Business and religious leaders, lawyers, academics, entertainers and former politicians have joined forces to oppose Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Australia, saying his policies “provoke, intimidate and oppress” the Palestinian people and are pushing the Middle East further from peace.
Mr Netanyahu’s visit comes just weeks after his government passed a controversial law retroactively legalising 4000 settlers’ homes built on privately owned Palestinian land. The measure has drawn international condemnation and reignited debate about Australia’s approach to Israel.
It comes too just days after US President Donald Trump appeared to upend decades of policy on the Israel-Palestine issue by suggesting peace could be achieved through a one-state rather than two-state solution.
Mr Netanyahu will meet Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and other leaders during his four-day visit – the first by a serving Israeli prime minister since the state was formed in 1948 – starting on Wednesday.
But in a joint statement, 60 prominent Australians – from businesswoman Janet Holmes à Court and former Federal Court judge Murray Wilcox, to retired Anglican ishop George Browning and Harry Potter actress Miriam Margolyes – say Mr Netanyahu’s policies contravene international law.
“Mr Netanyahu’s policies consistently aim to provoke, intimidate and oppress the Palestinian population which increase that imbalance, thus taking Israel irretrievably further from peace,” the statement, organised by the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network, says.
Read the full article by Adam Gartrell at the Sydney Morning Herald.