Australia: Jewish council decries lobbying against fleeing Palestinians

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ISTANBUL (AA) – A Jewish group has decried lobbying against Palestinians, many of whom have applied for visas to Australia.

The Jewish Council of Australia urged the Australian government to reject “racism against Palestinian people fleeing persecution in Gaza,” and said it rejects “any assertion that accepting Palestinians is a threat to Jewish safety.”

It particularly called out Sky News for a report it ran saying 500 Palestinian people had obtained visas to flee overwhelming violence in Gaza. Out of them, 81 are in Australia, it added.

Expressing concern for the safety of the Palestinian people “who have had their identities exposed to Sky News,” the council urged the government to “investigate how this private information was obtained.”

“The council is alarmed that some Jewish organizations have been lobbying for the Australian government to refuse entry to people seeking safety from Gaza and have mobilized anti-Palestinian racism and sentiment to do so,” it said.

The council said it “rejects the assertion that Australia accepting Palestinians fleeing unprecedented violence is in any way a threat to the safety of Jewish people.”

It was referring to the Zionist Australian Jewry group which questioned if Palestinian refugees will have values "compatible" with the Australian way of living.

“Many Jewish people have a deep understanding of fleeing persecution and many Jews have deep and meaningful relationships with Palestinians, including those from Gaza,” it added.

- Long history of racism

Explaining the historical background of fear mongering, the council said rhetoric directed against Palestinian refugees is “reminiscent of the same rhetoric used to vilify Jewish refugees in the 1940s and 1950s who were frequently labeled ‘security risks’.”

The council quoted T.H. White, Australia’s delegate to the 1938 Evian Conference, who, with reference to German and Austrian Jewish refugees, had said: “Australia has ‘no real racial problem [and is] not desirous of importing one’.”

“This rhetoric is also part of a long history of racism and exclusion in Australia, from the White Australia Policy to the War on Terror’s exclusion of people from the Middle East,” said the council.

The concerns shared by the council appear after a media investigation last month found that an Israeli lobby group was behind sacking of a journalist at Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

Award-winning journalist and author Antoinette Lattouf was terminated by ABC last December for sharing on Instagram a report by Human Rights Watch on Palestine's besieged enclave of Gaza.

A coordinated campaign, which includes messaging on WhatsApp, was launched by the Israeli lobby group to terminate her from ABC.​​​​​​​