Two world wars, but no land: Herbert’s skin was the wrong colour

By Tony Wright

11 November 2021

Herbert Lovett had to wait for the Australian Imperial Force to reduce the minimum height for volunteers before he could sign up for World War I.

The AIF, which initially ruled its soldiers had to be at least five feet, six inches tall (167.6 centimetres), soon enough found itself running out of volunteers willing to face the slaughter on the bloodied fields of France and Belgium. Herbert Lovett, who served in two world wars.

Herbert Lovett, who served in two world wars.

It decided in April 1917 that men who were at least five feet (152.4 centimetres) would be accepted.

RELIGION IS NOT RACE AND RACE IS NOT RELIGION - THE BOTTOM LINE IS NATIONALISM

What is going on in this country is race hatred propogated by governments, reactionary groups, people who are unable to accept for all sorts of reasons, that all of us are part of one system - we are all part of the human race, that is the species we are, neither fish, nor flesh, nor fowl. Of course flesh can be human, but all anlimats have flesh and we humans have flesh.

The trouble is, we also have brains which register thoughts and actions and these can propagate hate - hate of people who are different from us, who don't look like us, who don't speak like us, who don't worship the same deity or don't worship any deity - and are therefore DIFFERENT!!

But as Shakespeare said so many years ago: "..........and what's his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses,affections,passions? fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufference be by Christian example? Why, revenge. The villainy you teach me I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction."

This may have been written by Shakespeare a few hundred years ago, but it is still apposite.

However, religion is not race, and what we have been taught by governments and those who like to practice extremism all use the precept of religion and race interchangeably.

The bottom line is that there is only one race, and that is the human race, and those whom it suita denigrate those who look different, who speak differently, whose homes have different practices which suit their requrementw and whose whole way of life is different in certain respects from the "common" perception.

Racism is, in effect nationalism and those who practise it do so because they are unable to handle difference and they have been taught that certain people's practices are abhorrent to the mass of the population and need to be stopped.

Pause for a moment, and look around the world and see how ugly are these actions and activities and end up murderously and viciously and end up to the detriment of so many.

The systems of goverment around the world under which we live preach hate to enable those government systems to operate successfully for those who have gained positions of power, and of course the majority of people in the world suffer.

This racism in nationalism, not racism, not religion.

EDDIE McGUIRE - MEDIA, RACISM, AND WHAT IS MISSING? - HOMOPHOBIA, THAT'S WHAT!

Homophobia is missing from the great debate.

The great debate surrouding Eddie McGuire rages about racism. Australia is a racist country and has been since 26 January 1788.

Racism is endemic in the soul of many Australians and wave after wave of migrants and settlers of many hues are, or become racists by absorption and the "tradition" has continued down the ages.

The worst glaring example has been in the treatment of the indigenous population of Australia from day one of white invasion and settlement.

AFL or "footy" as it is widely known is a religion in Victoria and has been racist since its inception or development as a rugby code, so it is interesting to see the latest outbreak in Collingwood due to a report published - commissioned by Collingwood football club itself.

In some respects, racism is easy to see when it is directed against players of colour, by which is meant those who are not of white skin and so are usually fairly easy to distinguish.

There have been some outstanding players over the years, amongst which have been men of colour and they have suffered racism when playing from spectators but of course from white players and officials in dressing rooms and elsewhere.

I know a great deal about racism, being a South African and living in Johannesburg during some of the worst times of apartheid in the police state which South Africa had become.

I came to Australia to live in 1978 having been born in Johannesburg and lived there until 1978 when it became very difficult to continue living there with all that was going on which made those of us who did not accept the racism that made every day living more and more unpleasant.

I knew that there was racism in Australia - it was obvious when one was able to see the treatment of the indigenous people on a daily basis, and continues to this day, but the uproar occasioned by the Eddie McGuire event - read all about it in the mainstream media - is fairly rare.

What is left out of the equation is the fact that Collingwood and all the other clubs in the AFL game are also extrememly homophobic, which is also evidenced on a daily basis, because not one gay player is openly identified amongst the hundreds of players and officials associated with footy.

What is also not mentioned - and don't forget that gay people are not always as easily identified as people of colour - is that Eddie McGuire has come out abusively against gay people of sport on a few occasions most appallingly.

When is something going to be done about homophobia in the AFL where it is as rampant as the racism?

It is now 2021, people who identify as sexually different from the accepted "norm" need to be able to live happy lives free of the horrors of discrimination, so blatant in many spheres of our lives.

So far homophobia has not been mentioned in relation to the racism outcry.

We are not holding our collective breaths!

ADAM GOODES, THE AFL, RACISM, HOMOPHOBIA - AND EVERYTHING ELSE IN BETWEEN

How much longer are those who run the AFL going to get away with the unpleasant circumstances surrounding the Adam Goodes affair which ruined his playing career and set a precedent for other players of colour to feel that they are not welcome in the AFL?

How many gay players have been prevented from being themselves because of the ever present homophobia in AFL administration?

If it hadn't been for the release of the film about the Adam Goodes story, nothing would ever have been done to address the issue of racism in the organisation.

The period we are living in is the 21st century, yet in some ways we are no better off than we were in the last century and the preceding ones.

I am not a sport lover, but I am very much against racism, homophobia and extreme hate in all its many forms.

Of course we know that the government aids and abets all of these issues because our governments still operate on the divide and rule principle.

It has got to stop and it has got to be stopped.

MALCOLM TURNBULL AND ALL HIS POLITICAL ALLIES ARE EXTREMIST WHITE RACISTS WHO SHOULD BY NOW HAVE HEARD OF APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA, THE POLICE STATE

The longer I live in Australia, already 40 years, after living in the South African apartheid police state for 50 years, the longer I have to despair at the racism so inherent in the country I am confined to living in to the end of my days.

At 91 those days can't be far off but the longer I live the more I despair of any sign of democracy and increasing signs of authoritarian racist police state behaviour.

Most Australian politicians seem to have inherited the British racism which has existed for so long and is still in evidence in the UK of today, 2018.

The expression of racism to help win elections at all costs is an ugliness which seems to get worse as the years roll by.

Malcolm Turnbull and his cronies are determined to make race an issue in the 2018 Victorian state election by attacking "black gangs who make the streets of Melbourne unsafe and a danger to its citizens."

The trouble is that people remain gullible and believe the crap that pours out of the mouths of so many of Australia's politicians.

It is an agony for those of us who can see through the nonsense and can do nothing about it except write protest blogs to get it off our chests and know we are powerless to be able to effect change.

Racism has always been inherent in Australian society, but with Abbott and Turnbull and Dutton and several others in parliament in Canberra as well as in most of the states, the white Australian male diktat is rearing its ugly head more and more.

Poor Malcolm, my partner is 95 and I am 91 and we would be happy to go out for dinner anywhere if we were still able to, and the fact that the federal government is doing its best to support the racist opposition in Victoria to help it get elected in November 2018 is probably going to have the opposite effect.

RACISM NOW THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT'S WAY TO WIN THE NEXT ELECTION

Plus ca change - the more things change, the more they remain the same.

Racism was introduced to Australia on 26 January 1788 and it has been a vote-winner ever since.

It was, after all, the British who were at the forefront of the ntroduction to the world of concentration camps in South Africa during the Anglo-Boer war of 1899-1902.

After the genocide got into full swing during the 19th century, the race card was an easy one to use in every field of endeavour as people needed employment and other services from governments and as is so typical of governments who have set up institutions with race barriers it is generally the underclasses who suffer most.

So, who are the underclasses?

Well, first it was the indigenous population, then it was the Chinese miners, then the Japanese pearl divers, and so we go through every wave of immigrants and asylum seekers and refugees, until we get to - wait for it - the Africans who are mostly black.

Not only are they black, as the media and politicians tell it, they form gangs and do terrible things. Notice how selective they all are when it comes to other groups who do the same or even worse, and so, who gets the blame for everything, despite evidence to the contrary?

Well, who has low ratings and needs to win the next elections?

TURNBULL, DUTTON, ULTRA-RIGHT EXTREMIST, RACIST RHETORIC TRANSLATING TO POLICE STATE, DICTATORSHIP.

Malcolm Turnbull and Peter Dutton have ramped up the racist hate language with hopes it will lead to defeat for all its political rivals.

Dutton is now attacking Victoria's judicial appointments and system as well as going overboard with racist language.

It is beginning to sound more and more like apartheid South Africa which was a police state and apartheid Israel which is rapidly taking on shades of fascist states from Europe in the 20th century.

Together with Trump, who is sounding more and more like some dictators we grew up with in our 20th century world, with racism outstripping any vestiges of common sense, we are travelling backwards, not just to the 20th century, but to the 19th, 18th and 17th centuries and relating to medieval times with the worst of undemocratic control of population.

