ExtractCOMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA Official Committee Hansard HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES STANDING COMMITTEE ON PETITIONS Reference: Petitions from Victoria THURSDAY, 30 OCTOBER 2008 MELBOURNE BY AUTHORITY OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES PET 28 REPS Thursday, 30 October 2008 BAXTER, Mrs Mary Beresford Kingsmill, Private capacity JACKSON, Mr Adrian, Private capacity JUDEH, Mr Asem, Private capacity Palestine-Israel conflict CHAIR—I now invite Mr Asem Judeh and Mr Adrian Jackson, on behalf of petitioners who are concerned about conflict between Palestinians and Israelis, to give evidence. I also understand that there will be another person before the committee, Mrs Mary Baxter. Do you have Extractanything to say about the capacity in which you appear before the committee? Mr Judeh—I have been an Australian-Palestinian activist for a long time. Mr Jackson—I am appearing as one of Asem’s witnesses to what he is going to talk about. Mrs Baxter—I have worked on the ground for a period adding up to a full year in Tel Rumeida, Hebron, where the most violent settlers are. I am also an Anglican clergy widow. I am 77, and I was in my seventies when I was working on the ground in Tel Rumeida. CHAIR—Thank you. Although the committee does not require you to speak under oath, you should understand that this meeting is a formal proceeding of the parliament. Giving false or misleading evidence is a serious matter and may be regarded as a contempt of the parliament. Would you like to make a short opening statement before we proceed to questions? Mr Judeh—Yes. First of all, I would like to acknowledge that this is the Aborigines’ land, and I would like to thank the committee for changing the petition process. I did a few petitions in the past, made around 11 submissions to the parliament and appeared before two parliamentary committees on the Middle East and human rights. Having said that, this was an interesting experience for various reasons. We will be able to get more signatures if there is an online petition, for example, to make the public able to interact and make their voice heard clearly by our politicians—I have to say rude politicians, who abuse their executive power and also abuse the people’s parliament; that is why I am here. It is not the Rudd parliament and it is not the opposition parliament; it is our parliament. It is the Australian people’s parliament. Interestingly, Kevin Rudd in February said sorry to the Aborigines and in March he abused his executive power by his Israel motion. This motion drew wide condemnation from the public. There was an advertisement in the Australian signed by many organisations and unions as well, such as CFMEU, and I table this. CHAIR—Okay, we can take that as an exhibit. Mr Judeh—Okay. On this motion, I see that the parliamentarians have the right, like any Australian citizen, to be pro-Israel, but they cannot abuse their power, because this kind of abuse will give the pro-Israel lobby more power to intimidate the wider community. I am sure that even members of parliament who have the privilege to speak out in the parliament are being PETITIONS Thursday, 30 October 2008 REPS PET 29 criticised and labelled anti-Semitic, and I have a quote from Julia Irwin in 2002 when she raised that motion. This topic is rarely debated in public life by the media. Having said that, even many recent polls have found that, despite government and media rhetoric suggesting otherwise, a majority of Australians blame the US and Israel for the current Middle East crisis and violence. Our politicians and media alike often give far too little credit for public intelligence and understanding. I have here two recent polls by Roy Morgan to table as well. CHAIR—We can have those as an exhibit as well. Mr Judeh—They show clearly that 83 per cent of the Australian public believe that there will be no peace in the Middle East without resolving the Israeli-Palestine conflict. If that is the public opinion, how dare the government and the opposition abuse the people’s parliament’s power and raise that offensive motion? CHAIR—Fine. Before we go to Mr Jackson to make an opening statement, I want to say to Asem:Extract you mentioned online petitions. You got over 4,900 signatures for your petition. How did you get so many signatures? Mr Judeh—I have had my own digest since 1997, which is the first digest about the Middle East, based on my scientific research and the submissions I made to the parliament. So I mobilised my network and I have managed to get contacts in Sydney, Brisbane and Victoria attending public meetings et cetera. That is why I managed to get that large number of signatures. If I were working full time on this matter, I am sure I would get many, many more. CHAIR—Okay. You might be interested to know that we will be starting an inquiry looking at online petitioning—e-petitioning. You might be interested in putting in a submission because, as you stated, where you got over 4,900 written signatures you could have got a lot more if you had had that electronic petitioning. Mr Jackson, did you want to make a quick opening statement? Mr Jackson—Yes. I am from Middle Park. I spent 23 years in the Regular Army as an infantry officer and I have run a bed and breakfast business from my home for the last 13 years. When I left the army, I joined the Liberal Party, and I was in the Liberal Party for nine years until 2003, when I was suspended for 12 months because I criticised the invasion of Iraq and also the oppression of the Palestinians. That did not go down well in my federal electorate of Melbourne Ports, which covers the Caulfield area. Michael Danby is the sitting member there at the moment. I found within the Liberal Party that it did not want any debate on the Palestinian issue; it was more intimidation and shouting down at you. A fellow called Frank Greenstein, who is high up in the Victorian division at the moment, I believe, said: ‘Why are you criticising Israel’s treatment of Palestinians? I am trying to recruit people.’ This bloke had just arrived from South Africa—he was not even an Australian citizen and was probably quite happy to work under the apartheid government oppressing black people —and he is recruiting the same types to one of the branches in the Caulfield area, which I found bizarre. I said, ‘Mate, this is the Liberal Party, not the Conservative Party.’ I was suspended for 12 months and I never rejoined, so I have been out of the Liberal Party for 5½ years. Helen Shardey and Senator Troeth even tried to have me expelled, but that was defeated at policy assembly. The day after I left the Liberal Party, my email address was disconnected. PETITIONS PET 30 REPS Thursday, 30 October 2008 CHAIR—I am so sorry for interrupting you, but today’s public hearing is mainly to talk about the petition that is before us, not what happened within the Liberal Party and your being expelled. Mr Jackson—Suspended. CHAIR—Or your 12 months suspension. So it is mainly the petition that we have in front of us. Would you be able to speak to that? Mr Jackson—All right. One thing that concerned me after I left the Liberal Party was the fact that, during the Hezbollah Israel conflict two years ago, three politicians that I know of—Helen Shardey, a state MP for Caulfield; Michael Danby, a federal Labor MP; and Senator Mitch Fifield—attended a pro-Israel rally on 17 June at the same time as Australian expats visiting relatives were being bombed in Lebanon, and there were thousands of them. None of them were killed, but I think some were wounded, and I found that appalling. To that extent, I put an ad in the BaysideExtract Weekly criticising Israeli terror, as I called it. The News Ltd paper would not even publish it, but the Fairfax local paper did. A few days later, Fifield raised it in parliament, and it is now in Hansard, so it is there forever. I think the conduct of those three MPs, and there may have been more, was almost treasonable. I think we have something in the Constitution that says you cannot work for a foreign power, and I am absolutely appalled that these people would sell their soul basically for votes, I assume. It is absolutely appalling. So I would mention that. Only two weeks ago I rang my local state MP about the Big M Melbourne Marathon that was locking in Middle Park residents for two hours in the morning. We could not get out. People could not go to work, bread deliveries could not occur and all that sort of stuff. I was critical of that, and I got cranky with one of his staff members who was giving me a hard time and I hung up abruptly. He then wrote me a letter saying things like, ‘My staff have reported a number of offensive and racist comments, particularly in relation to our strong Jewish community.’ So I sent that to a local newspaper. In state parliament on 20 September last year, when I stood as an independent candidate in the Albert Park by-election, there was some debate about where I was on preferences—for the Liberal or Labor party.