Conservatives to Possibly Introduce Laws Charging Those who Speak out Against Israel or Boycott them with Hate Charges

[etsen3]

From the looks of it, it seems as though the Conservatives have completely backtracked from this. The entire plan has backfired and now they'll be trying to cover their tracks.

Good, although I still refuse to vote for them. I want leaders who believe in rights, not leaders who give them to people only give them to people because they're told.

[Hugor Hill]

From the looks of it, it seems as though the Conservatives have completely backtracked from this. The entire plan has backfired and now they'll be trying to cover their tracks.

Source for this:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/tories-deny-plan-to-use-hate-crime-laws-against-israel-boycotters-1.3069723

[Buddhas Hand]

There are plenty of countries worse than Israel. Luckily, they aren't placated as the closest ally. If Israel was just another crap stain on the map, these boycotts wouldn't happen. It's only because that sham of a democracy gets so much unequivocal support from many western governments that they do.

It's about time Australia put pressure on Israel

Opinion

By Ben Saul

Updated

25 Jul 2014, 5:40pm

Photo: A nine-year-old Palestinian girl is taken to hospital by relatives after she was injured in an Israeli strike in Gaza. (AFP/Marco Longari)

Australia's biased friendship towards Israel undermines peace and forsakes justice for Palestinians, while serving neither Australian nor Israeli interests, writes Ben Saul.

Former prime minister Gough Whitlam wrote in 1985 that while Australian governments always claimed to take a balanced approach to Israeli-Arab disputes before his own government was elected, "in practice they were thought to be favouring Israel".

Former foreign minister Alexander Downer even boasted that Australia is more pro-Israel than 99 per cent of the world. Under the Abbott Government, Australian policy has sunk to new lows in unabashedly favouring extreme, illegal, and destructive Israeli government positions.

The signs of pro-Israel bias are all around. Last month, the Attorney-General, George Brandis, refused to call East Jerusalem "occupied". The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, publicly welcomed this as a change of Australia's position. Brandis provoked a damaging diplomatic rift with Arab countries. There is a near-universal consensus that East Jerusalem is occupied under international law and does not belong to Israel.

In January, foreign minister Julie Bishop doubted the illegality of Israel's settlements in the Palestinian West Bank. Again, there is universal legal consensus that the settlements violate the Geneva Conventions. The conservative International Court of Justice said so 10 years ago.

Of the five General Assembly resolutions on Palestine adopted last year, Australia joined a handful of countries in voting against three, and abstaining from two. The resolutions were not anti-Israel, but pro-international law, which Israel persistently chooses to violate.

By encouraging or tolerating Israeli violations of international law, Australia weakens the international rule of law, undermines peace, and forsakes justice for Palestinians.

Australian policy is also biased because it routinely condemns Palestinian violence, but rarely condemns Israeli violence and illegality as stridently.

Australia is right to condemn violence against Israeli civilians and to support Israel's right to protect them. But Australia should equally condemn Israel's illegal occupation of Palestinian territory, its purported annexation of East Jerusalem, its destructive blockade and collective punishment of Gaza, and its forcible repression of Palestinian self-determination.

Australia should condemn Israel's refusal to readmit Palestinian refugees, and to provide remedies for the ethnic cleansing of Arabs - documented by Israeli historians - which accompanied the foundation of Israel in 1948.

Australia should condemn the periodic Israeli military operations which cause excessive civilian casualties, illegally destroy property, and sometimes even deliberately target civilians. We should also condemn the frequent impunity for Israeli soldiers who violate the law.

Australia should condemn terrorist and 'price tag' attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinian civilians. We should oppose the routine humiliation of Palestinians at Israeli checkpoints. We should condemn the virulent anti-Arab racism in Israeli politics and society.

A balanced Australian policy would insist that peace negotiations must respect Palestinian rights under international law, including the full return of Palestinian land. We must stop saying that the Palestinians should have accepted the peace deal offered at Camp David in 2000, when that deal did not fairly guarantee basic Palestinian legal rights.

The root cause of the Israel-Palestine conflict is the near-50-year occupation of Palestinian territory by Israel and the illegal colonisation of Palestinian land. Violence to liberate Palestine is inevitable unless Israel withdraws and complies with international law. Australian governments have failed to understand that there will never be peace unless there is justice.

To that end, there are new policy initiatives that Australia could take to pressure Israel. First, Australia should prohibit Australians from serving as foreign fighters for Israel in the occupied territories, just as Australians are prohibited from fighting with terrorist groups.

Second, Australia should prohibit all economic dealings with the Israeli government, settlements, and companies in relation to the occupied territories. This is not a call for a general boycott of Israel, but the targeting of Israeli activities violating international law.