Why is it the African communities who cop the worst of the racist hate? Israel is busy trying to get rid of thousands and thousands of African refugees, some of whom have lived in Israel for many years. Trump is trying to get rid of refugee and immigrant communities in the USA, and today the ultra-white nationalist party in Austria started using language very reminiscent of Hitler's Germany with concentration camps looming as a spectre before us all.

And here in Australia we have had our own concentration camps for many years, and guess who is now responsible for them? Why none other than Peter Dutton, never forgetting that it was the white British who started the first concentration camps in South Africa during the Anglo-Boer war of 1899-1902.

What ever happened to democracy? People in Australia are already so conditioned that they have lost sight of democracy and believe we have to accept whatever our governments want.

Is this what everybody wants?

Never forget that Australia has been a racist country since the British arrived to settle here in 1788, and, having committed a genocide against the indigenous population, have maintained racism and apartheid ever since.

AUSTRALIA, NATIONALISM AND SOME NATIONALIST STATE EXAMPLES

This is a topic dear to the heart of nationalists everywhere.

Starting with a few examples from the past, some of the most notorious of the 20th century led the story for much of that time: Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, Salazar, Pol Pot, Mao tse tung, Verwoerd, Peron, Pinochet - there were so many, leaving out those from our so-called "democracies".

What is nationalism?

The Concise Oxford of 1990 defines nationalism as:

1a) a patriotic feeling, principles, etc.
1b) an extreme form of this; chauvinism.
2) a policy of national independence.

What is Australian nationalism?

1) clinging to daddy (1) nationalist UK
2) clinging to daddy (2) nationalist USA
2a) being passionately and devotedly and hero-worshippingly in love with the most racist apartheid most nationalist most undemocratic most "heroic"  state of all - zionist apartheid Israel.

3) involving itself in any old imperial war which pitches up, whether it is relevant to Australia or not

4) we shall decide who comes to this country and the circumstances of how they get here.

Multiculturalism? only on our monocultural terms!

Nationalsim in Australia means never having to say something which upsets local sensitivities.

Footy? ANZAC Day? - god's own items and don't ever forget it!

So here we have a foreign not-white not anglo not originally English speaking - not culturally "kosher" according to local definitions, and what she said on ANZAC Day has outraged the locals to the extent that they would like to have her thrown out of the country!

Yassmin Abdel-Magied

That is the name of the young person who had the temerity to state on ANZAC DAY:

Lest we forget (Nauru, Manus, Palestine) {she apologised and withdrew it after there was such an outcry you could hear it all the way from RSL to parliament and the ABC and our journalists whose indignation was enough for them to explode}

and she does work on the ABC and the RSL is furious and the government is furious and so many nationalist loving citizens are furious, and the list goes on and on.

She should not have apologised and she should not have withdrawn it - it was not illegal and did no harm to anyone.

Nationalism is beloved of those who believe we will only be strong as a nation if we stick to a certain dynamic. We must be white, Anglo, English-speaking, toe the party line, so long as it is right-wing and reactionary, we must be able to be as racist as we want to be, so long as these upstart foreigners understand that they can not  think they can say what they like and get away with it.

RACISM, NATIONALISM, HATE SPEECH AND SELECTIVE GROUPS TO LOVE AND TO HATE

Gillian Triggs has been disgustingly treated by the current federal government and nothing will excuse their current behaviour in relation to "getting rid of her". But certain members of the government have behaved more appallingly than others, if possible.

The latest abuses relate to the Lebanese communities in Australia - the usual smear where the vast majority are blamed for the misdeeds of the few, typically.

In contrast, explore the stories of Jews, zionists, anti-semites and related stories in the media in Australia, the handling by politicians of Jewish interests and Jewish affairs, the differences between young zionists being allowed to fight for Israel against the Palestinians but the selective rage against other young people who go overseas to fight in support of other countries and get slandered perpetually for what they have done.

Then we mustn't forget that although most politicians who are not Jewish support Israel against the Palestinians, there are two reasons for this support. The first is that they would like all Jews to get out of Australia and go and live in Israel, and the second is that their political parties in Australia receive vasts amount of funding by Jewish groups in Australia.

Hypocrisy, oh hypocrisy, it never ends!

Nationalism and racist rear their ugly heads everywhere and it is all encouraged by the politicians around the country who are racist to the core. Just think of the treatment of the Aboriginal communities around the country and how appallingly they are treated everywhere, by the police who are racists, by the governments who are as well, by the incarceration rates, by the employment or non employment and job opportunities - or not - everywhere, by the health neglect and lack of care by governments, the list continues.

Then also there is the ABC and what the governments are doing to it to decimate it and ruin its programmes by starving it of funds and appointing government toadies to run it and disallow legitimate discussion about the politics of the country - we have to be fair and give both sides of every argument - by closing off contrary arguments which are against government policies.

ASYLUM SEEKERS, RACISM AND AUSTRALIAN POLITICIANS

This is the sort of discussion in which one doesn't know where to start because it is all so disgusting!

The latest horrors emanating from the current Australian government is an edict stating that those asylum seekers currently locked in the concentration camps on Nauru and Manus will NEVER, repeat NEVER EVER will be given any sort of visas or permits allowing them to land on Australian soil.

Where is the fury from the people living in Australia? Why is there not a mass revolt in the community demanding that this edict is withdrawn immediately?

Where do the Australian people come from other than the indigenous population who come from - well here, Australia, of course?

They come from every country in the world and hundreds, and thousands came here as refugees and asylum seekers, many of whom have fled persecution and oppression of one sort or another.

Then we come to racism and religion and persecution of minorities, and in Australia successive governments have been refining their cruelty over the years, forgetting their own origins or that of their families and that many of their ancestors came here in chains and as slaves and criminals.

We then have the most offensive, racist comments by one of the government ministers that many of the criminal acts in Australia have been committed by one select group of people singled out for mention, never mind the hundreds and thousands of acts of criminality carried out by groups from  whom this same minister has himself originated, as have many of his colleagues.

How selective can one get when one wants to brand a "select" group of people in the community as the major criminals in the country??

EDDIE MCGUIRE HOMOPHOBIA IGNORED IN LATEST OUTBURSTS

EDDIE MCGUIRE - HOMOPHOBIA IGNORED BY LATEST MSM AND AFL ATTACK

You can be sure of Eddie's supporters when Jeff Kennett and Julie Bishop come out in his support for his latest behaviour.

Racism and sexism are bad enough but this latest bout of misogyny  is going over the top.

However, in their haste to excuse his behaviour - the AFL is the prime offender - they all forget that McGuire's homophobia is out there with the worst of the others and he needs to be criticised for all at the same time.

The latest attack by McGuire and his friends on Caroline Wilson shows how correct she must be in hitting the raw spots of their actions and utterances.

It really is time that some of those out there in the big real world did something to curb these people who seem to believe they can get away with saying and doing anything they want to to upset the world at large.

Don't ignore the issue and don't forget about it.

Some items from the past reflecting McGuire's ongoing attacks on various groups he dislikes:

2005:

 JOHN LAWS, STEVE PRICE, SAM NEWMAN - HOMOPHOBIA ON AIR: There have been a few arguments about these three people in the gay media. It is being suggested that they are entertainers and they say what they do in order to create controversy for their programmes, sponsors, radio and/or television stations in order to draw in listeners/viewers. These sorts of discussions are flawed because there are anti-vilification laws in many states in Australia. The homophobic attacks by Laws, Price and Newman result in abuse, violence and often worse because the people perpetrating these assaults believe they have community support for what they have done which is why there are anti-vilification laws. Often this has proved to be the case when some assaults and murders have gone to trial, only to have cases dismissed or treated lightly due to “panic defence” and similar arguments being put forward. Members of the glt communities must protest and continue protesting, to stop these attacks on our human rights, attacks which, if carried out on heterosexuals, would lead to immediate outcries from the community at large!

Apart from John Laws, Steve Price and  Sam Newman, dating back to last year and early this year, the most recent “on air” manifestations have come from Eddie Maguire of the Nine Network, and  also Network Ten which has a programme called Big Brother, both programmes of which went to air on Monday 18 July 2005 with “Nancy Boy”, “Poofta and Poof” expressions being used repeatedly. These programmes were followed by the 60Minutes Channel 9 programme on 24 July 2005.

 2008:

While the AFL is dragging its heels on this issue, other members of the football fraternity are adamant that the sport has a moral obligation to tackle sexuality-based discrimination. One such man is Eddie McGuire, the influential President of the Collingwood Football Club.
“The one thing that we are is the club for anyone who feels disassociated. We don’t care what your race, religion, sex or sexual orientation is - we believe absolutely in tolerance and respect and empathy,” McGuire tells MCV.
“We won’t tolerate – as long as I’m president of the club anyway – we won’t tolerate any form of discrimination.”
In terms of fighting homophobia, the Collingwood President compares the issue to the AFL’s successful battle to eliminate racism from the game.
“I refer it back to the same principles as tackling racial vilification – when we started to tackle racism, I had a lot of people come up to me and say ‘Thank god we’re doing this: I used to shout racial abuse because I thought it was what you were supposed to do, but I didn’t really believe it’. It’s the same classic pack mentality in regards to sexual orientation, and football should be leading the way in that regard,” McGuire concludes.
MCV editor Richard Watts was founder of the Collingwood supporters club the Pink Magpies.

