGES its affiliate and con­stitu­ent organ­isa­tions, together with the ECAJ, to hold com­mem­or­ative events, including annual com­mem­or­a­tions of the uprooting of Mizrahi Jews and to advocate for the recog­ni­tion of their plight.
26A.4 STRONGLY ADVOCATES that addi­tion­al efforts be under­taken so that the myriad Jewish histories, cultures and tra­di­tions of both Sephardi and Mizrahi Jewish com­munit­ies can be researched, taught and better under­stood in Jewish day schools, other Jewish edu­ca­tion­al insti­tu­tions and within the Aus­trali­an Jewish community.
This Council:
27.1 RECOGNISES that the involve­ment of younger community members is of vital import­ance to the success of Jewish con­tinu­ity;
27.2 NOTES with concern the lack of youth and young adult rep­res­ent­a­tion on some key communal bodies;
27.3 RESOLVES to prepare an action plan to develop strategies to encourage youth par­ti­cip­a­tion on communal bodies.
This Council:
28.1 NOTES that it has received reports that cemetery author­it­ies in a number of jur­is­dic­tions are reviewing policies on permanent tenure of graves;
28.2 NOTES Jewish law and tradition require burial in per­petu­ity;
28.3 NOTES that, according to halacha, a grave con­tain­ing human remains is demarc­ated as the final resting place of the person concerned and the integrity of the grave must not be altered without explicit Rabbinic authority;
28.4 REAFFIRMS the need to maintain arrange­ments for Jewish burials in per­petu­ity and calls on cemetery author­it­ies to respect this require­ment; and
28.5 CALLS UPON State Gov­ern­ments to plan for the future burial needs of their Jewish citizens and ensure that suf­fi­cient land is allocated for Jewish com­munit­ies to bury their dead in accord­ance with Jewish religious require­ments.
This Council:
29.1 RECALLS the concern expressed by the ECAJ at the continued failure to alleviate the plight of victims of wilful Gett refusal;
29.2 APPLAUDS the efforts over some years by the Joint Task Force of the ECAJ and the Organ­isa­tion of Rabbis of Aus­tralasia to develop useful proposals;
29.3 NOTES that the British Par­lia­ment has now joined the legis­latures of Canada, South Africa and New York in passing laws to provide remedies aimed at releasing those spouses who are “chained” by wilful Gett refusal;
29.4 URGES the Aus­trali­an Gov­ern­ment to legislate in the terms of the Report of The Family Law Council of Australia which recom­mends to the Attorney-General that the joint legis­lat­ive proposal of the ECAJ and ORA should be enacted as Aus­trali­an law;
29.5 WELCOMES ini­ti­at­ives by the rabbinate to draft a form of pre-nuptial agreement for Jewish couples that is enforce­able under Aus­trali­an law and encour­ages Jewish couples to sign such an agreement requiring com­pli­ance with Beth Din instruc­tions relating to the granting of a Gett in the event of a civil dis­sol­u­tion of the marriage.

This Council:

30.1NOTES that the slaughter­ing of bovine and ovine animals according to methods author­ised by halacha (shechita) has been an integral part of Jewish life for 3,000 years and that shechita has for centuries been accepted in civilised societies as a humane way of slaughter­ing such animals for con­sump­tion;
30.2

AFFIRMS the united view of Rabbinic author­it­ies in Australia that according to halacha:

  1. the pre-slaughter stunning of animals renders such animals unfit for Kosher con­sump­tion; and
  2. the post-slaughter stunning of ovine animals renders such animals unfit for Kosher con­sump­tion;
30.3FURTHER NOTES that Aus­trali­an law has always permitted the slaughter of animals and poultry according to shechita and, in par­tic­u­lar, has never required the pre-slaughter stunning of animals or the post-slaughter stunning of ovine animals;
30.4WELCOME the decision of the Primary Indus­tries Min­is­teri­al Council on 28 October 2011 to “continue dis­cus­sions with the religious groups in order to settle an applic­able risk man­age­ment framework” without requiring existing laws and reg­u­la­tions per­mit­ting shechita to be changed and without accepting proposals to require the pre-slaughter stunning of animals or the post-slaughter stunning of ovine animals;
30.5

AFFIRMS the united view of Rabbinic author­it­ies in Australia that according to halacha:

  1. the banning of shechita is his­tor­ic­ally asso­ci­ated with attempts to del­e­git­im­ise Jewish religious practices and has long been a mani­fest­a­tion of antisemitism; and
  2. allowing recre­ation­al hunting in New Zealand, with animal death and injury in numbers far greater than are affected by shechita, is indic­at­ive of a double standard being applied to the Jewish community vis a vis animal welfare.
30.6

NOTES that Jewish com­munit­ies around the world, including Australia and New Zealand, have committed them­selves to cooper­at­ing with animal welfare officers to ensure that Kosher slaughter meets the highest industry standards and conforms to Jewish Law and that:

  1. The New Zealand Bill of Rights Act protects the rights of indi­vidu­als to manifest their religion including the right to uphold tra­di­tion­al practices and adhere to religious dietary require­ments.
  2. The New Zealand National Animal Welfare Advisory Council itself recom­men­ded that an existing exemption to allow for shechita be continued by the Minister for Agri­cul­ture.
  3. Jewish com­munit­ies have lived and flour­ished in New Zealand for over 160 years.
  4. The ban on shechita causes real hardship to the Jewish community in New Zealand and threatens its long-term viability as a community.
30.7CALLS UPON the New Zealand gov­ern­ment to reverse its ban on shechita with immediate effect and to commit itself to working with the Jewish community to ensure that Jews are able to practise their religion including local slaughter of livestock according to Kosher dietary require­ments.
This Council:
31.1 NOTES with concern chal­lenges to the practice of Brit Milah;
31.2 RECOGNISES that Brit Milah, according to halachic process, is an essential and defin­it­ive rite of Jewish identity;
31.3 AFFIRMS its com­mit­ment to protect the right of Jewish families to continue the observ­ance of Brit Milah by competent Mohelim.
