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“A Failed Movement Of Radical Activists”: Israel’s Man In Oz Slams Australia’s BDSers
At the relaunch in New South Wales of Parliamentary Friends of Israel last evening, Israel’s ambassador to Australia, Yuval Rotem, slammed the local BDS movement as represented by such Greens as Fiona Byrne and Senator Lee Rhiannon.
“It has been close to a year since the last State election since Marrickville and the BDS issue found a national stage. It was one of the achievements of not just the Australian Jewish community but the Coalition and the Labor Party that BDS faced an abrupt rejection on that stage.
The concern throughout NSW was that the row during the BDS debates was expected. Commonsense does not comply with a local council self-imposing economic sanctions on one nation which is locked in a struggle for peace. [My emphasis]
Senator Lee Rhiannon’s Greens looked likely to pick up a cluster of seats”in the NSW State election but were left demoralised finishing behind Labor on primary votes in the only seat they ended up winning.
The candidate for Marrickville, Fiona Byrne, tripped over herself in many public statements…confused that her Utopian vision of a world with a weakened Israel was poorly received outside the confines of her urban hamlet.
BDS in Australia has since then become another a failed movement of radical activists which shamefully attached itself to a municipal council for a few months.
This humiliating public defeat of the BDS was an achievement of the people in this room. The politicians, Liberal, National, Labor and some Greens. When we hear about BDS now, it’s not coming from the mouths of prominent politicians or mayors or respected journals. It’s been shouted from poorly-attended protests or the back of police cars or from Communists who stayed with Stalin.
One year on and the movement in New South Wales to undermine the economy in the Middle East’s only democracy is as dead as Fiona Byrne’s brief career in international diplomacy.”