Thirdly, Australia should urge the UN Security Council to refer alleged war crimes by Hamas and Israel to the International Criminal Court for investigation.

Fourth, Australia should attempt to sue Israel in the International Court of Justice for violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law.

Finally, Australia should offer to contribute personnel to a future UN peacekeeping force to guarantee the security of borders between Israel and the Palestinian state.

Australia's biased friendship towards Israel has served neither Australian nor Israeli interests. It has alienated us from the rest of the world, including Europe, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. It is unpopular with the Australian public, which polling shows favours a policy based on law and human rights. It fuels radicalisation against the West, when Australia is struggling to defuse terrorism.

Our friendship has also been unreciprocated. Recall that Israel forged Australian passports to assassinate an unarmed Palestinian in Dubai, endangering genuine Australian travellers.

Being a fawning friend encourages Israeli lawlessness and pushes peace further away. Even a former Israeli security chief, Yuval Diskin, wrote this month that the Israeli government's inflammatory actions are radically undermining, not aiding, Israel's security. Israel has become an outlaw state, exploiting its power over Palestinians to take and keep what it wants.

Australia should stop being an extreme, pro-Israel outcast, and join the rest of the world in being a responsible, pro-international law adult.

This is an extract of a speech given at Parliament House, Canberra, on July 16.

Ben Saul is Professor of International Law at the University of Sydney. View his full profile here.

Actually LC as this article points out that while our govt has it's head so far up the israeli's ass, we seem to be in the minority

http://www.smh.com.au/national/tony-abbott-quietly-shifts-un-position-to-support-israeli-settlements-upsetting-palestinians-20131124-2y434.html

" While 158 countries supported the UN in calling for an end to Israeli settlements, Australia joined eight other countries, including South Sudan and Papua New Guinea, in abstaining from voting. Labor governments under Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard condemned the settlements.

http://www.smh.com.au/world/australia-votes-against-palestinian-un-resolution-on-israel-20141231-12fwb4.html

Australia has voted against a proposal in the United Nations Security Council demanding Israel end the occupation of Palestinian territories within two years.

Australia joined the United States as the only two countries to vote against the draft resolution in New York on Tuesday, local time.

It was the first time Australia has voted against a proposed resolution during a two-year term on the council.

It still blows me away that a nation as small as israel can exert control on govts such as ours ,the US and yours to some degree.

[Warhippy]

It's about time Australia put pressure on Israel

Opinion

By Ben Saul

Updated

25 Jul 2014, 5:40pm

Photo: A nine-year-old Palestinian girl is taken to hospital by relatives after she was injured in an Israeli strike in Gaza. (AFP/Marco Longari)

Australia's biased friendship towards Israel undermines peace and forsakes justice for Palestinians, while serving neither Australian nor Israeli interests, writes Ben Saul.

Former prime minister Gough Whitlam wrote in 1985 that while Australian governments always claimed to take a balanced approach to Israeli-Arab disputes before his own government was elected, "in practice they were thought to be favouring Israel".

Former foreign minister Alexander Downer even boasted that Australia is more pro-Israel than 99 per cent of the world. Under the Abbott Government, Australian policy has sunk to new lows in unabashedly favouring extreme, illegal, and destructive Israeli government positions.

The signs of pro-Israel bias are all around. Last month, the Attorney-General, George Brandis, refused to call East Jerusalem "occupied". The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, publicly welcomed this as a change of Australia's position. Brandis provoked a damaging diplomatic rift with Arab countries. There is a near-universal consensus that East Jerusalem is occupied under international law and does not belong to Israel.

In January, foreign minister Julie Bishop doubted the illegality of Israel's settlements in the Palestinian West Bank. Again, there is universal legal consensus that the settlements violate the Geneva Conventions. The conservative International Court of Justice said so 10 years ago.

Of the five General Assembly resolutions on Palestine adopted last year, Australia joined a handful of countries in voting against three, and abstaining from two. The resolutions were not anti-Israel, but pro-international law, which Israel persistently chooses to violate.

By encouraging or tolerating Israeli violations of international law, Australia weakens the international rule of law, undermines peace, and forsakes justice for Palestinians.

Australian policy is also biased because it routinely condemns Palestinian violence, but rarely condemns Israeli violence and illegality as stridently.

Australia is right to condemn violence against Israeli civilians and to support Israel's right to protect them. But Australia should equally condemn Israel's illegal occupation of Palestinian territory, its purported annexation of East Jerusalem, its destructive blockade and collective punishment of Gaza, and its forcible repression of Palestinian self-determination.

Australia should condemn Israel's refusal to readmit Palestinian refugees, and to provide remedies for the ethnic cleansing of Arabs - documented by Israeli historians - which accompanied the foundation of Israel in 1948.