This Council:
32.1 APPLAUDS the efforts by suc­cess­ive Israeli gov­ern­ments to bring about a just and lasting peace and a res­ol­u­tion of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
32.2 SUPPORTS the principle of two-States for two peoples, as the only principle upon which a just and sus­tain­able peace between Israel and its Palestini­an neigh­bours can be built and notes with appre­ci­ation that the Aus­trali­an Government’s policy state­ments have con­sist­ently affirmed that the conflict between Israel and the Palestini­ans can only be resolved through direct nego­ti­ations;
32.2A URGES Australia to join the US, Canada, Germany, Italy and the Czech Republic, among other demo­crat­ic nations which have announced their oppos­i­tion to the Palestini­an bid for recog­ni­tion by the United Nations of a uni­lat­er­ally declared Palestini­an State, in voting against any such proposal in the General Assembly, rather than merely abstain­ing;
32.3 NOTES with appre­ci­ation that all major political parties in Australia:
  • (a) are committed to sup­port­ing an enduring and just two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestini­an conflict, based on the right of Israel to live in peace within secure borders, inter­na­tion­ally recog­nised and agreed by the parties, and reflect­ing the legit­im­ate aspir­a­tions of the Palestini­an people to also live in peace and security within their own state; and
  • (b) have repeatedly condemned and called for an end to Palestini­an terrorist attacks delib­er­ately aimed at killing and maiming Israeli civilians and the continued smuggling of arms and munitions into Gaza;
32.4 APPLAUDS the support of suc­cess­ive Aus­trali­an Gov­ern­ments for inter­na­tion­al calls for the Palestini­an Authority to renounce and prevent violence and incite­ment against Israel and for Hamas to recognise Israel, to renounce and prevent violence and incite­ment against Israel and to affirm and implement all agree­ments with Israel that have been entered into by the Palestine Lib­er­a­tion Organ­isa­tion and the Palestini­an Authority;
32.5 REAFFIRMS Aus­trali­an Jewry’s strong and unshake­able solid­ar­ity with Israel and her people;
32.6 DEPLORES and CONDEMNS unre­servedly as antisemitic all attempts to demonise or del­e­git­im­ise Israel as the State of the Jewish people by:
  • Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determ­in­a­tion, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.
  • Applying double standards by requiring of Israel or its military forces standards of behaviour higher than those expected or demanded of any other demo­crat­ic nation or its military forces.
  • Using the symbols and images asso­ci­ated with classic antisemitism (e.g., claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to char­ac­ter­ize Israel or Israelis.
  • Drawing com­par­is­ons of con­tem­por­ary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.
  • Holding Jews col­lect­ively respons­ible for actions of the State of Israel.
  • Calling for dis­crim­in­at­ory boycotts, divest­ments and sanctions against Israel.
32.7 STRONGLY URGES all Jews, indi­vidu­ally as well as com­mun­ally and insti­tu­tion­ally, to visit Israel and schedule events in Israel.
This Council:
32A.1 NOTES that:
  • the State of Israel was estab­lished, with inter­na­tion­al endorse­ment, to give effect to the right of national self-determ­in­a­tion of the Jewish people in its historic homeland;
  • the re-attain­ment of their sov­er­eignty, statehood and political inde­pend­ence has unlocked the creative energies of the Jewish people, and given birth to a new flowering in Israel of Jewish civil­isa­tion in all its dimen­sions, spiritual, cultural and material;
  • mindful of the dis­crim­in­a­tion, oppres­sion, per­se­cu­tion and genocide to which the Jewish people were subjected during the long centuries when they had no State of their own, the State of Israel has also served as a refuge for Jews who have been expelled or forced to flee from per­se­cu­tion in countries in many parts of the world including Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, the former Soviet Union and Ukraine;
  • under Israel’s Law of Return, any person with at least one Jewish grand­par­ent is eligible to make Aliyah, regard­less of the stream of Judaism, if any, with which that person iden­ti­fies or is affil­i­ated, or through which that person, if a convert, may have converted to Judaism; and
  • the Law of Return is of vital interest to all Jews, no matter where in the world they may live;
32A.2 DEPLORES demands recently made by certain political and religious figures in Israel to dis­qual­i­fy persons who have converted to Judaism through the Pro­gress­ive or Reform streams from being eligible to make Aliyah under the Law of Return.
32A.3 CONDEMNS those demands as:
  • a morally abhorrent aban­don­ment of those living outside of Israel who have converted to Judaism through the Pro­gress­ive or Reform streams, and who may find them­selves per­se­cuted as Jews; and
  • a betrayal of the prin­ciples and promise of Zionism.
32A.4 CALLS UPON the gov­ern­ment of Israel to affirm, clearly and unam­bigu­ously, that the operation of the Law of Return shall not be altered in any such manner.
This Council:
33.1 NOTES with concern calls from some former political leaders for Australia to recognise a Palestini­an State, other than as an outcome of a com­pre­hens­ive peace agreement between the Palestini­ans and Israel.
33.2 REJECTS these calls as possibly well-intended but fun­da­ment­ally mis­con­ceived.
33.3 REJECTS any attempts to pressure only one side of the Israel-Palestini­an conflict, namely Israel, to make uni­lat­er­al con­ces­sions, without demanding recip­roc­al ini­ti­at­ives from the Palestini­ans, and notes that this approach only serves to dis­cour­age both peoples from making the hard com­prom­ises that will be essential for a just and durable peace.
33.4 NOTES that, given the irre­con­cil­able philo­soph­ic­al and political divisions between the Palestini­an Authority and Hamas, which each controls different parts of the territory claimed by the Palestini­ans, there is currently no Palestini­an entity which meets the essential legal and other criteria of a State.
33.5 NOTES the contrast between the leg­al­ist­ic approach pur­portedly adopted by advocates of recog­ni­tion on one question, namely set­tle­ments, and their cavalier disregard for well-estab­lished legal prin­ciples on another, namely the creation of states and their recog­ni­tion. The inter­na­tion­al rule of law must be supported as a general principle, not select­ively.
33.6 NOTES accord­ingly that recog­ni­tion of a State of Palestine, other than as an outcome of a com­pre­hens­ive peace agreement with Israel would:
  • do nothing to resolve the core issues of the Israel-Palestini­an conflict, in par­tic­u­lar Jerusalem, refugees, borders, set­tle­ments, security and water. The complex arrange­ments required to address these core issues will require co-operation between the parties via detailed agree­ments, not grandi­loquent, symbolic state­ments of recog­ni­tion by outside parties;
  • undermine the inter­na­tion­al rule of law and lay the found­a­tions for opening a new phase of the Palestini­ans’ conflict with Israel, rather than for resolving the conflict. This would be contrary to the interests of both Israelis and Palestini­ans.
33.7 CALLS UPON all Aus­trali­an political parties to reaffirm their com­mit­ment to the achieve­ment of a peaceful, nego­ti­ated res­ol­u­tion of the conflict based on the principle of two states for two peoples.
This Council:
34.1 REAFFIRMS the cent­ral­ity of Jerusalem his­tor­ic­ally, reli­giously and cul­tur­ally to Jews and Judaism;
34.2 STRESSES the need for free access and worship for Jews at all religious sites, including The Temple Mount;
34.3 CALLS ON the Aus­trali­an Gov­ern­ment to recognise Israel’s sov­er­eignty over Jerusalem and to transfer the Aus­trali­an embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
This Council:
35.1 SHARES the heartfelt concerns of all Israelis about the fate of Israeli airman Ron Arad, who went missing in action in Lebanon in 1986;
35.2 CALLS UPON the Aus­trali­an Gov­ern­ment to continue to make rep­res­ent­a­tions to the United Nations and to all relevant Middle East states, and in par­tic­u­lar Iran, Syria and Lebanon, urging them to seek and provide inform­a­tion con­cern­ing the fate of Ron Arad.