The above items are from: www.red-jos.net/homopho7.htm

  

2010:


Crikey.com had this gem on 18 February 2010, the day before The Age published the story:

Eddie and Mick feel the heat in Vancouver gay row

Andrew Crook writes:

EDDIE MCGUIRE, MICK MOLLOY, NINE NETWORK

Channel Nine has been hit with a blizzard of complaints over its Winter Olympics coverage, with host Eddie McGuire and Melbourne comedian Mick Molloy in the firing line this morning over "h-mophobic" comments targeting figure skating champion Johnny Weir.
johnny Last night, during Nine's primetime "highlights package", Eddie and sidekick Mick decided to whip out the schoolboy sniggering as they gave their considered assessments of Weir's Vancouver routine. The graceful Weir, who has not formally "outed" himself, appeared to be too much for the duo to bear. Let's go to the transcript. (We'd go to the tape, but copyright issues mean we'd be stuck in the courts for decades. You can see footage of Weir skating to Lady Gaga here).
EDDIE MCGUIRE: ...what about the fashion at the ice skating?
... MICK MOLLOY: They don't leave anything in the locker room those blokes.
EDDIE: They leave nothing...
MICK: When they get out there...
EDDIE: They don't leave anything in the closet either do they? [Laughs].
MICK: They [laughs], well they -- careful you'll get yourself into trouble there...
EDDIE: Sorry mate.
But the daring duo weren't finished.
MICK: Look at this guy, it was like one of those fake tuxedos that you -- even Prince saw that and went, oh hang on, you can't go out wearing that. Oh look out, the hay seed look's in this year. What is that?
EDDIE: A bit of broke back?
MICK: A bit of Brokeback Mountain exercise. You can't wear it. They're very flamboyant, they love a bit of colour as we said.
In the minutes after the exchange, Twitter lit up in anger, with a torrent of criticism demanding McGuire be booted, alongside a number of other general gripes over the Footy Show-style jocularity and gratuitous repeats that have dominated Nine's coverage.
* @Shhhannon Just saw Eddie McGuire step in it with an inappropriate comment about a male ice-skater. Watch this space for controversy!
* @henrys_creek If Eddie McGuire wasn't enough of a w-nker, now makes quite a h-mophobic quip with Johnny Weir. Bastard.
* @bottled_love: Oh haha.... let's make jokes about the male figure skaters being gay... groundbreaking televisual wit right there Eddie McGuire
* @linclefevre Go on Eddie McGuire. Make some more gay jokes. Dick.
* @nilesedge Ugggh who let Eddie mcguire near the winter olympics?? He's a f-cking football yob and that's it
* @dominiquelam Eddie McGuire you are such a douche bag. One rich douche bag.
* @abbiemc OMG Eddie McGuire. "they don't leave much in the closet" "brokeback mountain" SHUT UP. I hope there are complaints. Many.
* @Selenadover OMG, did Eddie McGuire just suggest Johnny Weir is less than manly?
* @chicachow Can't decide what he finds more offensive: channel nine's vaguely ho-ophobic figure skating commentating or Eddie mcguire's face.
* @ozreedgal: eddie mcguire has made a number of little digs about competitors' s-xuality since I've been watching 2night. He's obsessed #olympics.
The anger promptly spread to Facebook, with a group "Eddie Mcguire is ruining the 2010 Winter Olympics coverage" bursting this morning with anti-Eddie vitriol. The Facebook page has said that it has submitted several formal complaint letters to the relevent department at Channel Nine.
Twitterers also pointed to "patronising" interviews McGuire has conducted with Winter Olympics superstars, including female figure skater Katarina Witt, where Witt's 1998 Playboy front cover was dredged up again to her visible dismay.
Nine paid about $100 million alongside broadcast partners Foxtel for the TV rights to the 2010 and 2012 games. But the ratings have been disappointing, with the network coming in third last night behind Seven's Gangs of Oz and Ten's So You Think You Can Dance Australia.
There is also talk that the games themselves are also in trouble: this Reuters article ("Vancouver's Games in danger of sinking into meltwater") wraps the bad news so far, with the opening-day death of Nodar Kumaritashvili snowballing into problems over spectator safety concerns, a lack of the white stuff and protests over the millions wasted while Vancouver struggles with the social problems of its Downtown Eastside slum area.
McGuire has continued with his Triple M breakfast radio slot from Vancouver, phoning in the banter each North American afternoon.
Send your tips to boss@crikey.com.au or submit them anonymously here.
And then this letter in The Age on 19 February 2010:

Homophobic slurs

OVER the first five minutes of Vancouver coverage that I saw on Wednesday night, I listened to Eddie McGuire and Mick Molloy make numerous offensive comments, most of which linked male ice-skaters and homosexuality, but also covered matters such as the ''redneck'' sport of curling. This disgusting display of ''Olympic coverage'' culminated in a comment about male ice-skaters bringing their own pillows, which, to my amazement, was delivered immediately after an apology made by Mr Molloy about an offensive comment he'd made on a previous night.
This was not relevant coverage of the winter Olympics, it wasn't even funny; it was a dialogue between two men lacking intelligence, professionalism and understanding. If these TV personalities can only offer poor journalism littered with homophobia and superiority, then perhaps we need to find new commentators. Perhaps someone who knows a thing or two about winter sports.
Fontaine Dunstan, Ripponlea

The above item is from:
www.red-jos.net/homopho8.htm    

DUAL CITIZENSHIP, SINGLE CITIZENSHIP, YOUNG AUSTRALIAN JEWS, YOUNG AUSTRALIAN MUSLIMS

For the last 100 years many Australian Jews have left Australia to live and work in Palestine/Israel, and many Jews have gone from Australia to fight with Israel against the Palestinians.

These people have not had their citizenship taken from them and they have not been threatened with removal of their citizenship as they become mercenaries and fight in foreign lands against people who have nothing whatever to do with their own places of birth.

From the 1917 Balfour Declaration onwards when the British government illegally agreed to provide a territory for Jews to have their own homeland - in someone else's homeland, the zionist quest to fill Palestine with more and more Jews has grown exponentially.

At the end of World War II after Europe had effectively killed off more than 6 million Jews between Hitler, Stalin and all the other anti-semitic countries in Europe, the victorious allied governments realised the zionist dream and with the establishment of the  United Nations Organisation they "agreed" to a partition of Palestine for Palestinians and Jews, and in 1948 Israel was born.

It was never the intention of the newly established Israeli state to allow half of Palestine to be occupied by Palestinians who would continue to push for their own homeland in their own territory, and world zionism, led by the United States money-rich zionists who supported successive US political parties to support Israel made sure that Israel would continue to expand at the expense of Palestine and the Palestinians.

There are many more Christian zionists than Jewish ones and they too have an agenda - if Israel is supported by rich countries and keeps the law of return which allows Jews from any country in the world to come and live in Israel - to empty their countries of Jews and get them all residing in one country - a Jewish country.

AUSTRALIA'S RACIST ASSAULT ON ABORIGINAL PEOPLE

 Weekend edition 240415 CounterPunch :Australia's Racist Assault on Aboriginal People

