BY JO BROWN & ROB MILLER
MELBOURNE — The international community had to recognise that a war criminal was now prime minister of Israel and act accordingly, a March 30 public meeting here in support of Palestinian freedom has been told.
Academic Scott Burchill, trade union leader Bert Blackburne and Palestinian activist Sari Kassis all condemned newly elected PM Ariel Sharon's long "criminal" record and called for increased international action in support of the Palestinians.
Deakin University's Burchill told the 40-strong meeting, hosted by Friends of Palestine, that the mainstream media was presently a biased picture of the situation in occupied Palestine. He pointed out that Israel was frequently presented as acting in response to Palestinian violence, despite evidence to the contrary.
Burchill also criticised the Australian government's endorsement of this bias, citing a statement by foreign minister Alexander Downer that "the singling out of Israel only for blame was deeply unhealthy", and criticised the portrayal of the United States as an "honest broker", citing the use of its veto power to block the United Nations from sending observers to Israel.
Blackburne, the secretary of the Community and Public Sector Union's technical division, argued that Israel relied heavily on support from the United States and that the major backers of such support in the US were big oil interests. One third of total US foreign aid is directed to Israel, he noted.
The Sydney-based Kassis said that no peace agreement could ever be acceptable to the Palestinians unless it guaranteed their right to return to their homeland. More than 3.7 Palestinian refugees are officially registered with the UN, while there are an estimated 2 million more who are not registered.
Friends of Palestine meets weekly, 6.30pm Tuesday evenings in the Evatt Room at Trades Hall.