This Council:
36.1 JOINS in mourning the victims of terrorism in Israel and through­out the world, and extends con­dol­ences to the relatives and friends of those who have been murdered, and sympathy and best wishes for a full recovery to the injured;
36.2 SUPPORTS efforts to prevent terrorist attacks, including the enactment of effective anti-terrorism laws, the alloc­a­tion of resources for the efficient invest­ig­a­tion of terrorist crimes and the arrest and pro­sec­u­tion of terrorist suspects, and Australia’s par­ti­cip­a­tion in the inter­na­tion­al war against terrorism;
36.3 URGES the United Nations and all gov­ern­ments to take effective action against countries which serve as a haven and provide bases and support for ter­ror­ists;
36.4 NOTES the import­ance of legis­la­tion designed to counter terrorism and to provide security in a manner that properly recog­nises the required balance between civil liberties and law enforce­ment, and recog­nising that the great majority of Aus­trali­an Muslims abhor terrorism;
36.5 CALLS ON the Federal Gov­ern­ment to take effective measures and make appro­pri­ate arrange­ments where necessary with other gov­ern­ments, to prevent the trans­mis­sion into or within Australia, by tele­vi­sion or radio or through the internet, of material that promotes any form of terrorism, and applauds all efforts that help to ensure that the cohesion of Australia’s mul­ti­cul­tur­al society is not pre­ju­diced;
36.6 URGES the Aus­trali­an and other gov­ern­ments to act against Palestini­an and other anti-Israeli terrorist organ­isa­tions such as Hamas, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad;
36.7 CALLS ON the Federal Gov­ern­ment to make appro­pri­ate arrange­ments with other gov­ern­ments to develop more refined and effective norms of inter­na­tion­al law to deal with the problems posed by armed attacks carried out by non-State actors.
36.8 COMMENDS the decision of the Aus­trali­an gov­ern­ment to list Hezbollah in its entirety as a terrorist organ­isa­tion, in line with the practice of Australia’s closest allies.
This Council:
37.1 NOTES wide­spread reports of sys­tem­at­ic human rights abuses by the Iranian regime in virtually every facet of Iran’s political, social and economic life, aimed par­tic­u­larly at minority religious and ethnic com­munit­ies, but also at women, students and trade unionists, including gov­ern­ment-sponsored extra-judicial killings, the trial and execution of minors and the use of horrific forms of torture against detainees;
37.2 REQUESTS the Aus­trali­an Gov­ern­ment to continue to invest­ig­ate reports of this nature and continue to make rep­res­ent­a­tions in support of the victims at all appro­pri­ate forums;
37.3 SUPPORTS the inter­na­tion­al con­dem­na­tion of President Ahmadinejad’s repeated state­ments calling for Israel to be “wiped off the map” and his antisemitic Holocaust-denial state­ments;
37.4 SUPPORTS the efforts of the Argentine gov­ern­ment and Interpol to arrest and bring to trial the alleged per­pet­rat­ors of the bombing of the Argentine Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires in 1994;
37.5 NOTES that:
  1. Iran became a non-nuclear weapon state party to the Nuclear Non-Pro­lif­er­a­tion Treaty (NPT) in 1970, and concluded a Safe­guards Agreement with the Inter­na­tion­al Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in 1974, under which Iran accepted safe­guards (IAEA inspec­tions) for the purpose of verifying that nuclear material is not diverted to nuclear weapons or to other nuclear explosive devices.
  2. In February 2006, the IAEA Board of Governors submitted a report to the UN Security Council on its dif­fi­culties with Iran and noted “Iran’s many failures and breaches of its oblig­a­tions to comply with its NPT Safe­guards Agreement ….”( IAEA Board of Governors Res. GOV/2006/14 (4 Feb. 2006));
  3. the UN Security Council, acting under Chapter VII of the UN Charter in Res­ol­u­tion 1835, has expressed its serious concern that, “as confirmed by the reports of 23 May 2007 (GOV/2007/22), 30 August 2007 (GOV/2007/48), 15 November 2007 (GOV/2007/58) and 22 February 2008 (GOV/2008/4) of the Director General of the Inter­na­tion­al Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iran has not estab­lished full and sustained sus­pen­sion of all enrich­ment related and repro­cessing activ­it­ies and heavy water-related projects as set out in res­ol­u­tions 1696 (2006), 1737 (2006), and 1747(2007), nor resumed its cooper­a­tion with the IAEA under the Addi­tion­al Protocol to the NPT, nor taken the other steps required by the IAEA Board of Governors, nor complied with the pro­vi­sions of Security Council res­ol­u­tions 1696 (2006), 1737 (2006) and 1747 (2007) and which are essential to build con­fid­ence” and has imposed certain sanctions upon Iran which have failed to result in Iran complying with the afore­men­tioned require­ments;
  4. the Iranian regime has admitted to the existence of a formerly undis­closed nuclear enrich­ment facility in Qom, in clear violation of the current IAEA guidelines;
37.6 WELCOMES the Aus­trali­an Government’s active support for the strongest possible addi­tion­al measures being taken by the inter­na­tion­al community, including the impos­i­tion on Iran by Australia and other countries of severe autonom­ous sanctions directed at the Iranian regime, over and above the sanctions imposed by the UN, so as to ensure that Iran does not develop or gain access to nuclear weapons;.
37.7 URGES the Aus­trali­an Gov­ern­ment to continue to give a high strategic priority, in concert with other gov­ern­ments, to counter-acting the four-fold threat that the current Iranian regime poses to inter­na­tion­al peace and security, namely the nuclear threat, the threat of genocidal incite­ment, inter­na­tion­al state sponsored terrorism and the sys­tem­at­ic and wide­spread viol­a­tions of the human and civil rights of the Iranian people.
This Council:
38.1 CONDEMNS the way in which UN insti­tu­tions and instru­ments have been manip­u­lated to try to cast Israel as a pariah state;
38.2 CALLS upon the Aus­trali­an Gov­ern­ment to support the reforms of the UN advocated in res­ol­u­tions 38.3 and 38.4 and to insist upon the UN following a Human Rights agenda that is genuinely focused upon the pursuit of Human Rights in accord­ance with the UN Charter;
38.3 CALLS for the abolition of the UN “Special Com­mit­tees” on Palestini­an issues, and “Palestini­an Units” of the UN, the pre­dom­in­ant purpose of which is to spread anti-Israel pro­pa­ganda and whose activ­it­ies degrade the ability of the United Nations to pursue its noble human rights object­ives;
38.4 CALLS for the abolition by the United Nations General Assembly of the UN Human Rights Council and its replace­ment by a new human rights body, mem­ber­ship of which is restric­ted to those countries which at the time of their admission to mem­ber­ship have a demo­crat­ic political system in which there is proven respect for the indi­vidu­al and human rights of its citizens and the rule of law;
38.5 CALLS upon the Aus­trali­an gov­ern­ment to support the reforms of the UN advocated in this res­ol­u­tion and to insist upon the UN following a human rights agenda that is genuinely focused upon the real­iz­a­tion of human rights in accord­ance with the UN Charter, the Universal Declar­a­tion of Human Rights and other inter­na­tion­al human rights instru­ments.