The Secret Country Again Wages War on Its Own People

by JOHN PILGER

Australia has again declared war on its Indigenous people, reminiscent of the brutality that brought universal condemnation on apartheid South Africa.  Aboriginal people are to be driven from homelands where their communities have lived for thousands of years. In Western Australia, where mining companies make billion dollar profits exploiting Aboriginal land, the state government says it can no longer afford to “support” the homelands.
Vulnerable populations, already denied the basic services most Australians take for granted, are on notice of dispossession without consultation, and eviction at gunpoint. Yet again, Aboriginal leaders have warned of “a new generation of displaced people” and “cultural genocide”.
Genocide is a word Australians hate to hear. Genocide happens in other countries, not the “lucky” society that per capita is the second richest on earth. When “act of genocide” was used in the 1997 landmark report Bringing Them Home, which revealed that thousands of Indigenous children had been stolen from their communities by white institutions and systematically abused, a campaign of denial was launched by a far-right clique around the then prime minister John Howard. It included those who called themselves the Galatians Group, then Quadrant, then the Bennelong Society; the Murdoch press was their voice.
The Stolen Generation was exaggerated, they said, if it had happened at all. Colonial Australia was a benign place; there were no massacres. The First Australians were victims of their own cultural inferiority, or they were noble savages. Suitable euphemisms were deployed.
The government of the current prime minister, Tony Abbott, a conservative zealot, has revived this assault on a people who represent Australia’s singular uniqueness. Soon after coming to office, Abbott’s government cut $534 million in indigenous social programmes, including $160 million from the indigenous health budget and $13.4 million from indigenous legal aid.
In the 2014 report Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage Key Indicators, the devastation is clear. The number of Aboriginal people hospitalised for self-harm has leapt, as have suicides among those as young as eleven. The indicators show a people impoverished, traumatised and abandoned. Read the classic expose of apartheid South Africa, The Discarded People by Cosmas Desmond, who told me he could write a similar account of Australia.
Having insulted indigenous Australians by declaring (at a G20 breakfast for David Cameron) that there was “nothing but bush” before the white man, Abbott announced that his government would no longer honour the longstanding commitment to Aboriginal homelands. He sneered, “It’s not the job of the taxpayers to subsidise lifestyle choices.”
The weapon used by Abbott and his redneck state and territorial counterparts is dispossession by abuse and propaganda, coercion and blackmail, such as his demand for a 99-year leasehold of Indigenous land in the Northern Territory in return for basic services: a land grab in all but name. The Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Nigel Scullion, refutes this, claiming “this is about communities and what communities want”. In fact, there has been no real consultation, only the co-option of a few.
Both conservative and Labor governments have already withdrawn the national jobs programme, CDEP, from the homelands, ending opportunities for employment, and prohibited investment in infrastructure: housing, generators, sanitation. The saving is peanuts.
The reason is an extreme doctrine that evokes the punitive campaigns of the early 20th century “chief protector of Aborigines”, such as the fanatic A.O. Neville who decreed that the first Australians “assimilate” to extinction. Influenced by the same eugenics movement that inspired the Nazis, Queensland’s “protection acts” were a model for South African apartheid. Today, the same dogma and racism are threaded through anthropology, politics, the bureaucracy and the media.  “We are civilised, they are not,” wrote the acclaimed Australian historian Russel Ward two generations ago.  The spirit is unchanged.
Having reported on Aboriginal communities since the 1960s, I have watched a seasonal routine whereby the Australian elite interrupts its “normal” mistreatment and neglect of the people of the First Nations, and attacks them outright. This happens when an election approaches, or a prime minister’s ratings are low. Kicking the blackfella is deemed popular, although grabbing minerals-rich land by stealth serves a more prosaic purpose. Driving people into the fringe slums of “economic hub towns” satisfies the social engineering urges of racists.
The last frontal attack was in 2007 when Prime Minister Howard sent the army into Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory to “rescue children” who, said his minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Mal Brough, were being abused by paedophile gangs in “unthinkable numbers”.
Known as “the intervention”, the media played a vital role. In 2006, the national TV current affairs programme, the ABC’s Lateline, broadcast a sensational interview with a man whose face was concealed. Described as a “youth worker” who had lived in the Aboriginal community of Mutitjulu, he made a series of lurid allegations. Subsequently exposed as a senior government official who reported directly to the minister, his claims were discredited by the Australian Crime Commission, the Northern Territory Police and a damning report by child medical specialists. The community received no apology.
The 2007 “intervention” allowed the federal government to destroy many of the vestiges of self-determination in the Northern Territory, the only part of Australia where Aboriginal people had won federally-legislated land rights. Here, they had administered their homelands in ways with the dignity of self-determination and connection to land and culture and, as Amnesty reported, a 40 per cent lower mortality rate.
It is this “traditional life” that is anathema to a parasitic white industry of civil servants, contractors, lawyers and consultants that controls and often profits from Aboriginal Australia, if indirectly through the corporate structures imposed on Indigenous organisations. The homelands are seen as a threat, for they express a communalism at odds with the neo-conservatism that rules Australia. It is as if the enduring existence of a people who have survived and resisted more than two colonial centuries of massacre and theft remains a spectre on white Australia: a reminder of whose land this really is.
The current political attack was launched in the richest state, Western Australia. Last October, the state premier, Colin Barnett, announced that his government could not afford the $90 million budget for basic municipal services to 282 homelands: water, power, sanitation, schools, road maintenance, rubbish collection. It was the equivalent of informing the white suburbs of Perth that their lawn sprinklers would no longer sprinkle and their toilets no longer flush; and they had to move; and if they refused, the police would evict them.
Where would the dispossessed go? Where would they live? In six years, Barnett’s government has built few houses for Indigenous people in remote areas. In the Kimberley region, Indigenous homelessness — aside from natural disaster and civil strife — is one of the highest anywhere, in a state renowned for its conspicuous wealth, golf courses and prisons overflowing with impoverished black people. Western Australia jails Aboriginal males at more than eight times the rate of apartheid South Africa. It has one of the highest incarceration rates of juveniles in the world, almost all of them indigenous, including children kept in solitary confinement in adult prisons, with their mothers keeping vigil outside.
In 2013, the former prisons minister, Margaret Quirk, told me that the state was “racking and stacking” Aboriginal prisoners. When I asked what she meant, she said, “It’s warehousing.”
In March, Barnett changed his story.  There was “emerging evidence”, he said, “of appalling mistreatment of little kids” in the homelands.  What evidence? Barnett claimed that   gonorrhoea had been found in children younger than 14, then conceded he did not know if these were in the homelands.  His police commissioner, Karl O’Callaghan, chimed in that child sexual abuse was “rife”. He quoted a 15-year-old study by the Australian Institute of Family Studies. What he failed to say was that the report highlighted poverty as the overwhelming cause of “neglect” and that sexual abuse accounted for less than 10 per cent.
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, a federal agency, recently released a report on what it calls the “Fatal Burden” of Third World disease and trauma borne by Indigenous people “resulting in almost 100,000 years of life lost due to premature death”. This “fatal burden” is the product of extreme poverty imposed in Western Australia, as in the rest of Australia, by the denial of human rights.
In Barnett’s vast rich Western Australia, barely a fraction of mining, oil and gas revenue has benefited communities for which his government has a duty of care. In the town of Roeburne, in the midst of the booming minerals-rich Pilbara, 80 per cent of the indigenous children suffer from an ear infection called otitis media that causes deafness.
In 2011, the Barnett government displayed a brutality in the community of Oombulgurri the other homelands can expect. “First, the government closed the services,” wrote Tammy Solonec of Amnesty International, “It closed the shop, so people could not buy food and essentials. It closed the clinic, so the sick and the elderly had to move, and the school, so families with children had to leave, or face having their children taken away from them. The police station was the last service to close, then eventually the electricity and water were turned off. Finally, the ten residents who resolutely stayed to the end were forcibly evicted [leaving behind] personal possessions. [Then] the bulldozers rolled into Oombulgurri. The WA government has literally dug a hole and in it buried the rubble of people’s homes and personal belongings.”
In South Australia, the state and federal governments launched a similar attack on the 60 remote Indigenous communities. South Australia has a long-established Aboriginal Lands Trust, so people were able to defend their rights — up to a point. On 12 April, the federal government offered $15 million over five years. That such a miserly sum is considered enough to fund proper services in the great expanse of the state’s homelands is a measure of the value placed on Indigenous lives by white politicians who unhesitatingly spend $28 billion annually on armaments and the military. Haydn Bromley, chair of the Aboriginal Lands Trust told me, “The $15 million doesn’t include most of the homelands, and it will only cover bare essentials — power, water. Community development? Infrastructure? Forget it.”
The current distraction from these national dirty secrets is the approaching “celebrations” of the centenary of an Edwardian military disaster at Gallipoli in 1915 when 8,709 Australian and 2,779 New Zealand troops — the Anzacs — were sent to their death in a futile assault on a beach in Turkey. In recent years, governments in Canberra have promoted this imperial waste of life as an historical deity to mask the militarism that underpins Australia’s role as America’s “deputy sheriff” in the Pacific.
In bookshops, “Australian non-fiction” shelves are full of opportunistic tomes about wartime derring-do, heroes and jingoism. Suddenly, Aboriginal people who fought for the white man are fashionable, whereas those who fought against the white man in defence of their own country, Australia, are unfashionable. Indeed, they are officially non-people. The Australian War Memorial refuses to recognise their remarkable resistance to the British invasion. In a country littered with Anzac memorials, not one official memorial stands for the thousands of native Australians who fought and fell defending their homeland.
This is part of the “great Australian silence”, as W.E.H. Stanner in 1968 called his lecture in which he described a “cult of forgetfulness on a national scale”. He was referring to the Indigenous people. Today, the silence is ubiquitous. In Sydney, the Art Gallery of New South Wales currently has an exhibition, The Photograph and Australia, in which the timeline of this ancient country begins, incredibly, with Captain Cook.
The same silence covers another enduring, epic resistance. Extraordinary demonstrations of Indigenous women protesting the removal of their children and grandchildren by he state, some of them at gunpoint, are ignored by journalists and patronised by politicians.  More Indigenous children are being wrenched from their homes and communities today than during the worst years of the Stolen Generation. A record 15,000 are presently detained “in care”; many are given to white families and will never return to their communities.
Last year, the West Australian Police Minister, Liza Harvey, attended a screening in Perth of my film, Utopia, which docmented the racism and thuggery of police towards black Australians, and the multiple deaths of young Aboriginal men in custody. The minister cried.
On her watch, 50 City of Perth armed police raided an Indigenous homeless camp at Matagarup, and drove off mostly elderly women and young mothers with children.  The people in the camp described themselves as “refugees … seeking safety in our own country”. They called for the help of the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees.
Australian politicians are nervous of the United Nations. Abbott’s response has been abuse. When Professor James Anaya, the UN Special Rapporteur on Indigenous People, described the racism of the “intervention” , Abbott told him to, “get a life” and “not listen to the old victim brigade”.
The planned closure of Indigenous homelands breaches Article 5 of the International Convention for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) and the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP). Australia is committed to “provide effective mechanisms for prevention of, and redress for … any action which has the aim of dispossessing [Indigenous people] of their lands, territories or resources”. The Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights is blunt. “Forced evictions” are against the law.
An international  momentum is building. In 2013, Pope Francis urged the world to act against racism and on behalf of “indigenous people who are increasingly isolated and abandoned”. It was South Africa’s defiance of such a basic principle of human rights that ignited the international opprobrium and campaign that brought down apartheid. Australia beware.
John Pilger can be reached through his website: www.johnpilger.com

