5717 LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL Thursday 15 September 2011 __________ The President (The Hon. Donald Thomas Harwin) took the chair at 11.00 a.m. The President read the Prayers. ANTI-SEMITISM Motion by Dr John Kaye agreed to: That this House condemns anti-Semitism in all its forms. PETITIONS Religious Discrimination Petition requesting the House to support the amendment to the Anti-Discrimination Act 1977 to make it unlawful to discriminate on the grounds of religious belief or absence of religious belief, received from the Hon. Shaoquett Moselmane. BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE Suspension of Standing and Sessional Orders: Order of Business Motion by the Hon. David Clarke agreed to: That standing and sessional orders be suspended to allow a motion to be moved forthwith that Private Members' Business item No. 257 outside the Order of Precedence relating to the anti-Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign be called on forthwith. Order of Business Motion by the Hon. David Clarke agreed to: That Private Members' Business item No. 257 outside the Order of Precedence be called on forthwith. BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT AND SANCTIONS CAMPAIGN The Hon. DAVID CLARKE (Parliamentary Secretary) [11.10 a.m.]: I move: That this House: (a) notes with concern the anti-Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions [BDS] campaign against legitimate businesses operating in Australia which provide jobs to hundreds of Australians, (b) calls on all members to condemn the targeting of Max Brenner Chocolate Cafes by anti-Israel protestors, (c) notes that some of the rhetoric used by proponents of the BDS campaign has descended into anti-Semitism, and (d) condemns anti-Semitism in all its forms. The boycott, divestment and sanctions [BDS] campaign directed world-wide against the state of Israel is a campaign that is misleading and deceitful. It is a campaign that is devious and destructive. It is a campaign that engenders hate mongering and promotes division. This whole world-wide boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign operation should be repudiated and rejected by all people of decency and goodwill, and today I hope that this House will vote to repudiate and reject it as well. Today I hope that this House will reject the whole boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign, not by a handful of votes, but overwhelmingly and comprehensively. Today I hope that this whole boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign is repudiated by the Government and by the Opposition and by the cross bench voting as one. 5718 LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL 15 September 2011 Those who fuel this campaign say that it targets some of Israel's policies but the truth of the matter is that it does not target Israel's policies; it targets Israel's legitimacy. The truth is that it targets Israel's right to exist. The truth is that the campaign's end result would see the state of Israel cease to exist as the state envisaged by the United Nations when it voted to recognise its legitimacy back in 1947. This House needs to make clear that it stands four square behind the right of Israel to exist in peace, and to make clear that it recognises that right unambiguously. It needs to make clear that it recognises the right of Israel to continue to exist as the free and democratic nation that it is, side by side with all other free and democratic nations. This House needs to make abundantly clear that it will not be suckered in by this whole boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign propaganda push which seeks to de-legitimise the state of Israel. The boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign has at the core of its platform that there should be a right of return to Israel, not just of all Palestinians who claim to have lived in Israel at the time of its independence in 1948 and who left for whatever reason; it demands that all of the descendants of those who departed for whatever reason should also have the right of return—every child, every grandchild, every great grandchild should likewise have the automatic right of return. This would mean not just scores of thousands or even several hundred thousand; it would mean millions, even many millions. The United Nations in 1947 envisaged two states in Palestine, one Jewish and one Arab. The result of the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign would see Israel, as a predominantly Jewish state, face the destruction of its Jewish character. That is not what the United Nations envisaged over six decades ago and it is not what Australia, as a member of the United Nations six decades ago, envisaged either. And it is not something that we should, by our silence, conspire to allow to occur. The platform of the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign demands that Israel commit national suicide, and this Parliament should not be complicit in demanding that Israel commit that suicide. There are forces in this world that seek the destruction of Israel by whatever means they can. The terrorists of Hezbollah and Hamas seek to achieve it by firing their rockets on the civilians of Israel. The late but unlamented Osama bin Laden devoted the last 20 years of his life to the same goal and the President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has declared the same goal as a policy of state. The platform of the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign would result in the same goal as well. Who is spearheading the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign? Overseas those involved are many and diverse but here in Australia those who spearhead the campaign and are at the core of energising it are clearly defined. First of all it should be noted that it is not being driven by the Palestinian Australian community. At the apex of the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign here in Australia is Senator Lee Rhiannon. In the days of the Cold War she was a communist activist, a leading light in the Moscow-directed Socialist Party of Australia. At that time her mind was not much focused on boycotts, divestment and sanctions—at least not against the Soviet Union or Cuba or North Korea or any of the other satellite communist nations of Eastern Europe. Whilst these were all places recognised in the free world as being devoid of democracy and of human rights, sanctions against these nation did not figure on Lee Rhiannon's "must do" list. But today Senator Rhiannon is re-energised. She has got over the collapse of the Soviet empire and is now at it with the boycotts, divestment and sanctions campaign with her sights squarely set on Israel. Giving her and the whole anti-Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign push an energising army of cadres is the whole political edifice built around the Socialist Alliance, an outfit that has its origins in the Trotskyite Socialist Workers League. It is Marxist. It declares itself as far left. It is anti-capitalist and it is linked with the Green Left Weekly and, among others, affiliated to the Worker-Communist Party of Iraq in Australia. In its pantheon of heroes, apart from Karl Marx himself, you will find Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. Apart from the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign, the Socialist Alliance has been active in all sorts of campaigns. For instance, in 2008 it organised protests against the visit to Sydney of Pope Benedict XVI. World-wide, many businesses have been targeted by the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign: Estée Lauder, Sara Lee, L'Oreal, the Body Shop, and Motorola. None of them have political connotations. Here in Australia the campaign has zeroed in on the Max Brenner chocolate shops. These Australian outlets have been targeted by demonstrators to pressure the public to boycott them. At some demonstrations there has been violence. At some demonstrations there have been arrests—19 at one demonstration alone. At some demonstrations there has been a nasty and growing trend toward the use of out-and-out anti-Semitic slogans. The boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign organisers could have chosen to demonstrate outside the Israeli Embassy—that at least would have been a political target—but, no, they have chosen to target a private business, and one which happens to be Jewish. This is a very nasty trend and this is something we do not 15 September 2011 LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL 5719 want in Australia. That is why more and more people, ordinary everyday Australians, are going out of their way to give their patronage to the Max Brenner chocolate shops. They are showing solidarity with small business owners. They are saying to boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign protesters, "We are not going to be intimidated by people like you". They are saying, "We don't like this victimisation of these small business owners". They are saying, "We don't like hearing some of those vicious, racially over-toned things that are being said at some of these demonstrations". Some 750 people are employed in the Max Brenner shops throughout Australia—students and young people generally. They, like the owners of those businesses, are innocent. They have done nothing wrong. They are guilty of nothing. It could be our son or our daughter who works there. They are not politically involved. And the business owners who are being politically stalked and harassed are not politically involved either. This is a shameful thing. This is a wicked thing. This is an un-Australian thing. We need to take a stand. As members of Parliament we need to speak out and we need to act. As the Parliament of the people of New South Wales we need to speak out for what we know people are thinking—just as the people of Marrickville made clear what they thought.