38.6 COMMENDS the decision of the Aus­trali­an gov­ern­ment to list Hezbollah in its entirety as a terrorist organ­isa­tion, in line with the practice of Australia’s closest allies.
This Council:
39.1 NOTES that the UN World Con­fer­ence Against Racism held in Durban in 2001 (Durban 1 Con­fer­ence) was preceded by the NGO Forum which was marred by virulent antisemitic behaviour from rep­res­ent­at­ives of a number of Non-Gov­ern­ment Organ­isa­tions and which was marked by abuse of process and outcomes pre­ju­di­cial to genuine work to combat racism;
39.2 NOTES that the Durban I Gov­ern­ment Con­fer­ence produced outcome documents including the Declar­a­tion which singled out Israel for criticism (while naming no other countries) and intro­duced extraneous anti-Israel content under the pretext that Israel’s actions are racist, which anti-Israel content over­shad­owed and distorted the crit­ic­ally important professed agenda of the con­fer­ence;
39.3 NOTES that the Durban Review Con­fer­ence in Geneva in April 2009 and the UN’s 10th anniversary com­mem­or­a­tion in New York in September 2011:
  1. reaf­firmed without reser­va­tion the 2001 Durban Declar­a­tion and Program of Action, including the section titled “Victims of racism, racial dis­crim­in­a­tion, xeno­pho­bia and related intol­er­ance,” which spe­cific­ally states: “We are concerned about the plight of the Palestini­an people under foreign occu­pa­tion” and falsely implies that Palestini­ans are victims of Israeli racism, racial dis­crim­in­a­tion, xeno­pho­bia, or related intol­er­ance;
  2. failed to address serious human rights abuses and genocide in various regions of the world; and
  3. omitted any criticism or mention of the Hamas Charter and, in par­tic­u­lar, those of its pro­vi­sions which incite hatred and genocide against Jews and affirm racist ste­reo­types about Jews as a people.
and further notes with appre­ci­ation that the Aus­trali­an Gov­ern­ment joined the gov­ern­ments of a number of other demo­crat­ic countries in deciding not to attend the latter two events.
39.4 CONDEMNS the Durban process as irre­deem­ably tainted with bias and racism against the Jewish people; and
39.5 URGES the Aus­trali­an Gov­ern­ment to join with the gov­ern­ments of other demo­crat­ic countries in calling for the 2001 Durban Declar­a­tion and Program of Action to be fun­da­ment­ally re-drafted so as to remedy the flaws enu­mer­ated in paragraph 39.3.
This Council:
40.1 NOTES with concern that on 24 November 2008 the then President of the UN General Assembly, Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann of Nicaragua, stated in the General Assembly: “I spoke this morning about apartheid and how Israeli policies in the Occupied Palestini­an Ter­rit­or­ies appear so similar to the apartheid of an earlier era, a continent away. I believe it is very important that we in the United Nations use this term. We must not be afraid to call something what it is. It is the United Nations after all, that pass the Inter­na­tion­al Con­ven­tion against the Crime of Apartheid, making clear to all the world that such practices of official dis­crim­in­a­tion must be outlawed wherever they occur. Today, perhaps we in the United Nations should consider following the lead of a new gen­er­a­tion of civil society, who are calling for a similar non-violent campaign of boycott, divest­ment and sanctions to pressure Israel.”;
40.2 RECORDS that the accus­a­tions against Israel are scur­ril­ous, false and without basis;
40.3 NOTES that on 29 November 2006, the then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan cri­ti­cised the UN Human Rights Council for its “dis­pro­por­tion­ate focus on viol­a­tions by Israel” while neg­lect­ing other parts of the world such as Darfur, which had what he termed “graver” crises and that Annan reit­er­ated this criticism in his formal address on 8 December 2006 (Inter­na­tion­al Human Rights Day);
40.4 FURTHER NOTES the following addi­tion­al state­ments made by past and present UN Sec­ret­ar­ies-General con­demning UN bias against Israel:
  • (a) On 20 June 2007, the then UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon cri­ti­cised the Council in a statement that read: “The Secretary-General is dis­ap­poin­ted at the Council’s decision to single out only one specific regional item given the range and scope of alleg­a­tions of human rights viol­a­tions through­out the world.”
  • (b) On 23 April 2017, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres noted that “a modern form of antisemitism is the denial of the right of the State of Israel to exist … [and that] Israel needs to be treated as any other state, with exactly the same rules.”
40.5 CONDEMNS the United Nations to the extent that it: applies different standards for Israel and the Jewish people than for other countries; utterly fails to mention let alone criticise, the campaign of terror waged against innocent civilians in Israel from the ter­rit­or­ies and from Gaza from which Israel has uni­lat­er­ally withdrawn; continues with its one-sided obsession with Israel espe­cially on the part of the UN Human Rights Council;
40.6 NOTES that these devel­op­ments continue to give rise to grave concerns about the cred­ib­il­ity and effect­ive­ness of the United Nations among fair-minded people every­where;
40.7 CALLS UPON the Aus­trali­an Gov­ern­ment to continue to work towards fair and equitable treatment of Israel in all UN forums.
This Council:
40A.1 JOINS with the World Jewish Congress in con­demning the issuance of arrest warrants by the Inter­na­tion­al Criminal Court (ICC) against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.