EDDIE MCGUIRE - RACISM, SEXISM, HOMOPHOBIA, AFL, ALEX DEMITRIOU

Sport is the main religion in Victoria and nowhere more so than in Melbourne, where the ground these people walk on is considered holier than ground which has been so-called sanctified.

Homo-eroticism is the hallmark of "footy" and yet not one AFL player has dared to expose himself to the homophobic world of hetero players and the AFL sport administrators.

There must be countless dozens of gay players but with people like Eddie McGuire making disparaging remarks about gay men there is no incentive for gay AFL players to show themselves.

Sexism in the daily life of Australia is self-evident at every turn of our existence and is mostly so obvious that it doesn't need too much to explain its manifestations in the world around us.

Racism, on the other hand, is inborn in our societies and nowhere more so than in the domineering, dominating aspects of white male sexist homophobic actions which at times breaks out in strange ways to the detriment of all involved.

Eddie McGuire's outburst, stupid as it was, hurtful as it was, racist as it was, was no isolated incident. We are finding out every day how racist Australia is, nowhere more so than in the police forces around the country.

Who are the most incarcerated people in the country's prisons? Whose incarceration rates have risen alarmingly since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (1987-1991) some many years ago with so many recommendations which have been totally ignored?

Is this an illustration of racism in Australian society? Of course it is and our police and justice systems encourage and support this inequity and injustice because in our growing unequal society the proportion of disadvantaged grows exponentially and the advantaged grow proportionally richer and more privileged.

Andrew Demitriou gave Eddie McGuire a slap across the wrist with an invisible feather and McGuire was left free to carry on all activities as before. So, racist, sexist, homophobic - no change in AFL culture, no change in societal culture and we all carry on as before.

THE MORE THINGS CHANGE.............!

UNITED STATES EXECUTES TROY DAVIS - JOINS IRAN AND CHINA IN EXECUTION RATES!

The following report was in the Guardian newspaper on 22 September 2011:

Troy Davis campaigners vow to fight 'inhumane and inflexible' death penalty

Relatives and activists say execution in Georgia should act as a wake-up call to US politicians to abolish the death penalty
• Troy Davis execution: join our Flickr group
• Troy Davis execution goes ahead despite serious doubts
• Ten reasons why Troy Davis should not have been executed



Ed Pilkington in Jackson, Georgia
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 22 September 2011 18.06 BST
Article history

(photo not available)
Troy Davis campaigners
Troy Davis protesters in Jackson, Georgia. Activists said Davis's execution was a clear wake-up call to politicians across the US to have the death penalty abolished. Photograph: Stephen Morton/AP

In statistical terms, it may have been just another execution, a convicted murderer dispatched by prison medics with clinical efficiency. But, on the morning after the death by lethal injection of Troy Davis, there was no sign that the controversy over the case would be buried with him.

Davis was sent to his death despite a mass of evidence casting his 1991 conviction in doubt, including recantations from seven of the nine key witnesses at his trial for the murder of a police officer.

The execution has provoked an extraordinary outpouring of protest in Georgia, at the supreme court and White House in Washington, and in cities around the world.

Davis's case has become even more charged by the manner of his death: he was reprieved three times before Wednesday night and an intervention by the supreme court delayed the execution by four hours.

Relatives of Davis and civil rights leaders across the south vowed to fight on with the campaign to have the death penalty abolished.

Richard Dieter, the director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said it was a clear wake-up call to politicians across the US.

He said: "They weren't expecting such passion from people in opposition to the death penalty. There's a widely-held perception that all Americans are united in favour of executions, but this message came across loud and clear that many people are not happy with it."

Brian Evans of Amnesty, which led the campaign to spare Davis's life, said that there was a groundswell in America of people "who are tired of a justice system that is inhumane and inflexible and allows executions where there is clear doubts about guilt". He predicted the debate would now be conducted with renewed energy.

Martina Correia, Davis's sister, who kept vigil at the prison until the end, said that a movement had been formed that would transcend her brother's death.

Sitting in a wheelchair as she battles cancer, she said: "If you can get millions of people to stand up against this, we can end the death penalty."

The case has attracted high-profile backers, and the #RIPTroyDavis hashtag was trending on Twitter on Wednesday. Protesters with placards gathered outside the White House. But so far, national politicians have refrained from entering the debate.

Before the execution, White House press secretary Jay Carney said: "It is not appropriate for the president of the United States to weigh in on specific cases like this one, which is a state prosecution."

Rick Perry, the leading contender for the Republican nomination and a strong supporter of the death penalty, has made no public statement on the Davis case.

His presence in the Republican race guarantees that the issue of capital punishment will remain in the spotlight in a way it hasn't for years. At a TV debate earlier this month, the audience cheered when the host noted Texas had executed 234 death row inmates during Perry's time as governor.

In Jackson, Georgia on Wednesday night, there were dramatic scenes outside the Diagnostic and Classification Prison, where Davis was pronounced dead at 11.08pm.

About 500 protesters, most of them African-American, lined up on the other side of the road to the entrance of the prison which was barricaded by a cordon of Swat police dressed in full riot gear and brandishing tear gas rifles.

Davis was executed for the 1989 murder of Mark MacPhail, who was working off duty as a security guard when he intervened to help a homeless person being attacked. Davis was implicated by another man, Sylvester Coles, present at the time. But since the trial seven of the key witnesses have come forward to say their evidence was wrong, and others have testified under oath that Coles was the killer.

As he lay on the gurney, Davis once again declared his innocence, telling the family of MacPhail lined up behind a glass screen in front of him that the wrong person was about to die.

Raphael Warnock, the pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist church in Atlanta, where Martin Luther King had his ministry, said that though Davis's final hours were distressing, "through this, America is being transformed. This is one of those watershed moments when a human evil and injustice that is part of the norm suddenly becomes questioned and challenged."

Attention is now focusing on the American south. Though 34 of the 50 states still have the death penalty, only 12 states carried out executions last year, and now 80% of all executions take place in the south.

The south's history of racial segregation has also highlighted claims of racial bigotry. One of Davis's lawyers, Thomas Ruffin, has called his death a "legal lynching", pointing out that while black males make up 15% of the population of Georgia they fill almost half the cells on its death row.

The civil rights group the NAACP said it would step up its campaign to persuade states, particularly in the south, to abolish the death penalty. "States like Georgia have an ugly history of state-sanctioned executions like that of Troy Davis, and in our view they are reminiscent of the lynchings that happened in the deep south," said the NAACP's Steve Hawkins.

A further area of concern raised by the case is reliance on uncorroborated eyewitness accounts. Davis was convicted without any DNA or other forensic evidence, and the murder weapon was never found.

False witness evidence has been found to be a crucial factor in three-quarters of the cases where convicted prisoners were found to be innocent and were then exonerated. Al Sharpton, who attended the protests in Jackson, said he would be pressing for new legislation to ban death penalties in cases relying only on witness statements.

But it is unlikely that a new law overturning the practice could be passed in Washington. It is convention that individual states have control over death penalty rules, and the federal government can only lead by example in its own execution practices; it does not generally have the power to tell states like Georgia what to do.

AUSTRALIAN FEDERAL AND STATE GOVERNMENTS JOIN THEOCRACIES SUCH AS IRAN, THE VATICAN, ISRAEL, SAUDI ARABIA - & OTHER SIMILAR COUNTRIES

Some of the goings-on in federal and state parliaments in Australia over the last several years, and increasingly rapidly recently, indicate that Australia is on the verge of becoming a theocracy in the worst traditions of those types of states.

Indications are that more and more of its citizens will be affected by the change from a secular state to a theocratic one and the scene is getting uglier every day.

