Marrickville Council Condemns Israel
Sydney’s Jewish community has slammed a Marrickville Council motion condemning Israel’s actions in Gaza.
Marrickville Council – which controversially entered into a sister-city relationship with Bethlehem in 2007 – voted 10-2 in favour of the motion.
NSW Jewish Board of Deputies CEO Vic Alhadeff said: “Marrickville’s motion approaches the conflict as if almost the entire responsibility for it rests with Israel. The crucial role of Hamas’ ideology and actions is not even mentioned.
“The motion is full of inaccuracies, uncritically accepting assertions which have been exposed as Hamas propaganda, levelling charges against Israel for which no foundation in fact or international law has been established, and ignoring realities on the ground.
“It is unfortunate that Marrickville is continuing the unbalanced approach to this conflict which it demonstrated 20 months ago, when it entered into a sister-city relationship with Bethlehem – a council controlled by Hamas.
“It would serve its constituents better if it confined its activities to local-council issues and avoided taking partisan positions on international conflicts.”
Actually, Marrickville councillors voted 10 – 2 in favour of the motion, only Councillors Hanna and Macri voted against it but never let the truth get in the way of a good rant.
Even JTA, as far away as New York, can get it right – and right here in Sydney J-wire gets it wrong.
While Mr Alhadeff suggests that the motion is full of inaccuracies but seems unable to specify even one – but then isn’t he the expert on Israel who is unaware of Israel’s nuclear weapons?
And a question for Alhadeff, if Marrickville’s sister city relationship with Bethlehem is “unbalanced” why has the Gold Coast’s similar relationship with Tel Aviv attracted no adverse comment? Or do we detect a vested interest?