Labor’s woes over Israel and Palestine have intensified with sitting MP Josh Wilson embroiled in the saga amid calls for his resignation.
The West Australian has obtained video of Mr Wilson, the Federal Member for Fremantle, describing Israeli checkpoints as “places you go to and you go to jail … sometimes they are places you go to and you die”.
The revelation comes days after high-profile Labor candidate Melissa Parke was forced to quit after it was revealed she had told the inaugural meeting of the WA Labor for Palestine group she could “remember vividly” the case of “a pregnant refugee woman (who) was ordered at a checkpoint in Gaza to drink a bottle of bleach”.
Mr Wilson’s comments have outraged the Jewish community and prompted a rebuke from Israel’s ambassador in a rare intervention in domestic politics by a foreign representative during an election campaign.
Israeli ambassador Mark Sofer said: “The obsession with demonising Israel, which thankfully is the domain of the few, does not at all help the Palestinians and serves only to hamper possible rapprochement in the Middle East”.
In the video, Mr Wilson says: “They are going to turn Palestine into Swiss cheese and that is what is happening.
“Checkpoints in Palestine are like holding pens or cattle runs.
Read the article by Lanai Scarr in The West Australian.