40A.2 NOTES that: (a) the ICC’s purported jur­is­dic­tion in this matter is based upon its highly con­tro­ver­sial split decision on 5 February 2021 that the ICC has jur­is­dic­tion to deal with “the Situation in the State of Palestine” despite the “State of Palestine” not being a sovereign state; (b) com­pre­hens­ive sub­mis­sions were made to the ICC when it announced its con­sid­er­a­tion of the issue of warrants for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and (then) Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, to the effect that the court has no authority to judge the Palestini­an complaint against Israel; (c) the objection to these arrest warrants was supported by many sub­mis­sions including by the United States and Germany; (d) Israel has an extensive system and process for fielding the exam­in­a­tion of incidents and alleg­a­tions, as high­lighted in the Special Adviser Report by Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin into the World Central Kitchen incident, and this includes the inde­pend­ent Fact-Finding and Assess­ment Mechanism, co-operation with which is mandatory for all Israel Defence Forces personnel; (e) the evid­en­tiary found­a­tion for issuing the arrest warrants which has not been published by the ICC, has been called into question by legal and military experts who have pointed to: (i) the damage that is an unavoid­able con­sequence of all large-scale urban warfare, a form of warfare chosen by Hamas and its sup­port­ers; (ii) the targeting systems and pre­cau­tions in attack that Israel has in place which Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin said were essen­tially the same as those used by the Aus­trali­an Defence Forces; (iii) the extensive human­it­ari­an aid and medical relief Israel has facil­it­ated, which includes the reported delivery of 1,138,847 tons of aid by land, sea and air; (iv) the repeated failures of UNRWA in dis­trib­ut­ing aid within Gaza. (f) the ICC Chief Pro­sec­utor cancelled a fact-finding trip to Israel by his staff before issuing the request for the arrest warrants, thereby denying Israel the oppor­tun­ity to respond or provide any explan­a­tion, an oppor­tun­ity which the pro­sec­utor has afforded to other States in respect of which alleg­a­tions have been made in con­nec­tion with other conflicts, thereby demon­strat­ing bias; (g) Israel is a democracy exer­cising its inherent right of self-defence under inter­na­tion­al law against state-sponsored terrorist attacks, the per­pet­rat­ors of which have openly threatened to repeat such attacks again and again; (h) the armed attack against Israel that was planned and initiated by Hamas and its sup­port­ers on 7 October 2023 was a violation of the Laws of Armed Conflict, and these laws continue to be violated by Hamas and its sup­port­ers who have: delib­er­ately targeted Israeli civilians who were murdered, tortured, raped, mutilated and abducted; have delib­er­ately used civilians in Gaza as human shields and civilians struc­tures as bases of military and terrorist oper­a­tions; and have prevented all outside contact and human­it­ari­an access to the hostages; and (i) the ICC has taken no action against any parties within aggressor states con­duct­ing armed attacks against Israel, nor against many others respons­ible for much larger-scale conflicts, deaths and suffering, including those in Afgh­anistan, Iraq and Syria, despite the fact that certain States involved in those conflicts are within the ICC’s jur­is­dic­tion.
40A.3 CONDEMNS the ICC’s decision for its manifest bias in singling out the only Jewish nation’s leaders in a way that no other demo­crat­ic nation’s leaders are pursued, even while that nation is fighting a war of self-defence on multiple fronts, against enemies who have openly declared their genocidal aims against it.
40A.4  REAFFIRMS the Aus­trali­an Jewish community’s con­tinu­ing support for: Israel’s right to defend itself and protect its citizens; the rejection of the politi­cisa­tion of the ICC; and advoc­at­ing for a fair and unbiased approach to inter­na­tion­al justice.
40A.5  EXPRESSES its deep concern that in the above cir­cum­stances, the Aus­trali­an Gov­ern­ment has failed to question let alone criticise or condemn the ICC decision.
40A.6 CALLS UPON the Aus­trali­an Gov­ern­ment to do so without further delay and to not extend any cooper­a­tion in executing these unfounded and irre­spons­ible arrest warrants.
This Council:
41.1 EXPRESSES ALARM at the escal­a­tion in acts of antisemitism through­out the world such as racially motivated physical and verbal assaults against Jewish people, attacks upon Syn­agogues and other Jewish Insti­tu­tions and busi­nesses owned by Jews, and:
  • (a) CALLS UPON gov­ern­ment and community leaders in the European Union and the media to show lead­er­ship by publicly denoun­cing as and when they occur, all mani­fest­a­tions of antisemitism falling within the working defin­i­tion produced by the European Union Mon­it­or­ing Centre on Racism and Xeno­pho­bia and adopted by the UK All Part Par­lia­ment­ary Inquiry into Antisemitism;
  • (b) DENOUNCES the President of Venezuala, Hugo Chavez, for des­cend­ing repeatedly into racist and bullying rhetoric against Venezuala’s Jewish citizens, which has resulted in a sig­ni­fic­ant upsurge in racially motivated physical and verbal assaults against them and their communal insti­tu­tions; and
  • (c) DEPLORES the pro­lif­er­a­tion of grossly antisemitic material within many of the States of the Organ­isa­tion of the Islamic Con­fer­ence in the form of written pub­lic­a­tions, tele­vi­sion and radio programs and internet material, and the promotion of such material by their gov­ern­ments through its inclusion in school curricula and its dis­sem­in­a­tion through gov­ern­ment-con­trolled media.
41.2 NOTES that a sig­ni­fic­ant number of incidents have been carried out by Islamist groups who support and engage in antisemitic violence;
41.3 NOTES that extremist left and right-wing organ­isa­tions have encour­aged their sup­port­ers to work together with extremist elements within Muslim and Arab com­munit­ies;
41.4 CALLS ON the UN and all countries to take all necessary steps to ensure that those violent antisemitic incidents are not repeated and to protect Jewish citizens and communal property and to prevent other acts of anti-Jewish incite­ment;
41.5 CONDEMNS the pre­val­ence of anti-Jewish rhetoric in sections of the mass-media which mas­quer­ades as political criticism of Israel.
This Council:
42.1 APPLAUDS the efforts of the Claims Con­fer­ence and the World Jewish Resti­tu­tion Organ­isa­tion and other organ­isa­tions working for the rights of survivors, their heirs and the Jewish world in the areas of resti­tu­tion and res­tor­a­tion of property and true recording of the history of the Holocaust;
42.2 REAFFIRMS the principle that nego­ti­ations for resti­tu­tion should wherever possible include rep­res­ent­at­ives of both resident com­munit­ies and survivors who live outside those countries;
42.3 CALLS for the exped­i­tion of all out­stand­ing claims with a minimum of admin­is­trat­ive cost or delay, and for priority in the applic­a­tion of funds for the benefit of survivors and the heirs of victims;
42.4 CALLS for the abolition of all forms of means testing as a condition of eli­gib­il­ity for the payment to survivors of com­pens­a­tion for personal pain and suffering.
This Council:
43.1 RECOGNISES the import­ance of the work of the Inter­na­tion­al Catholic-Jewish Liaison Committee and its joint declar­a­tions of November 4 – 7 2006 and November 2008.
This Council:
44.1 NOTES the con­tri­bu­tion to inter­na­tion­al under­stand­ing and dialogue between peoples of the Asia Pacific Regional Inter­faith Dialogues in Indonesia in 2004, Phil­ip­pines in 2006, New Zealand in 2007, Cambodia in 2008 and Australia in 2009;
44.2 NOTES the unique and vital role played by rep­res­ent­at­ives of the ECAJ’s inter­faith dialogues to this process and also to the inaugural Youth Inter­faith Forum in Perth in 2007;
44.3 RECOGNISES the import­ance of members of Australia’s del­eg­a­tions being engaged with rep­res­ent­at­ive bodies and being able to keep the broader community informed of the outcomes of the APRID processes and to properly represent com­munit­ies’ views;
44.4 URGES the Aus­trali­an Gov­ern­ment to include a rep­res­ent­at­ive from the ECAJ in all future Asia Pacific Inter­faith Dialogues, as was the case until 2008.