Australia should condemn the periodic Israeli military operations which cause excessive civilian casualties, illegally destroy property, and sometimes even deliberately target civilians. We should also condemn the frequent impunity for Israeli soldiers who violate the law.

Australia should condemn terrorist and 'price tag' attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinian civilians. We should oppose the routine humiliation of Palestinians at Israeli checkpoints. We should condemn the virulent anti-Arab racism in Israeli politics and society.

A balanced Australian policy would insist that peace negotiations must respect Palestinian rights under international law, including the full return of Palestinian land. We must stop saying that the Palestinians should have accepted the peace deal offered at Camp David in 2000, when that deal did not fairly guarantee basic Palestinian legal rights.

The root cause of the Israel-Palestine conflict is the near-50-year occupation of Palestinian territory by Israel and the illegal colonisation of Palestinian land. Violence to liberate Palestine is inevitable unless Israel withdraws and complies with international law. Australian governments have failed to understand that there will never be peace unless there is justice.

To that end, there are new policy initiatives that Australia could take to pressure Israel. First, Australia should prohibit Australians from serving as foreign fighters for Israel in the occupied territories, just as Australians are prohibited from fighting with terrorist groups.

Second, Australia should prohibit all economic dealings with the Israeli government, settlements, and companies in relation to the occupied territories. This is not a call for a general boycott of Israel, but the targeting of Israeli activities violating international law.

Thirdly, Australia should urge the UN Security Council to refer alleged war crimes by Hamas and Israel to the International Criminal Court for investigation.

Fourth, Australia should attempt to sue Israel in the International Court of Justice for violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law.

Finally, Australia should offer to contribute personnel to a future UN peacekeeping force to guarantee the security of borders between Israel and the Palestinian state.

Australia's biased friendship towards Israel has served neither Australian nor Israeli interests. It has alienated us from the rest of the world, including Europe, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. It is unpopular with the Australian public, which polling shows favours a policy based on law and human rights. It fuels radicalisation against the West, when Australia is struggling to defuse terrorism.

Our friendship has also been unreciprocated. Recall that Israel forged Australian passports to assassinate an unarmed Palestinian in Dubai, endangering genuine Australian travellers.

Being a fawning friend encourages Israeli lawlessness and pushes peace further away. Even a former Israeli security chief, Yuval Diskin, wrote this month that the Israeli government's inflammatory actions are radically undermining, not aiding, Israel's security. Israel has become an outlaw state, exploiting its power over Palestinians to take and keep what it wants.

Australia should stop being an extreme, pro-Israel outcast, and join the rest of the world in being a responsible, pro-international law adult.

This is an extract of a speech given at Parliament House, Canberra, on July 16.

Ben Saul is Professor of International Law at the University of Sydney. View his full profile here.

Actually LC as this article points out that while our govt has it's head so far up the israeli's ass, we seem to be in the minority

http://www.smh.com.au/national/tony-abbott-quietly-shifts-un-position-to-support-israeli-settlements-upsetting-palestinians-20131124-2y434.html

" While 158 countries supported the UN in calling for an end to Israeli settlements, Australia joined eight other countries, including South Sudan and Papua New Guinea, in abstaining from voting. Labor governments under Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard condemned the settlements.

http://www.smh.com.au/world/australia-votes-against-palestinian-un-resolution-on-israel-20141231-12fwb4.html

Australia has voted against a proposal in the United Nations Security Council demanding Israel end the occupation of Palestinian territories within two years.

Australia joined the United States as the only two countries to vote against the draft resolution in New York on Tuesday, local time.

It was the first time Australia has voted against a proposed resolution during a two-year term on the council.

It still blows me away that a nation as small as israel can exert control on govts such as ours ,the US and yours to some degree.

Religion and sheer guilt are powerful things

[Mustapha]

Religion and sheer guilt are powerful things

Money is probably the biggest factor.

It's no secret that there are wealthy Jewish people who control much of the banking industry, and by extension the government of the USA (and other nations also most likely)

They use their power and influence to sway the nations in Israel's favour, as they have personal and financial interests in having Israel succeed.

Not to mention, despite Israel's incredibly small size, they have a per capita GDP that is roughly the same as Japan. They have a growing economy, and guess what: It's not by accident.

[Red Light Racicot]

This is completely insane.

Personally I dont even agree with European laws that make holocaust denial illegal.

People should be free to deny the holocaust, because all they are really doing is destroying their own reputation by doing so. Its a double standard that compromises free speech.

[tbone909]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israeli-government-to-pay-african-refugees-3500-to-leave-10253318.html

The Israeli government will pay $3,500 grants to African refugees to encourage them to leave the country, it has said.

The country’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the move was designed to “protect the Jewish and democratic character” of the Middle Eastern state.