The items from newspaper and radio reports are becoming more alarming for those who do not have strong ties to religions of any sort.

Racism and homophobia are on the increase and statements from theologians, supported by politicians of all persuasions do not a pretty picture make!

FASCISTS AND ZIONISTS FIND COMMON GROUND

This is an article in the current edition of Socialist Alternative - September 2010:

Fascists and Zionists find common ground .
By Jade Eckhaus
07 September 2010



Today in Britain if you decided to attend a fascist rally you might see something slightly unexpected in the crowd: the Israeli flag. Israeli flags are becoming more and more common as Zionists join forces with the fascists to mobilise against anti-fascist groups and pro-Palestine supporters throughout Europe.

In England the English Defence League (EDL), known for its vitriolic and violent anti-Muslim racism, has gone so far as to set up a “Jewish Division” and now it is not an uncommon sight to see Zionists and fascists together yelling “We hate Muslims” and “Muslim bombers off our streets” at pro-Palestinians forces.

But is it not just small groups of Israel supporters around the world who agree with the revolting anti-Muslim racism of Europe’s far right and fascist groups: the state of Israel welcomes fascists with open arms – as long as they hate the Muslims as much as Israel does.

This is why people like the Dutch politician Geert Wilders from the far-right Freedom Party – who argues that the Quran should be banned and calls for an immediate end to Muslim immigration to Holland – was invited by the Israeli government to speak at a conference in Israel. He argued that “The jihad against Israel is the jihad against the West.” Perhaps what he really meant to say is the genocide of the Palestinians that Israel is carrying out is one that fascist parties around the world would like to emulate.

It is hardly surprising that fascists and far-right lunatics of all colours and stripes have started looking to the state of Israel as a beacon of hope. Israel is a state built on the genocide and dispossession of the majority Palestinian population. Israel’s entire project demands the continued demonisation of Arab and Muslim people.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir best articulated that project when he said in 1988 that Palestinians resisting occupation should “be crushed like grasshoppers…heads smashed against the boulders and walls.” It is that project that today sees Israel planning to deport hundreds of children for the “crime” of being non-Jewish immigrants.

That project means that the Israeli government is yet to condemn former chief rabbi Ovadia Yosef for arguing that “God should strike [the Palestinians] with a plague.” And that project saw the Israeli soldier Eden Abergil send shockwaves across the globe when she posted photos of wounded, bound and gagged Palestinians on her Facebook page with other soldiers in the foreground displaying their weapons and laughing.

These actions are not just individual events but rather an illustration of the nature of the state of Israel, a state where Palestinians are legally second class citizens, where soldiers are surprised that the world might object to photos of Palestinians being brutalised being put on Facebook.

Fascists look to Israel because Israel is the leading light in the project of building a racially pure state. Israel’s racist Law of Return means that I, as a Jewish person, have the right to go to Israel at any time and receive Israeli citizenship, while the descendants of Palestinians driven off their land in 1948 have no right to return to their homes.

And let’s not forget the 30 laws that directly discriminate against non-Jewish Israeli citizens, the segregated education system which means that for schools in majority Palestinian communities the government spends $US190 per Palestinian student, compared to $US1,100 per Jewish student; or that because of the lack of funding for Palestinian communities in Israel the Palestinian death rate is 1.5 times higher than the Jewish death rate.

The revolting racism espoused by Jewish members of the EDL finds its roots in the racism of Israel’s leading statespeople. Take Roberta Moore, one of the leading members of the EDL’s “Jewish Division”, who maintained in an interview with Ha’aretz, one of Israel’s leading newspapers, that the EDL are not racist – they are just “anti-Islam, as everyone should be”. Moore went on to identify with Golda Meir, whom she considers one “of the best Prime Ministers Israel ever had”. Golda Meir famously brushed aside objections to her repulsive anti-Palestinian policies by saying “There is no such thing as a Palestinian people… They [don’t] exist.”

When pictures of a fascist holding an Israeli flag at a rally flooded the internet last year, an Israeli Embassy spokesperson said: “It is appalling to see the flag of Israel abused by thugs who stir up violence and tension between communities.” It is appalling that thugs stir up violence and tension between communities – but hardly surprising that they use the flag of the state that murders Muslims with impunity to do so.

While my family fought against and were murdered by the fascists in Nazi Germany, the state of Israel now welcomes them. This is yet another illustration of the fact that the state of Israel is in no way the beneficiary of the real Jewish tradition but rather the creators of a new tradition of racism and genocide.

At the bottom of the article in the online edition, readers are asked to make comment. However, apparently there is no one available from Socialist Alternative to process the feedback which they have asked people to make. This is yet another example of groups like Socialist Alternative not being able to get their acts together - what a waste of time when one has made a comment only to be told it won't be posted!

ZIONISTS AND ISRAEL INVOLVEMENT WITH THE MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

The story of the involvement of Israel and zionism with the running of the Melbourne International Film Festival is just too interesting to forget about and keeping the issue alive in the public mind is an absolute necessity.

Many thanks to those who publicised the issues: Antony Loewenstein, Crikey, the ABC and others.

Antony Loewenstein
How the Melbourne Film Festival embraces apartheid Israel
Published on 31 July 2010 in Israel.


Back in 2009, film-maker Ken Loach withdrew his film Looking for Eric from the Melbourne International Film Festival after it was revealed that the Israeli government offered financial support for the event.
This year there was supposedly no controversy despite the festival again taking funds from the Israeli government (the director, Richard Moore, is a Zionist whose son has served in the IDF).
(Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Yes, Dear
Melbourne lobby group Australians for Palestine has just posted the following appeal on its website:

"Last year Australians for Palestine (AFP) initiated a cultural boycott in Melbourne protesting Israel's partnership with the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF). The protests continued over the 12 days of the festival to much heated debate in the media over the rights and wrongs of boycotting cultural events. English film maker Ken Loach withdrew his film Looking for Eric, which then sparked an exchange of letters with MIFF's Executive Director Richard Moore who refused to reconsider Israel's sponsorship. This year's festival will be held from 22 July - 8 August and Israel is again a cultural partner. The protest is not directed at any film or filmaker but against the cultural partnership that MIFF has with the state of Israel. We are simply asking you to let MIFF know that you do not approve of normalising relations with an apartheid state that is currently oppressing some 5.5 million Palestinians in Gaza, the occupied West Bank, and East Jerusalem and in Israel itself."

So what's Mr Moore's problem? How much bad news from Israel can one absorb before the penny drops?

The Australian Jewish News of July 16 sheds some light on a dark corner. Some excerpts from A chat with Richard Moore:

"This time last year, the MIFF was embroiled in controversy when director Ken Loach withdrew his film because of Israel's support of the festival. Has there been any backlash this year?

"I was very happy to declare this festival a Loach-free zone. I decided not even to bother going to see his film at Cannes this year, because we objected so strongly to what he did last year. I gather it wasn't a terrific film, it didn't get very good reviews. The Australians for Palestine have started up their annual campaign against MIFF but we were undeterred by their protest last year and we approached the Israeli Embassy again this year and they were more than happy to support us. But so far this year, we've had no controversy like that.

"That must be a relief.

"Well yes, I guess so, although from a publicity point of view, it's a terrible result. We're trying, as much as possible, to deeply offend some people...

"You're not Jewish, so where does your affinity with Israel come from?

"My wife is Jewish, I lived in Israel for two-and-a-half years, I speak Hebrew and I've got two Jewish sons, so that goes some way to explaining my affinity with Israel."

I see, so marrying a Jew, and a stint in Israel, renders one immune to independent thought. )
And then something changed a few weeks ago, an issue that has thus far received no mainstream media coverage. Australian, Jewish academic Ned Curthoys has written an exclusive report for this site:

About a fortnight ago, some friends of the Palestinian people alerted the production company Human Film that the 2010 Melbourne International Film Festival lists the state of Israel as a cultural partner and therefore official sponsor of the festival. Their award-winning Iraqi film Son of Babylon was due to screen on Wednesday the 28th of July and Friday the 30th of July.
On behalf of Human Film, the Director Mohamed Al-Daradji, the Producer Isabelle Stead and the Producer Atia Al-Daradji wrote on Sunday the 25th of July to the Executive Director of MIFF, Richard Moore, stressing that Son of Babylon is a Palestinian co-production and that as they, as filmmakers, are ‘wholeheartedly against the Israeli governments’ actions against the Palestinian people and as such cannot screen our film at Melbourne IFF whilst there is Israeli government support involved’.
The signatories stressed that they are not against the Israeli people or Israeli filmmakers but ‘against the Israeli government actions against Palestine’ and that they refused to have any association with the state of Israel until it respected the human rights of the Palestinian people. They repeated their request to withdraw the film.
[MIFF head] Richard Moore responded by agreeing to disagree on the political aspect of the matter and, complaining of the logistical impossibility of withdrawing the film on the eve of screening, informed the signatories that the Monday screening would be shown but that he is prepared to countenance financial compensation for the Wednesday the 28th screening.
Isabelle Stead, the main producer of SON OF BABYLON, writing on behalf of Human Film, responded that she really hoped that he, Richard Moore, had respected their wishes and withdrawn the film from the festival, entirely. This isn’t about politics, she wrote, this is about humanity.
She made the point that it had only just been brought to their attention that MIF festival was supported by the state of Israel, and that upon receiving this information, they acted as promptly as they could. Isabelle was surprised that Melbourne IFF had not informed filmmakers whom have a Palestinian element/connection to their film that the state of Israel are involved in funding the festival. She pointed out that the festival was informed in enough time to stop the screening – as in 2009 when Ken Loach withdrew his film on the eve of its screening. MIFF should not underestimate Human Film’s resolve to ensure that their film is not associated with the state of Israel as long as it continues its illegal crimes against humanity.
Richard Moore refused to acknowledge that he had any obligation to inform a Palestinian co-production about Israeli sponsorship, instead claiming that revocation of permission to withdraw the film and to take action against the festival if it does not withdraw the film was a ‘divisive act’ that contravenes the film company’s ethos of breaking down cultural barriers.
Isabelle Stead repeated her willingness to reimburse the festival and repeated her point that the festival must hold some responsibility in not informing a Palestinian co-production that it was being supported by the state of Israel. She reminded Moore that in the 1980s Mr Rod Webb, The Sydney Film Festival Director, refused to accepted any sponsorship or screen films from apartheid South Africa. When Israel is no longer an apartheid state, she wrote, we will of course be proud to screen our films in conjunction with them. In the interim she would be happy to help Richard Moore find alternative sponsorship that is independent of Israel’s support for Melbourne IFF in the future.
She welcomed Moore’s allusion to their mission statement and pointed out it was still in full force and effect, since they were ‘acting from a humanitarian stance’. She asked that Richard Moore respect their wishes not to screen Son of Babylon and wanted to be informed if the film had been screened at the festival.
Richard Moore then revealed his hand by declaring, against the common wisdom of Jimmy Carter and Desmond Tutu, that the comparison of Israel with an apartheid state was ‘odious’. He now claimed that Human Film had not taken the issue of compensation seriously, and, to rub salt into the wound, smugly talked of how much the patrons had enjoyed the screening and that he hoped the film scored well in audience awards.
Isabelle Stead now accused Richard Moore of petulance, and was clearly upset that he had disregarded the multiple requests of Human Film not to have any screenings of their film at the festival. Isabelle wrote that she had spoken to the producer of Looking for Eric – who informed her that they were not requested to pay the festival any monies for pulling the film in 2009. She reiterated that she had made a fair offer to reimburse the festival for the shipment costs along with any monies paid to their sales company to screen the film. She reiterated that any permissions granted to Melbourne IFF to screen SON OF BABYLON had been revoked.
Isabelle. in a later correspondence, suggested that she was disgusted with the behaviour of the festival towards Human Film, and very saddened that Moore couldn’t see past the politics to the real heart of the issue. Human Film would now prefer to offer the proceeds of the admissions for the screening of Son of Babylon to a charity of their choice.
The second screening of Son of Babylon on Wednesday went ahead without any signal that this was against the express wishes of Human Film. One can safely draw the conclusion that just as MIFF and Richard Moore failed in their ethical obligation to inform international film makers of Israeli sponsorship of the festival, they have also engaged in a conspiracy of silence to prevent you knowing about the principled ethical objections of Human Film to screen Son of Babylon.
The public can make up their own mind but audiences of the MIFF 2010 and the wider public have a right to know about the way in which Richard Moore himself is deliberately politicizing the festival.

---------------------------------------------------------

Yesterday Crikey published the full email correspondence between MIFF and the film-makers.

LEAKED: Filmmakers demand Son of Babylon to be withdrawn from the 2010 MIFF program
July 30, 2010 – 12:59 pm, by Luke Buckmaster

This morning the makers of the acclaimed feature Son of Babylon alerted Crikey to the news that they sent numerous requests to the Melbourne International Film Festival asking for the film be removed from the festival program.
The filmmakers strongly object to MIFF’s links with the State of Israel, which is one of the festival’s sponsors. Last year British director Ken Loach withdrew his film Looking for Eric from the program for the same reason.
Son of Babylon explores the aftermath of Saddam Hussein’s downfall in Iraq. It is the second festival-selected film to attract controversy this year, following the OFLC’S decision earlier this month to ban director Bruce LaBruce’s LA Zombie.
Unfortunately for the filmmakers, Son of Babylon screenings have already come and gone. MIFF organisers claim they were not given sufficient notice to cancel the screenings.

Cinetology has not just the scoop but the entire email exchange between the makers of Son of Babylon and MIFF Executive Director Richard Moore, pasted below. Note that Cinetology has not edited the correspondence in any way.