This Council:
44b.1 NOTES that:
  1. Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury is an award-winning Banglade­shi journ­al­ist and editor of the Weekly Blitz newspaper in Bangladesh. Because of his beliefs in inter­faith dialogue between Jews and Muslims and criticism of Islamist extremism, he is on trial in Bangladesh for sedition, an offense pun­ish­able by death;
  2. Mr Choudhury was arrested on 29 November 2003 at Zia Inter­na­tion­al Airport in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on his way to board a flight bound for Tel Aviv, and was ori­gin­ally charged with a passport violation, a charge that was only sub­sequently elevated to sedition;
  3. While pre­vi­ously in detention Mr Choudhury was subjected to harsh inter­rog­a­tion tech­niques and received no treatment for a debil­it­at­ing case of glaucoma;
  4. Mr Choudhury’s incar­cer­a­tion lasted for17 months without legal recourse and was only released on bail on 30 April 2005;
  5. Senior members of the Bangledeshi Gov­ern­ment sub­sequently made con­tinu­ous public promises that there was no substance to Mr Choudhury’s pending charges and that all charges would be dropped;
  6. On 6 July 2006, Mr Choudhury’s newspaper offices were bombed by an Islamic extremist organ­isa­tion after Mr Choudhury and his staff published articles in support of the Ahmadiyya Muslim minority;
  7. Mr Choudhury received a tip about the bombing days before and reported it to police, who refused to take action;
  8. On 18 September 2006, a judge with alleged ties to an Islamic extremist party, Mohammed Momin Ullah, ruled that Mr Choudhury will stand trial for sedition. The judge made this ruling despite the Public Prosecutor’s testimony in court days before that the gov­ern­ment did not have evidence and would not object to the charges being dropped;
  9. On October 5, 2006, Mr Choudhury was attacked at his newspaper offices by a large group of indi­vidu­als, including prominent members of the ruling Bangladesh National Party. Police pro­tec­tion for Mr Choudhury was withdrawn just days before the attack. Mr Choudhury was called an ”agent of the Jews” and beaten badly. When Mr Choudhury reported the attack to the police, no action was taken
  10. On 15 February 2007, the United States House of Rep­res­ent­at­ives passed a res­ol­u­tion without oppos­i­tion, calling for the Gov­ern­ment of Bangladesh imme­di­ately to drop all pending charges against Mr Choudhury; return all of Mr Choudhury’s con­fis­cated pos­ses­sions; cease har­ass­ment and intim­id­a­tion of Mr Choudhury; and take steps to protect Mr Choudhury and hold account­able those respons­ible for attacks against Mr Choudhury;
  11. On 18 March 2008, members of Bangladesh’s Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) abducted Mr Choudhury from his office at gun point. He was blind-folded and taken to an RAB office and released late at night. Written com­plaints were sent to the military-con­trolled interim gov­ern­ment but no action has been taken by the Bangladesh author­it­ies against the RAB members respons­ible;
  12. On 22 February 2009, armed thugs belonging to the ruling Bangladesh Awami League entered the office of Mr Choudhury, ransacked the entire office and phys­ic­ally assaulted him and other staff of the Weekly Blitz newspaper. Although a specific complaint was lodged with the police station on the day of the occur­rence, no action has been taken by Bangladesh’s law enforce­ment agencies against the culprits;
  13. The capital charge against Mr Choudhury has not been withdrawn and he remains on trial for sedition.
44b.2 CALLS UPON the gov­ern­ment of Bangladesh imme­di­ately and without further pre­var­ic­a­tion or delay to:
  1. drop all pending charges against Mr Choudhury;
  2. return all of Mr Choudhury’s con­fis­cated pos­ses­sions;
  3. cease all har­ass­ment and intim­id­a­tion of Mr Choudhury; and
  4. take steps to protect Mr Choudhury from physical attacks and to hold account­able those respons­ible for previous attacks against Mr Choudhury
44b.3 CALLS UPON the Aus­trali­an gov­ern­ment to prevail upon the gov­ern­ment of Bangladesh to take the measures enu­mer­ated in paragraph 2 imme­di­ately and without further pre­var­ic­a­tion or delay.
 
This Council:
45.1 NOTES the devel­op­ment, by the Aus­trali­an Cur­riculum Assess­ment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), of a National Education Cur­riculum and the import­ance of the Aus­trali­an Jewish community working with National and State edu­ca­tion­al author­it­ies to ensure the accurate, dis­pas­sion­ate, aca­dem­ic­ally rigorous and adequately-resourced teaching of topics relating to Jews and Judaism, ancient and modern Israel, the Holocaust, the Arab-Israel conflict and the con­tri­bu­tion of Aus­trali­an Jews to Aus­trali­an society and culture.
45.2 CALLS on all State Depart­ments of School Education to ensure that all students have a basic knowledge of the events of the Holocaust, in order to gain an under­stand­ing of the fragility of human civil­iz­a­tion and the dangers of irra­tion­al hatred;
45.3 CALLS upon ACARA to include a unit of mandatory study address­ing racism, racial hatred and genocide, and focusing on the facts and cause of the Holocaust, in the study of history for all high school students in Australia.
This Council:
46.1 NOTES the import­ance of Holocaust memori­al­isa­tion, public education about the Holocaust and on-going research into the Holocaust;
46.2 WELCOMES the estab­lish­ment of annual Holocaust Memorial Day events by Con­stitu­ents of the ECAJ, in con­junc­tion with other community organ­isa­tions, and the par­ti­cip­a­tion of the Aus­trali­an Gov­ern­ment in these events;
46.3 ENCOURAGES all major cities and State capitals to hold public remem­brances of Kristallnacht and all Con­stitu­ents of the ECAJ to pri­or­it­ise the work of max­im­ising public par­ti­cip­a­tion in Holocaust Remem­brance and education; and
46.4 WELCOMES the range of research activ­it­ies related to the Holocaust, Holocaust memori­al­isa­tion, Holocaust Education and into Holocaust denial currently taking place in Australia and ENCOURAGES further support for research related to the Holocaust.
This Council:
47.1 RECOGNISES that the Holocaust, the Nazi program of genocide, was a unique his­tor­ic­al event;
47.2 NOTES that the Holocaust is generally recog­nised as the benchmark of the most extreme case of human evil;
47.3 DEPLORES the inap­pro­pri­ate use of analogies to the Nazi genocide and Nazi tyranny in Aus­trali­an public debate.
This Council:
48.1 NOTES the global import­ance of Holocaust education and remem­brance;
48.2 NOTES the import­ance of gov­ern­ments and civil society taking a stand against human rights abuses;
48.3 APPLAUDS the decision of the Swedish Gov­ern­ment to host the inter­na­tion­al forum on Holocaust Education and Remem­brance in January 2000; the Forum on Combating Intol­er­ance in January 2001, the Forum on Truth, Justice and Recon­cili­ation in April 2002 in Stockholm; and the Inter­na­tion­al Forum on Genocide Pre­ven­tion in 2004;
48.4 URGES the Aus­trali­an gov­ern­ment to implement relevant recom­mend­a­tions of the Stockholm Forums.
48.5 NOTES with appre­ci­ation the important work of the Inter­na­tion­al Holocaust Remem­brance Alliance (IHRA), an inter­gov­ern­ment­al body whose purpose is to place political and social leaders’ support behind the need for Holocaust education, remem­brance and research both nation­ally and inter­na­tion­ally.
