Pardon me. But I do not recall ever having heard of a certain David Zyngier. Yet the senior lecturer at Monash University in Melbourne was described by the ABC News as one of “a group of 60 prominent people” opposed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Australia.
Both the taxpayer-funded public broadcaster and Fairfax Media gave considerable coverage to the group’s statement that “Australia should not welcome the Prime Minister of Israel”. The ABC foreshadowed demonstrations against Netanyahu over Israel’s policies on its Palestinian neighbour and predicted he would be shepherded to the Sydney CBD by police. The Sydney Morning Herald’s story on the visit on Monday foreshadowed “Opposition to Israeli PM’s visit gathers pace”.
What was interesting about the petition is that so few well-known Australians who are active in the public debate lined up with Griffith and company in opposing the first visit by an incumbent Israeli prime minister to Australia. There was a senior lecturer at the University of Wollongong and the past moderator of the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Connection in Victoria. And Zyngier, of course. However, this was anything but a mass movement.
It was all a bit of a beat-up.
Read the article by Gerard Henderson in The Australian (subscription required).