The words tumbling forth from Bob Carr to describe Israel’s resistance to statehood for the Palestinian people were strident, even shrill. Addressing a mainstream ALP event jointly hosted by frontbench MPs Anthony Albanese and Tony Burke in Sydney last week, Carr let fly.
He described Israel’s behaviour as “foul”, “cruel”, “getting crueller”, “poisonous”, “hateful”, “illegal”, “aggressive” and “chauvinist”. He referenced internal Israeli critics, from Labor opposition leader Isaac Herzog to historian Benny Morris, agreeing with them in succession.
There were “massacres” of Palestinians by Israeli militiamen when Israel was created as a Jewish state in 1948, Carr said.
A new Israeli law was a “looting bill” and condoned “war crimes” because it permitted seizures of privately owned Palestinian land in addition to territories under occupation.
As evidence of “apartheid” he recounted a reported anecdote about the removal of Palestinian children from a West Bank swimming pool for a busload of touring Israeli settlers.
Read the article by Brad Norington in The Australian.