48.6 ENDORSES and ADOPTS the Working Defin­i­tion of Antisemitism which was unan­im­ously adopted by IHRA member States at the Plenary session in May 2016 and which closely follows the 2005 EUMC working defin­i­tion;
48.7 WELCOMES Australia’s par­ti­cip­a­tion in IHRA as a full member country, including the par­ti­cip­a­tion in the Aus­trali­an del­eg­a­tion of experts from within and beyond the Aus­trali­an Jewish community.
48.8 COMMENDS the Aus­trali­an gov­ern­ment for the statement made by Prime Minister Scott Morrison to the Malmö Inter­na­tion­al Forum on Holocaust Remem­brance and Combating Antisemitism on 13 October 2021 that (i) the Aus­trali­an gov­ern­ment “pledges to embrace the defin­i­tion of antisemitism adopted by the Inter­na­tion­al Holocaust Remem­brance Alliance”; (ii) Australia has made this pledge “as a people and as a nation”; and (iii) “Antisemitism has no place in Australia. It has no place anywhere in the world”.
48.9 COMMENDS Labor’s endorse­ment of the IHRA Working Defin­i­tion of Antisemitism as confirmed by Federal Oppos­i­tion leader Anthony Albanese during an online meeting with Aus­trali­an Jewish community leaders organised and hosted by the ECAJ on 13 July 2021.
48.10 CALLS for the IHRA Working Defin­i­tion of Antisemitism to be adopted and applied in Australia by the public and private sectors, including the Uni­ver­sity sector, civil society, school education systems and sporting organ­isa­tions.
This Council:
49.1 NOTES that there is sci­entif­ic consensus that climate change poses a major challenge facing Australia and the world.  The threat to all human life, through the increas­ing frequency and magnitude of such extreme weather events as bushfires, drought, water shortages and record tem­per­at­ures, is increas­ing;
49.2 NOTES that the pro­tec­tion of the envir­on­ment and con­ser­va­tion of its resources for the benefit of future gen­er­a­tions are well-estab­lished prin­ciples of Jewish teaching and halacha;
49.3 APPLAUDS the action of gov­ern­ments, leading business, religious and civil society organ­isa­tions, in address­ing the issue of climate change as a priority issue for our time;
49.4 DECLARES its support for laws and policies with appro­pri­ate mile­stones designed to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, or earlier where necessary: See e.g., www.climatecouncil.org.au/resources/what-does-net-zero-emissions-mean
49.5 CALLS ON its con­stitu­ents, its affil­i­ates and Aus­trali­an Jewish organ­isa­tions to:
  • stay informed on climate change issues: – see e.g., climatecouncil.org.au and www.jcn.org.au;
  • educate members using clear and com­pel­ling edu­ca­tion­al resources, informed by Jewish teachings, about taking action on climate change and to demon­strate envir­on­ment­al respons­ib­il­ity;
  • take all appro­pri­ate steps to reduce green­house gas emissions asso­ci­ated with their own activ­it­ies; and
  • continue to work with other faith and cultural com­munit­ies towards taking action on climate change and to demon­strate envir­on­ment­al respons­ib­il­ity.
This Council:
50.1 NOTES that leading Rabbinic author­it­ies have given their support to the use of existing embryos for stem cell research, mindful that Jewish law concerns itself that such embryos are only appro­pri­ately obtained;
50.2 NOTES that stem cell research offers great hope to many sufferers and contains the potential to rectify painful, debil­it­at­ing and life short­en­ing genetic con­di­tions;
50.3 SUPPORTS properly conducted research into the saving of life as a part of our human mandate to act in the image of God, to heal and to be merciful;
50.4 CALLS ON all ECAJ Con­stitu­ents, Affil­i­ates and Observer Organ­isa­tions to encourage Aus­trali­an Jews to publicly support the oppor­tun­it­ies which stem cell research provides as rein­for­cing and not dimin­ish­ing the sanctity of life.
This Council:
51.1 NOTES that lives can be saved by encour­aging organ donation from Jews to the general pop­u­la­tion by educating our community about the different halachic and medical issues con­cern­ing organ donation;
51.2 SUPPORTS Medicare Australia changing donor registry forms so that members of the clergy can be involved in the decision-making process if members of the donor family so wish;
51.3 ENCOURAGES Aus­trali­an Jews to learn about organ donation from both a medical and a halachic per­spect­ive, and to commit to organ donation processes subject to appro­pri­ate safe­guards.
This Council:
52.1 NOTES the gravity of the Final Report of the Royal Com­mis­sion into Insti­tu­tion­al Responses to Child Sexual Abuse presented to the Governor-General on 15 December 2017;
51.2 EXPRESSES deepest sympathy with all survivors of child sexual abuse and profound sorrow at the pain and ongoing hardship they have suffered, and extends the same sen­ti­ments to the family and friends of survivors who have suffered in any way for sup­port­ing them;
52.3 RECOGNISES that child sexual abuse has occurred within some Jewish insti­tu­tions;
52.4 RECOGNISES FURTHER that in some instances indi­vidu­als in positions of lead­er­ship and trust within those insti­tu­tions failed to report the abuse to the appro­pri­ate author­it­ies and in doing so, acted unlaw­fully and uneth­ic­ally, and failed the children who had suffered the abuse and exacer­bated their suffering, and brought shame to our community;
52.5 NOTES the halachic rule that the civil law of the land is binding (dina d’malkhuta dina) and supports fully the state­ments by Jewish religious and rep­res­ent­at­ive rab­bin­ic­al bodies that “there is a religious oblig­a­tion to inform the relevant author­it­ies of all inform­a­tion known con­cern­ing possible harmful criminal conduct, espe­cially conduct as serious as child sexual abuse, and to co-operate with the author­it­ies in every way to bring the per­pet­rat­ors to justice”;
52.6 AFFIRMS that the principle of mesirah, which precludes the reporting of fellow Jews to the secular author­it­ies, was his­tor­ic­ally applied in places where Jews were subjected to insti­tu­tion­al per­se­cu­tion and racism and could not receive just treatment by the civil author­it­ies, and has no relevance or admiss­ib­il­ity what­so­ever in Australia, as has been stated by multiple Aus­trali­an rab­bin­ic­al sources;
52.7 CONDEMNS any con­ceal­ment of, or failure to report, alleg­a­tions of child sexual abuse and any instances of intim­id­a­tion or retri­bu­tion against children who have suffered sexual abuse or their families or other sup­port­ers, noting that all such conduct is unlawful, dis­grace­ful and contrary to Jewish ethics and law, and serves to deepen the suffering of survivors and their families;
52.8 AFFIRMS the imper­at­ive of pro­tect­ing children from harm, which is a core Jewish value, and calls on all organ­isa­tions in the Jewish community to adopt and actively implement a policy of zero tolerance towards child sexual abuse, and to promote clear lead­er­ship and trans­par­ent gov­ernance to combat the secrecy on which abuse thrives;
52.9 CALLS ON Jewish community organ­isa­tions which have the care of children to adopt and implement appro­pri­ate standards of child pro­tec­tion if they have not already done so, and to work together with other Jewish organ­isa­tions under the auspices of the Jewish community State roof bodies and the ECAJ to develop a best practice model of Jewish Pro­fes­sion­al Standards on Child Pro­tec­tion;
52.10 AFFIRMS that leaders of Jewish organ­isa­tions must take a pre­vent­at­ive, proactive and par­ti­cip­at­ory approach to child safety issues, so that the safety and wellbeing of children in each of their organ­isa­tions is a paramount con­sid­er­a­tion when devel­op­ing activ­it­ies, policies and man­age­ment practices;
52.11 URGES the Aus­trali­an Gov­ern­ment and Jewish communal bodies to continue to extend whatever support may be necessary to survivors of child sexual abuse in their pursuit of justice and redress.
