A protest outside Parliament House
Munganbana Norman Miller, co-founder of Indigenous Friends of Israel International, has stood outside the federal parliament in Canberra, protesting against the treatment of Israel by the Australian government and the United Nations.
Norman Miller and his wife Barbara outside Parliament House
The day coincided with the 86th anniversary of the stand of Aboriginal William Cooper and the Australian Aborigines’ League in Melbourne.
The Aboriginal leader said: “It was a stand against antisemitism then and mine is a stand against antisemitism now. He protested the Nazi treatment of Jews at Kristallnacht in 1938. Germany is now Israel’s friend. My stand is against the treatment of Israel by the Australian government and the United Nations.
On Wednesday, the Australian government reversed 20 years of bipartisanship and supported a UN resolution demanding an end to Israel’s “unlawful” presence in the “Occupied” Palestinian Territories of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
It also calls for the end of new settlement activities and the removal of settlers from occupied territory. It also calls for a conference next June to set the Palestinian territories on an irreversible pathway to a two-state solution.
So, Australia and the UN are calling for the ethnic cleansing of Jews from their ancient homeland.”
He said that Judea and Samaria is the heartland of ancient Israel and that he Jews are indigenous to Israel.
He said: “It is not an occupied territory. Also, Jerusalem is not occupied and is not the West Bank. It is the ancient undivided capital of Israel.
The Morrison government called these disputed territories, but the Albanese Wong government uses the loaded term, the term preferred by terrorists, occupied territories. The Australian government favours the terminology of Israel’s enemies instead of that of Israel, its ally and the only democratic state in the Middle East.
The Albanese government reversed the Morrison government’s decision to recognize West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in October 2022.
The Australian government would rather reward the terrorism of October 7 and has continually pushed for a two-state solution when all the terrorists want is a one-state solution with the removal of Israel and the Jewish people. Hamas wants Hitler’s Final Solution to prevail in the Middle East where Jews have been systematically ethnic cleansed from Arab lands.”
Australia joined 156 nations yesterday to back a 7-page resolution supporting ‘the realization of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, primarily the right to self-determination and the right to their independent state.’
He spoke about the refusals of the Palestinians to accept a peace settlement and how Australia was “at the forefront in the United Nations of voting for and offering a 1947 partition plan for the British Mandate to be divided into a Jewish state and an Arab state as the word Palestinian was not in vogue then. The Arabs rejected it”.
He went on to say, “Israel is not a colonial, settler, racist, apartheid state but was decolonized in 1948 from centuries of colonization by various powers. It was settled by as many Jews of colour made refugees from Arab lands as Jews fleeing the Holocaust in Europe. There are Arabs in all professions including the Knesset, its parliament.
Considering, the blood of Australians, black and white, has been shed for the freedom and right to life and safety of Jewish people in Israel, it is reprehensible, that the Australian government would sell out Israel today and reward terrorist groups who committed the atrocities of October 7 with an irreversible pathway to statehood without a guarantee of an agreement re the survival of the Jewish state and agreed on boundaries.
We deplore the Australian government’s funding of UNRWA to the tune of millions despite the UN’s admission that it was part of the terrorist attack on October 7 and that its schools, hospitals, headquarters etc have been used to store weapons. Also, that its schools train children to hate and kill Jews. We call on the Australian government to give its humanitarian aid through other avenues like the Red Cross.
We call on the Australian government to withdraw its membership from the International Criminal Court, which, after issuing arrest warrants against Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant, is lacking credibility. It has accepted false accusations and not followed due process, has not given Israel the right of reply, cancelling a trip to Israel to discuss the case, and does not have jurisdiction in this matter. The ICC has jurisdiction only over member states and Israel is not a member, and Gaza is not a state.
Israel, while defending itself against promises of many repeats of October 7, has achieved the lowest ratio of civilian-to-combatant deaths in the history of urban warfare and facilitated 11 million tonnes of aid even though Hamas’ rampant theft means Israel is provisioning its battlefield enemy, something the law doesn’t require.
Consequently, we call on the Australian government to:
- Support Israel at the United Nations instead of terror organisations and reverse its many decisions adverse to Israel, including the one this week and the recent one on Palestinian sovereignty of resources.
- Call for the immediate release of all hostages held in Gaza, the cessation of attacks on Israel by Hamas and other terrorists, and a governing structure in Gaza that does not involve Hamas or other terrorist groups.
- Withdraw from the ICC which is not administering impartial justice.
- Defund UNRWA and provide humanitarian aid via another means.
- Move the Australian embassy from Tel Aviv to West Jerusalem.
- Deal decisively with antisemitism in Australia as its weak response to anti-Israel anti-Jewish protests has incited an alarming rise in antisemitism in Australia. This includes adequate laws and enforcement.
- Follow due diligence in security checks for visas from areas of conflict like Gaza.
You said it all, Norman Miller, and you said it so well. Thank you very much. William Cooper himself would be pleased. His stance and his action reverberates to this day, as will yours.