‘Should Israel refer to Australia as occupied Aboriginal territory?’ asked Stephen Flatow in the Jerusalem Post on 13 August.Flatow asked the question because the Albanese government has announced that it will resume using the term ‘Occupied Palestinian Territories’.
Flatow points out that Jerusalem, which the Albanese government ceased to recognise as the capital of Israel last October, has been the holiest city of the Jews since the 10th century BC. Palestine was a name imposed by the Roman conquerors after the Jewish-Roman wars (66-136AD) to efface the Jewish identity of Judea which dated back to the Kingdom of Judah established in the 6th century BC.
‘If you want to find some genuinely occupied territory, look no further than the country of Australia,’ argues Flatow. ‘“Occupied Territories?” “Illegal settlers?” Australia’s Labor party government ought to take a look in the mirror before hurling false and insulting accusations at Israel,’ he writes.
Flatow’s only error is imagining that his accusation that Australia is illegally occupied would insult or surprise Australia’s Prime Minister or his comrades.
Albanese presides over the most left-wing government in Australia in a generation. It is largely because the Western world has shifted so dramatically to the left and become so authoritarian and intolerant of free speech that the political orientation of the Australian government has escaped greater comment.
While the timing of the slap in the face to our ally is conveniently calculated to still be smarting by the time Labor’s National Conference convenes on Thursday, it is wrong to imagine that it is the advent of the conference that is driving the charge left.
Read the article by Rebecca Weisser in The Spectator.