The country’s coalition cabinet voted unanimously last weekend to approve the plan, drawn up by the country’s new Interior Minister Silvan Shalom and supported by Mr Netanyahu.

“We are determined to remove the tens of thousands of infiltrators who are here, after we lowered to zero the number of work-seeking infiltrators who have entered Israel’s cities,” Mr Netanyahu said at the cabinet meeting, according to a government release.

Israel already pays grants of $1,500 to migrants who agree to leave but the proposal would see the figure raised to $3,500.

Other measures approved as part of a £73m package include the establishment of a migrant detention centre in the Negev desert.

Extra funding will also be provided to police in south Tel Aviv where populations of African migrants live.

...

Migrants who do not take up the repatriation offer will be subject to detention in the new facility.

Last year a report by Human Rights Watch said the repatriation was not as voluntary as its seemed and amounted to coercion.

“Destroying people's hope of finding protection by forcing them into a corner and then claiming they are voluntarily leaving Israel is transparently abusive,” said report author Gerry Simpson.

“Eritreans and Sudanese in Israel are left with the choice of living in fear of spending the rest of their days locked up in desert detention centres or of risking detention and abuse back home.”

In 2012 the US government criticised Israel’s treatment of African asylum seekers on the basis that they were denied refugee status and basic healthcare.

The state department’s annual report also criticised inflammatory language used by the Israeli government.

Israel has an estimated number of around 50,000-60,000 African migrants living within its borders, around 0.6% of its 8 million population.

I really wish Isreal would join the 20th century........really sad that this is happening.

[Hugor Hill]

^^ reminds me of one of the best scenes in movie history:

[otherwise]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israeli-government-to-pay-african-refugees-3500-to-leave-10253318.html

The Israeli government will pay $3,500 grants to African refugees to encourage them to leave the country, it has said.

The country’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the move was designed to “protect the Jewish and democratic character” of the Middle Eastern state.

The country’s coalition cabinet voted unanimously last weekend to approve the plan, drawn up by the country’s new Interior Minister Silvan Shalom and supported by Mr Netanyahu.

“We are determined to remove the tens of thousands of infiltrators who are here, after we lowered to zero the number of work-seeking infiltrators who have entered Israel’s cities,” Mr Netanyahu said at the cabinet meeting, according to a government release.

Israel already pays grants of $1,500 to migrants who agree to leave but the proposal would see the figure raised to $3,500.

Other measures approved as part of a £73m package include the establishment of a migrant detention centre in the Negev desert.

Extra funding will also be provided to police in south Tel Aviv where populations of African migrants live.

...

Migrants who do not take up the repatriation offer will be subject to detention in the new facility.

Last year a report by Human Rights Watch said the repatriation was not as voluntary as its seemed and amounted to coercion.

“Destroying people's hope of finding protection by forcing them into a corner and then claiming they are voluntarily leaving Israel is transparently abusive,” said report author Gerry Simpson.

“Eritreans and Sudanese in Israel are left with the choice of living in fear of spending the rest of their days locked up in desert detention centres or of risking detention and abuse back home.”

In 2012 the US government criticised Israel’s treatment of African asylum seekers on the basis that they were denied refugee status and basic healthcare.

The state department’s annual report also criticised inflammatory language used by the Israeli government.

Israel has an estimated number of around 50,000-60,000 African migrants living within its borders, around 0.6% of its 8 million population.

I really wish Isreal would join the 20th century........really sad that this is happening.

It's horrible that people have fled to a new country in hopes of freedom only to face more persecution and basically have to find yet another place to call home.

[taxi]

..

Migrants who do not take up the repatriation offer will be subject to detention in the new facility.

Last year a report by Human Rights Watch said the repatriation was not as voluntary as its seemed and amounted to coercion.

“Destroying people's hope of finding protection by forcing them into a corner and then claiming they are voluntarily leaving Israel is transparently abusive,” said report author Gerry Simpson.

“Eritreans and Sudanese in Israel are left with the choice of living in fear of spending the rest of their days locked up in desert detention centres or of risking detention and abuse back home.”

In 2012 the US government criticised Israel’s treatment of African asylum seekers on the basis that they were denied refugee status and basic healthcare.

The state department’s annual report also criticised inflammatory language used by the Israeli government.

Israel has an estimated number of around 50,000-60,000 African migrants living within its borders, around 0.6% of its 8 million population.

I really wish Isreal would join the 20th century........really sad that this is happening.

Join the 20th century? Firstly, it's the 21st century. Secondly, not a single nation in the world is allowing large number of African migrants into their country. Thousands of them die every year trying to reach Europe. Israel has given 10s of thousands of African migrants visas, refugee status, and citizenship, which on a per capita basis, if far more than what most European countries have done.

[Mr.DirtyDangles]

If this sac of feces is in power next election I am moving to Venezuela.