Australia may now recognise Palestine, but do we still recognise Australia?

Events of the past 24 hours have reminded me of a rather harrowing episode last year when I found myself being berated by a senior federal minister whom I’d actually turned to for assistance.

I won’t get into the murky details of naming names, but, for no other reason than it occurred 130 years after another patriotic Jew was falsely accused of hurting his government, let’s simply call it the Dreyfus Affair.

A bit of background first.

Some of you may have heard of a politician by the name of Penny Wong. For those who haven’t, let me fill you in. Despite pressure from certain wings of the party, prior to the ALP’s election, it seemed that if she became Foreign Minister, she’d tread a steady course when it came to Israel. At least that’s what she’d led the community to believe.

But then came 7th October 2023. Of course, like most right-minded people, she made all the right condemnatory and sympathetic noises: in short, Hamas evil, Israel the clear victim.

Just a few months later, though, the cracks began to show.

On a visit to Israel in January 2024, shockingly, she didn’t visit any of the sites of the terror atrocities to witness the carnage, meet the survivors or honour the slain.

From that point on, it rapidly went downhill.

Wong’s public pronouncements on Israel became increasingly critical during the course of the year.

Traditional votes backing the Jewish State at the UN turned not just into abstentions but into votes against, while in pushing for a ceasefire and a path to Palestinian statehood, she seemed to paint Israel as the obstacle to both. Hostages, human shields, Hamas, Hezbollah and hospitals housing rocket launchers and missiles seemed to be sidelined with Wong’s narrative becoming rather Green around the edges.

All this against the backdrop of rising antisemitism on these shores which the government failed to address, responding only with furrowed brows and the stock standard, “There’s no place for antisemitism in Australia”.

Then do something about it! Sorry, I got carried away. Back to our story.

The anniversary of 7th October is approaching. Zionism Victoria is planning a huge memorial service at which the community will take centre stage. Yes, dignitaries will be invited, but there’ll be no speeches from them. Instead, we – and crucially they – will hear from families of victims and hostages. And they’ll experience firsthand the grief and solidarity of Australian Jewry – 10,000 under one roof.

Here’s where it got a tad sticky, though. Every year, ahead of Yom Ha’atzmaut, Zionism Victoria and the other peak communal bodies compile a list of VIPs who’ll be invited to the state’s annual Israel Independence Day Parliamentary reception. And that was the list, compiled before the government went fully rogue, that was used to issue invites for the anniversary event six months later.

So the Foreign Minister and Prime Minister were on it. And we were generally comfortable with that, given that they wouldn’t be on stage, wouldn’t be speaking and would simply be confronted with the pain we were feeling. Indeed, with certain communal leaders set to express in their speeches just how disappointed we were with the government and how let down we felt, this would be a crucial opportunity to take Albanese and Wong to task.

Not everyone, though, saw it like that. When word got out that Wong might be attending, there was uproar. Whatever might be achieved by having her there, it became clear that many felt she was persona non grata. And it also became clear that the crowd on the night might be a little less than welcoming.

The last thing we wanted was for the solemnity of the occasion, with the focus on victims, hostages and our own suffering, to be overshadowed by booing, jeering, jostling and, plainly and simply, politics.

But how to tactfully tell the Foreign Minister, after inviting her, that it might be best she didn’t attend?

It was at that point that someone suggested I contact the senior minister I mentioned right back at the start of this piece. As a member of the community, he would surely appreciate the quandary, and as a member of the government, he’d probably know how to deal with it.

Or so we thought.

In fact, no sooner had I outlined the issue over the phone than I received an outraged earful: ‘Wong’s a tremendous friend of Israel, the government’s a tremendous friend of Israel, everything she and the government’s doing with regards to Israel is beyond the realm of concern, let alone criticism or reproach, and how dare I or anyone else suggest otherwise’.

Somewhat taken aback, I explained that wasn’t quite how the community saw it, but if it was true, maybe the government had an issue with its messaging.

Again, I was upbraided. I was told in no uncertain terms that we were all being misled by the Murdoch media and the Liberal Party.

Suffice to say this wasn’t quite how I anticipated the conversation would go, so rather than continue only to be told that Wong should actually be made an honorary citizen of Israel, represent them in the Eurovision Song Contest and become the next head of the IDF, with alarm bells ringing ‘Ostrich and sand’, I decided to call it quits.

Methunk the lady didst protest too much. Ten months on and no longer a minister, I wonder if the gentleman in question would agree.

As for us, Australia may now recognise Palestine, but given all that’s transpired over the past 22 months, do we as a Jewish community still recognise Australia? It’s certainly not the bipartisan paradise I was told about when I arrived here 16 years ago.

Coda: While the former minister couldn’t seem to get his head around the notion that the community didn’t want to roll out the red carpet for Wong, her team had a little more sense.

They actually contacted me, voicing their concern about the reception she’d receive. And after a number of conversations in which it was agreed her presence and the response to it might be a distraction, they determined she wouldn’t come after all.

Albo came, however, and was probably busting for the toilet. But that’s another story for another day.

Zeddy Lawrence is a former editor of The Australian Jewish News and former executive director of Zionism Victoria.