This Council:
54.1 RECOGNISES that the Aus­trali­an Jewish community is part of the Jewish people worldwide, with a shared history, culture and religious tradition and is at the same time diverse and plur­al­ist­ic, with its members holding different views on a range of issues;
54.2 CALLS FOR mutual respect for the human dignity of all members of the community, despite any strongly held dif­fer­ences; recog­ni­tion that dis­agree­ment is possible in ways that do not vilify other persons or their views; and avoidance of any public or private conduct that incites hatred, ridicule or contempt of another person or class of persons on the ground of their sexual ori­ent­a­tion or gender identity/expression, or sex char­ac­ter­ist­ics; and, in accord­ance with the foregoing prin­ciples;
54.3 OPPOSES any form of hatred of any person on the grounds of sexual ori­ent­a­tion or gender identity/expression, or sex char­ac­ter­ist­ics;
54.4 ACKNOWLEDGES that there is still much work to be done to remove intol­er­ance of and unlawful dis­crim­in­a­tion against gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans­gender and intersex persons in the Jewish community and the wider Aus­trali­an community, and to provide adequate services and support for them and their families; and
54.5 CALLS ON persons and organ­isa­tions in the Jewish community to support that work both in our community and in the wider Aus­trali­an community.

This Council:

55.1NOTES the high response rate to the survey on same sex marriage conducted by the Aus­trali­an Bureau of Stat­ist­ics in 2017, par­ti­cip­a­tion in which was entirely voluntary;
55.2NOTES FURTHER that there was a strong majority in favour of same sex marriage being recog­nised in Australia’s civil law;
55.3RECOGNISES that the survey did not relate in any way to religious marriages;
55.4COMMENDS the Federal gov­ern­ment, the Federal Oppos­i­tion and other parties and inde­pend­ents for acting promptly to enact an amendment to the civil law defin­i­tion of marriage in the Marriage Act in order to give effect to the clear result of the survey.
55.5

CALLS ON the federal gov­ern­ment to:

  • (a) ensure that members of the clergy will continue to have the right to refuse to perform or par­ti­cip­ate in any marriage ceremony at their dis­cre­tion, as is provided for at present under section 47 of the Marriage Act;
  • (b) ensure that religious insti­tu­tions and religious schools will continue to have the same rights they currently enjoy under the law to practice, teach and preach their religious beliefs, including their beliefs about the insti­tu­tion of marriage being between a man and a woman; and
  • (c) ensure that parents and legal guardians will continue to have the same freedoms they currently enjoy to ensure the religious and moral education of their children in con­form­ity with their own con­vic­tions.
55.6REJECTS any proposal that would permit busi­nesses to refuse to provide goods, services and facil­it­ies on the basis that these are to be used in con­nec­tion with a same-sex marriage ceremony.
55.7AFFIRMS that in matters of ordinary trade and commerce, as distinct from matters of religious practice and belief, all people are entitled to be protected from adverse dis­crim­in­at­ory treatment on the basis of their race, colour, sex, sexual ori­ent­a­tion, gender identity/expression, sex char­ac­ter­ist­ics, age, physical or mental dis­ab­il­ity, marital status, family or carer’s respons­ib­il­it­ies, pregnancy, religion, political opinion, national extrac­tion or social origin.
55.8ENCOURAGES each of its con­stitu­ent organ­isa­tions to align the for­mu­la­tion of its policies con­cern­ing the foregoing matters with those of the ECAJ, and that affiliate organ­isa­tions which have adopted policies con­cern­ing such matters be encour­aged to do likewise.
This Council:
56.1 NOTES the active role under­taken by the Aus­trali­an Human Rights Com­mis­sion in advoc­at­ing for the rights of people with dis­ab­il­it­ies and their carers;
56.2 WELCOMES the efforts of the Aus­trali­an Gov­ern­ment to develop a national dis­ab­il­ity insurance scheme;
56.3 NOTES that through Jewish Care and other Jewish community organ­isa­tions, support for people with dis­ab­il­it­ies and their carers is a major Jewish community priority;
56.4 RESOLVES to support all efforts to achieve a sus­tain­able and effective national dis­ab­il­ity insurance scheme;
56.5 COMMENDS the work of the AUs­trali­an Human Rights Com­mis­sion in advoc­at­ing for the rights of people with dis­ab­il­it­ies and their carers; and
56.6 CALLS ON the entire Aus­trali­an community to extend the fullest respect and dignity for people with dis­ab­il­it­ies and their carers.
This Council:
57.1 RECOGNISES that all members of our Jewish community are entitled to be treated with dignity, respect and fairness and to have equal oppor­tun­it­ies, rep­res­ent­a­tion and rights to par­ti­cip­ate in communal life;
57.2 AFFIRMS that there is abso­lutely no place in communal life for sexual har­ass­ment or any form of bullying, including gender-based bullying;
57.3 ACKNOWLEDGES that the ECAJ requires an appro­pri­ate mix of expertise, exper­i­ence and gender rep­res­ent­a­tion to provide the knowledge and skills necessary to meet its respons­ib­il­it­ies and object­ives;
57.4 AFFIRMS that women must be given the same rights and oppor­tun­it­ies enjoyed by men to be elected to positions of communal lead­er­ship and, once elected, to par­ti­cip­ate in communal decision making;
57.5 COMMITS to embracing a culture of respect for women, and policies to promote gender equality in matters such as board com­pos­i­tion and recruit­ment, and rep­res­ent­a­tion on panels, events, con­fer­ences and workshops; and
57.6 CALLS ON its con­stitu­ent bodies to adopt gender equality prin­ciples and policies and pursue the goal of elevating women’s par­ti­cip­a­tion and voice within our community as an important step towards achieving gender equality.
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