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The Exec­u­tive Coun­cil of Aus­tralian Jew­ry, the peak nation­al rep­re­sen­ta­tive body of the Aus­tralian Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty is pleased that the Labor Par­ty Nation­al Con­fer­ence has con­clud­ed its debate on Mid­dle East pol­i­cy with no change to the Government’s posi­tion on the Israeli-Pales­tin­ian con­flict and with­out fur­ther hos­tile pol­i­cy pro­nounce­ments. This is the first Nation­al Con­fer­ence since 2015, where there has not been a fur­ther move towards uni­lat­er­al recog­ni­tion of a Pales­tin­ian state.

We warm­ly wel­come the excel­lent speech deliv­ered by Michael Eas­son, a high­ly prin­ci­pled and deeply informed Labor activist. As Mr Eas­son observed, “there can be no jus­tice with­out truth.” The truth that this gov­ern­ment must accept is that recog­ni­tion of a state that does not exist is not the expres­sion of sol­i­dar­i­ty or of a desire for peace. It is a dan­ger­ous false­hood which rewards the Pales­tini­ans for their refusal to nego­ti­ate an end to the con­flict, recog­nise a Jew­ish state or renounce vio­lence and ter­ror­ism. Recog­ni­tion of a Pales­tin­ian state can only occur when it actu­al­ly exists and that will only hap­pen through direct nego­ti­a­tions between the par­ties.

We also wish to thank those del­e­gates, mem­bers of par­lia­ment and sen­a­tors who have main­tained their stead­fast sup­port for truth, the Israel-Aus­tralia alliance and demo­c­ra­t­ic val­ues in the face of con­sid­er­able pres­sure from anti-Israel activists to bow to their demands.

We main­tain our oppo­si­tion to recent Gov­ern­ment announce­ments on the con­flict, par­tic­u­lar­ly the rever­sal of Australia’s recog­ni­tion of west Jerusalem as Israel’s cap­i­tal and the adop­tion of incor­rect lan­guage regard­ing the des­ig­na­tion of the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem.

We will nev­er waver in our advo­ca­cy for the inalien­able rights of the Jew­ish peo­ple and in stand­ing up to those who wish to do the State of Israel harm.

At ALP Nation­al Con­fer­ence no fur­ther change in ALP pol­i­cy con­cern­ing Israel and excel­lent speech from Michael Eas­son.

Con­tact
Peter Wertheim AM | Co-CEO
ph: 02 8353 8505 | m: 0408 160 904 | fax: 02 9361 5888
e: pwertheim@ecaj.org.au | www.ecaj.org.au