GAY LOBBY DISGUSTED BY RELIGIOUS PICKET OF BUSHFIRE VICTIMS

MEDIA RELEASE: GAY LOBBY DISGUSTED BY RELIGIOUS PICKET OF BUSHFIRE VICTIMS
From:
josken_at_zipworld_com_au
Date:
Sat, February 21, 2009 11:48 am


Forwarded by: Lesbian and Gay Solidarity, Melbourne(Mannie De Saxe and Ken Lovett)--------Subject: FW: MEDIA RELEASE: GAY LOBBY DISGUSTED BY RELIGIOUS PICKET OFBUSHFIRE VICTIMSFrom: "J A Harrison" <harrisonja_at_bigpond_com>Date: Sat, February 21, 2009 7:52 amTo: josken_at_zip_com_au----------------------------------------------------------Please circulate._____
GAY LOBBY DISGUSTED BY RELIGIOUS PICKET OF BUSHFIRE VICTIMS
Calls on Government to 'fast-track' Federal anti-discrimination legislation
MEDIA RELEASE - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
21 FEBRUARY 2009

The Australian Coalition for Equality (ACE) today expressed its disgust that a picket line will be outside this Sunday's Bushfire Memorial Service. US based Westboro Baptist Church have sent a contingent to Melbourne to picket against Australian "national sins" including a tolerance for gays & lesbians.

ACE media spokesperson Corey Irlam says "Australians respect the idea of freedom of speech. However the suggestion homosexuals are responsible for the Victorian bushfires is downright disgusting."The gay & lesbian community are mourning with the nation over the Victorianfires. What does this kind of unnecessary psychological pain will this picket cause as people walk into the memorial on Sunday?"

ACE has received good advice that the Westboro Baptist Church contingency will arrive in Australia over the next 24-hours. It is unclear if Immigration Officials will refuse them entry, as was announced this week regarding the Church's planned protest in the United Kingdom.

Renewed calls for Federal Anti-Discrimination laws. The Australian Coalition for Equality renewed calls on Prime Minister Rudd to honour his ALP Policy and introduce Federal anti-discrimination during this Parliamentary term."Immigration rules may be able to stop hate-mongers like this from entering Australia, but it doesn't protect gay & lesbian Australians from expressions of hate like this by any other Australians."

"Without Federal anti-discrimination laws, it sends a clear message to these extremist groups that they can target gay & lesbian Australians without fearof reprimand." Said Mr Irlam.

For further information contact: Corey Irlam 0401 738 996 or Rod Swift on 0417 890 111

Westboro Baptist Church Media Release:http://www.godhatesfags.com/written/fliers/20090216_australia-national-memorial-service.pdf Westboro Baptist Church News Video titled "Thank God for Australian wildfires! God Hates Australia!":http://www.godhatestheworld.com/australia/index.html

MICHAEL BRULL'S OPEN LETTER TO THE ISRAELI AMBASSADOR

An update on this open letter records that the Israeli Ambassador was addressing a gathering a few days ago, and saw a tv camera pointing in his direction. He ordered the cameraperson to stop recording immediately!

OPEN LETTER TO ISRAELI AMBASSADOR TO AUSTRALIA
28.1.2009
This open letter was published in the New Matilda journal and some of the abusive posts it attracted as rsponses are really quite alarming, and shows there is still a long way to go in the propaganda war:
israel/palestine
27 Jan 2009
An Open Letter To The Israeli Ambassador
By Michael Brull

