31^st July 2013
Alex Ryvchin, the public affairs officer of the Executive Council of Aus­trali­an Jewry, rep­res­en­ted it at the Jerusalem Arbit­ra­tion Center (JAC) seminar for members of Australia’s legal community hosted by Clayton Utz at its Sydney office yesterday evening.

The event was chaired by the Hon. James Spigelman AC QC and speakers included the President of the Inter­na­tion­al Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Israel, Major General (ret.) Oren Shachor and Head of Legal Team, ICC Palestine, Mazen E. Qupty. The event was organised by Senior Associate, Adam Butt. The principal financial sup­port­ers were LEADR, the Pratt Found­a­tion and Wain­wright Ryan Eid Lawyers.

The JAC is an apolit­ic­al and impartial forum for the res­ol­u­tion of com­mer­cial disputes arising from Israeli-Palestini­an business relations, and seeks to eliminate obstacles to further bilateral trade between Israelis and Palestini­ans. Sig­ni­fic­antly, it is a joint enter­prise estab­lished by the Israeli and Palestini­an divisions of the ICC and indicates the potential for con­struct­ive, mean­ing­ful co-operation between Israeli and Palestini­an insti­tu­tions.

Last night’s event was jointly supported by the Australia Arab Chamber of Commerce & Industry and the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce. We hope this will be the first of many events jointly supported by these bodies.

Presently, bilateral trade between Israelis and Palestini­ans is in the region of nearly $5 billion per annum and the work of the JAC aims to create further oppor­tun­it­ies for further economic engage­ment, prosper­ity and co-operation between Israelis and Palestini­ans.

The Executive Council of Aus­trali­an Jewry is deeply sup­port­ive of any ini­ti­at­ives which result in con­struct­ive, mean­ing­ful and mutually bene­fi­cial engage­ment between Israelis and Palestini­ans and indeed, between their rep­res­ent­at­ives and sup­port­ers in Australia.

Whilst political engage­ment between Israeli and Palestini­an leaders is vital, it is economic co-operation that creates most of the oppor­tun­it­ies for daily contact between ordinary Israelis and Palestini­ans. It is our view that such contact has the power to build greater mutual under­stand­ing, co-operation and friend­ship between Israelis and Palestini­ans. Ulti­mately, it is the people who must live together in peace, not just their leaders.

We con­grat­u­late the Israeli and Palestini­an parties and everyone else respons­ible for this worth­while ini­ti­at­ive and the hosts and sup­port­ers of yesterday’s event for bringing the JAC to the attention of the Aus­trali­an legal community.

 

Contact:
Peter Wertheim AM | Executive Director
phone: 02 8353 8500 | m: 0408 160 904 | fax 02 9361 5888
e: [email protected]