Tags:
yuval rotem
palestine
michael brull
israel
hamas
Gaza Strip
The Israeli Government is in no position to lecture us on what free speech means, writes Michael BrullDear Mr Rotem,
I have to say that the arrogance of your article in The Age, arguing that the paper should not have published a piece by Hamas official Khalid Meshaal left me stunned. Even by the standards of your Government it was quite something. Do you really think that you are entitled, as Israel's ambassador to Australia, to tell The Age who it should and should not be publishing?
And yet, as I read on, you climbed to even greater heights of audacity. You managed to brag about Israel's free press and democratic credentials, while calling on our press in Australia to restrict its freedoms — which coming from you amounts to an order from a foreign administration. Perhaps, as a representative of Israel's Government, you've become used to the idea of restricting critical scrutiny of Israel's actions.?
Of course, the arrogant attitude of your Government towards those who dare criticise Israel's actions is nothing new. I haven't forgotten when your Government decided that it would not allow academic Norman Finkelstein into Israel. Your free press did manage to speak out about that, but your demonstration of contempt for freedom of opinion was surprising in its brazenness. And there was more to come.
Not so long ago, I read in your press about Israel's decision not to admit the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied territories, Princeton professor Richard Falk. Your Government took this decision on the grounds that Falk thought Israel's human rights record was abysmal. This is the kind of reasoning that makes perfect sense to military dictatorships around the world, and does rather compromise your attempts to lecture us on how to conduct a mature political debate.
But your Government's habitual arrogance, expressed through its contempt for international opinion, went even further. Surely you recall that foreign journalists, desperate to get into Gaza to find out what was happening during Israel's onslaught, were prevented from doing so by Israel's army. As the Yedioth Ahronot newspaper noted, even relatively conservative foreign journalists were forced to see the parallels between Israel's attitude to the press and that of Burma and Zimbabwe.
Mr Rotem, we know that your country seeks to restrict political dissent. Your own free press, which you're so proud of, has been deploring the crackdowns on those who wanted to protest the latest series of Israeli atrocities. (Are you also proud of arresting over 700 anti-war protestors?)
We've noticed that your country has decided to ban both of the Arab parties currently in the Knesset from running in the next elections. As Haaretz's editorial on the matter noted, the petition to ban Balad came from the Yisrael Beiteinu party. Your Government has repeatedly welcomed its head, Avigdor Lieberman into cabinet posts. But while you admonish us for publishing what you call Meshaal's "hate-filled rhetoric" — and readers can judge that piece for themselves — you apparently see no problem with Lieberman's views — which include promoting the further expulsion of Palestinians from Israel - getting plenty of play in your press.
With that kind of double-standard in your attitude, who are you, Mr Rotem, to lecture us on what our press should and should not print? What do you think Australia has to learn from Israel on this matter? I'm actually glad you were ridiculous enough to claim that Meshaal "sought to inflame anti-Semitic rhetoric". This is a textbook case of calling someone's argument "anti-Semitic" simply to demonise them and to avoid engaging with what they are saying. (In this case, it's a little depressing that this is the best you can do — after all, the man you were attacking is the head of an organisation whose founding charter cites "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion".)
But the problem isn't that Meshaal's article was anti-Semitic, which it wasn't. It's that he plainly described the suffering of the Gazans, which ordinary people find shocking. And for good reason.
You claim to be appalled that The Age would run an op-ed by one of the leaders of a "terrorist organisation", one that would dare commit such crimes as "aim rockets at civilian targets", and one which "stages attacks on civilians". Do you think we're stupid? Do you think that we haven't noticed your crimes against the Palestinians?
Consider, for example, what Amnesty International has discovered, now that you've finally allowed them into Gaza. Their fact-finding team says that "previously busy neighbourhoods have been flattened into moonscapes ... power lines have been torn down, and water mains ripped up. Gaza's infrastructure is now in dire condition." The summary of the preliminary investigations goes on to note that "[s]chools, medical facilities and UN buildings all took direct hits from the Israeli army's indiscriminate shelling [italics added]. Artillery shells for use on conventional battlefields, not for pinpoint targets, have been fired into dense residential areas."
Amnesty also noted that the UNRWA Field Office in Gaza City was shelled on 15 January, destroying "[w]arehouses full of food, medicine and other humanitarian aid", in just one of the reported instances of Israel's use of white phosphorous ammunition. Amnesty says that white phosphorous should never be used in civilian areas, but it was not only used to destroy tons of aid supplies, but also in an attack on al-Quds hospital in Gaza.
Of course, because you didn't let journalists into Gaza while you were bombing it, we've only been able to get a fragmented idea of your crimes there so far. But we've already heard enough stories of your bombing civilian areas, of your soldiers shooting Palestinians waving white flags, and of other atrocities. Are we meant to forget about the hundreds of Palestinian children you've killed over the last few weeks? Are we meant to forget about the shameless and inconsistent apologetics you've offered for the few atrocities that have attracted the scrutiny of the Western media?
Hamas did kill three Israeli civilians during your campaign of bombing and invading Gaza. Yet your crimes against the Palestinians are literally over a hundred times worse, if we only count murders of civilians through the use of indiscriminate weapons. Meanwhile Israel's crimes against the Palestinians living under occupation for decades stretch on into many other areas, and Israel's appalling siege on Gaza has made this latest onslaught particularly grim.
Mr Rotem, I find your views grossly offensive. But I support your right to print them in any paper willing to publish your vulgar propaganda. The more the better, since it is in this realm of free, open debate that your Government is weakest. And all the tanks in the world won't change that.
Yours Sincerely,Michael Brull

KEVIN RUDD GETS AN AUSTRALIAN HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

KEVIN RUDD GETS AN AUSTRALIAN HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
31.1.2009
Kevin Rudd is obviously in need of having his complete disregard of human rights monitored and recorded.
As items crop up they will be added to the list and comments added where appropriate.
1) Censorship
2) War in Afghanistan
3) Absence of same-sex legislation reforms having a grandfather clause
4) Taxation for religious institutions
5) "marriage" what is it? - marriage-like arrangement - what is it?
6) ban on abortion aid to 3rd world countries
7) Northern Territory Intervention
8) support for coal and uranium mining
9) hetero couples receiving couples - rate pensions when clearly they are two people
10) health minister's homophobic appointments
11) unqualified support for Israel
12) lack of support for Palestine