Dear Richard,
When we grant a festival permission to screen a film that took us years to make along with danger, blood, sweat and tears - we do so with trust. I would have thought a festival would morally recognise the need to tell a Palestinian co-production that it was funded by the state of Israel?
Your tone and “reasonable” manner is petulant, along with your actions in disregarding our requests not to have any screenings of our film at your festival.
I have spoken to the producer of Looking for Eric – who informed me that they were not requested to pay you any monies to the festival for pulling the film. I have made a fair offer to reimburse you for the shipment costs along with any monies you paid to our sales company to screen the film. A more than fair offer.
Also please send to me a copy of the agreement you have in place with our agent.
I will again reiterate that any permissions granted to Melbourne IFF to screen SON OF BABYLON have been revoked.
Sincerely,
Isabelle Stead
Iraq’s Missing Persons Petition – please sign: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/iraqs-missing-campaign
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Son-of-Babylon-bn-bbl/165219640829
http://www.causes.com/iraqsmissing
Isabelle Stead
Human Film
Isabelle@humanfilm.co.uk
ADP House, 35 Hanover Square, Leeds, LS3 1BQ, UK, t: +44 (0) 113 243 8880 M+ 44 (0) 7835 378454
Human Film Inc. provides the information contained in this email message “as is” and makes no representations or warranties of any kind regarding its accuracy or reliability. Human Film Inc. disclaims all liability of any kind whatsoever arising out of your use of, or inability to use, this email message and the information contained on it.
This is a privileged and confidential communication. If you are not an intended recipient, you should: (1) reply to sender; (2) destroy this communication entirely, including deletion of all associated text files from all individual and network storage devices; and (3) refrain from copying or disseminating this communication by any means whatsoever.
On 28 July 2010 09:25, Richard Moore wrote:
Dear Isabelle
Re the question of festival sponsorship ; it is entirely a matter for our independent arts organisation to seek sponsorship wherever we see fit and we are under no legal obligation to declare our sources of funding for external groups to approve or disprove . Similarly we don’t ask filmmakers to declare their sources of funding.
For the record I find your comparison between Israel and an apartheid state odious ; we shall have to agree to disagree on this issue.
I have tried to deal with you in a reasonable manner by proposing a fair financial offer to compensate our festival for financial loss . In my view you have chosen not to treat this offer seriously.
Clearly, this situation is an unfortunate one and has been compounded by the time factor . As explained in prior correspondence, the fact that you contacted us only on the date of the first screening exacerbated this situation.
I confirm that we have screened the film : it was enjoyed by many patrons and I sincerely hope it scores well in our audience awards.
regards
Richard Moore
Richard Moore
Executive Director
Melbourne International Film Festival
22 July – 8 August, 2010
http://www.melbournefilmfestival.com.au/
Direct: 61 3 8660 4804
Fax: 61 3 9654 2561
Postal Address: GPO Box 4982, Melbourne VIC 3001 Australia
Street Address: Level 5, 225 Bourke Street Melbourne VIC 3000
Become a Member and/or join our e-newsletter Widescreen here:
http://www.melbournefilmfestival.com.au/join
Please consider the environment before you print this e-mail
Dear Richard,
I am happy of course to reimburse you for any money you paid to screen the film to our Sales company – along with shipment cost – but please also recognise the festival must hold some responsibility in not informing a Palestinian co-production that it was being supported by the state of Israel.
In the 1980’s Mr Rod Webb The Sydney Film Festival Director, refused to accepted any sponsorship or screen films from apartheid South Africa, when Israel is no longer an apartheid state, we will of course be proud to screen our films in conjunction. In the interim I would be happy to help you find alternative sponsorship that is independent of Israel’s support for Melbourne IFF in the future.
Thank you also for relaying back to me our mission statement which I am please and proud to say is still in full force and effect, to reiterate my last email – we are acting from a humanitarian stance.
I apologise if you felt threatened by my last email this was not my intent, nevertheless as said at present we have revoked your rights to screen our film and hope that you respect and have respected our wishes. Please can you inform me if the film has already screened at your festival?
Furthermore I am happy to work out an alternative for Melbourne audiences to view the film, independent of the Melbourne IFF.
Sincerely,
Isabelle Stead
Iraq’s Missing Persons Petition – please sign: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/iraqs-missing-campaign
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Son-of-Babylon-bn-bbl/165219640829
http://www.causes.com/iraqsmissing
Isabelle Stead
Human Film
Isabelle@humanfilm.co.uk
ADP House, 35 Hanover Square, Leeds, LS3 1BQ, UK, t: +44 (0) 113 243 8880 M+ 44 (0) 7835 378454
Human Film Inc. provides the information contained in this email message “as is” and makes no representations or warranties of any kind regarding its accuracy or reliability. Human Film Inc. disclaims all liability of any kind whatsoever arising out of your use of, or inability to use, this email message and the information contained on it.
This is a privileged and confidential communication. If you are not an intended recipient, you should: (1) reply to sender; (2) destroy this communication entirely, including deletion of all associated text files from all individual and network storage devices; and (3) refrain from copying or disseminating this communication by any means whatsoever.
On 27 July 2010 05:58, Richard Moore wrote:
Dear Isabelle
As I outlined in my previous email I look forward to seeing your written offer of financial compensation . I do not agree that you have provided us with enough time to cancel the screening. I have entered into correspondence with you promptly about this in order to find a solution.
Its unfortunate that you now resort to threats to “take appropriate action against the festival “. Indeed , it seems extraordinary to me that an organisation that claims to “break down cultural barriers through film “.. to “ further understanding” and that also states that it does “ not apply any language,cultural,political,religious or any other barriers to our film making practice “ would engage in such a divisive act.
For your information the second screening of SON OF BABYLON is sold out. We estimate the costs of withdrawing the film at
Admissions $3,300
Hire of venue $400
Replacement film hire $500
Staffing $250
Total $4,450
These hard costs do not include the distress and potential upset caused to our patrons and the cost of communicating with everyone who has purchased a ticket.
I expect to hear confirmation of your agreement to compensate the festival on these costs before I will reconsider the matter of the second screening of the film.
Regards
Richard Moore
Richard Moore
Executive Director
Melbourne International Film Festival
22 July – 8 August, 2010
http://www.melbournefilmfestival.com.au/
Direct: 61 3 8660 4804
Fax: 61 3 9654 2561
Postal Address: GPO Box 4982, Melbourne VIC 3001 Australia
Street Address: Level 5, 225 Bourke Street Melbourne VIC 3000
Become a Member and/or join our e-newsletter Widescreen here:
http://www.melbournefilmfestival.com.au/join
Please consider the environment before you print this e-mail
Dear Richard,
Thank you for replying to our email. Please be aware Mohamed is currently in Sarajevo promoting the film and our Iraq’s Missing People Campaign.
I am the main producer for SON OF BABYLON, on behalf of the director, myself and our team I really hope that you have respected our wishes and withdrawn the film from your festival, entirely. This isn’t about politics this is about humanity.
To request a withdrawal of our film to a festival is our last wish and we are sorry for any inconvenience this causes to you, your colleagues, your festival and your audiences especially at such short notice. Please know it was only just brought to our attention that your festival was supported by the state of Israel, upon receiving this information, we acted as promptly as we could.
We have only just last week, taken over the festivals from Roissy Films our sales company and will of course ensure in the future that we check in advance a festival’s sponsors, before accepting an invitation. Nevertheless I am surprised that Melbourne IFF do not inform filmmakers whom have a Palestinian element/connection to their film that the state of Israel are involved in funding the festival?
The festival was informed in enough time to stop the screening – as I understand you were able to do this in 2009 when Ken Loach withdrew his film on the eve of it’s screening. Therefore if you have knowingly disregarded our wishes and screened the film, we will of course be left with little alternative than to take appropriate action against the festival. We would of course, be very reluctant to do this, but you should not underestimate our resolve to ensure that our film is not associated with the state of Israel as long as it continues it’s illegal crimes against humanity.
Sincerely,
Isabelle Stead
Human Film & Iraq Al-Rafidain
Iraq’s Missing Persons Petition – please sign: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/iraqs-missing-campaign
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Son-of-Babylon-bn-bbl/165219640829
http://www.causes.com/iraqsmissing
Isabelle Stead
Human Film
Isabelle@humanfilm.co.uk
ADP House, 35 Hanover Square, Leeds, LS3 1BQ, UK, t: +44 (0) 113 243 8880 M+ 44 (0) 7835 378454
Human Film Inc. provides the information contained in this email message “as is” and makes no representations or warranties of any kind regarding its accuracy or reliability. Human Film Inc. disclaims all liability of any kind whatsoever arising out of your use of, or inability to use, this email message and the information contained on it.
This is a privileged and confidential communication. If you are not an intended recipient, you should: (1) reply to sender; (2) destroy this communication entirely, including deletion of all associated text files from all individual and network storage devices; and (3) refrain from copying or disseminating this communication by any means whatsoever.

On 26 July 2010 17:02, Mohamed Al-Daradji mohamed@humanfilm.co.uk http://mohamed@humanfilm.co.uk wrote:
Answer her by no money will pay to them and we drowthe film out
———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Richard Moore moore@melbournefilmfestival.com.au http://moore@melbournefilmfestival.com.au
Date: 26 July 2010 06:54
Subject: SON OF BABYLON
To: mohamed@humanfilm.co.uk
Cc: Michelle Carey carey@melbournefilmfestival.com.au http://carey@melbournefilmfestival.com.au, Jess Langley langley@melbournefilmfestival.com.au >, Petrina Dorrington dorrington@melbournefilmfestival.com.au >
Dear Mohamed
Michelle Carey our head of programming has forwarded me your email which
arrived many weeks after the festival program has been announced and 3
months after you supplied us with all the technical information about your
film. This document we regard as official confirmation of your acceptance of
our conditions for the festival.
You sent the email on the day of the first screening of the film. I wouldn’t
suggest that your timing intended to cause our festival disruption; however,
I should point out that we have sold tickets to this session and we have an
eager public willing to view it.
You have your political opinions, which clearly I don’t share – lets put
that to one side. To request a withdrawal of the film on the day of the
screening is simply not acceptable and shows a lack of respect for our
organisation . We have worked hard to bring your film here and your
selection meant that other films could not be included in the program. We
are not able to replace the film at short notice and we will screen it
today.
I am prepared to consider other options for the second screening but I will
also need to consider the financial ramifications to our organisation of
having to bring in another film and the inevitable confusion and disruption
this will cause our patrons. Perhaps you will be prepared to offer us some
financial compensation for withdrawing your film.
I look forward to hearing from you in the near future.
Regards
Richard Moore
Richard Moore
Executive Director
Melbourne International Film Festival
22 July – 8 August, 2010
http://www.melbournefilmfestival.com.au/
Direct: 61 3 8660 4804
Fax: 61 3 9654 2561
Postal Address: GPO Box 4982, Melbourne VIC 3001 Australia
Street Address: Level 5, 225 Bourke Street Melbourne VIC 3000
Become a Member and/or join our e-newsletter Widescreen here:
http://www.melbournefilmfestival.com.au/join
Please consider the environment before you print this e-mail
From: Mohamed Al-Daradji mohamed@humanfilm.co.uk >
Sender: mohamedaldaradji@googlemail.com
Date: Sun, 25 Jul 2010 18:09:19 +0100
To: Michelle Carey carey@melbournefilmfestival.com.au >
Cc: Isabelle Isabelle@humanfilm.co.uk >; atia
aldraji atia_alrafdeniraq@yahoo.com >
Subject: RE: We would like to withdrew our film Son of Babylon from
Melbourne IFF 2010
Dear Michelle,
It has just been brought to our attention that the Melbourne IFF is
supported by the state of Israel.
SON OF BABYLON is a Palestinian co-production. We the filmmakers are whole
heartily against the Israeli government’s actions against the Palestinian
people and as such cannot screen our film at Melbourne IFF whilst there is
Israeli government support involved.
As human beings we feel duty bound not to support Israel’s aggressive
actions against the people of Palestine, who have been refused basic human
and political rights within an apartheid system, who are subjects to ongoing
military violence by the Israeli state, and let’s not forget the appalling
siege of Gaza which has deprived a besieged population of their basic human
needs such as clean water, food and medicine.
Rest assured we are not against the Israeli people or Israeli filmmakers, we
are against the Israeli government actions against Palestine..
It is therefore from a humanitarian stance that we refuse to have any
association with the state of Israel until they respect the human rights of
the Palestinian people.So we would liek to withdrew Our film Son of
Babylon.
We will be more than happy to work with you in the future if there no
Israeli government support to your festival.
I am looking forward to hear from you.
Faithfully,
Mohamed Al-Daradji – Director
Isabelle Stead – Producer
Atia Al-Daradji – Producer

---------------------------------------------------------

ABC - THE DRUM UNLEASHED

Robust Community Debate

3 June 2010

Occupied with free speech

Jacinda Woodhead

The Melbourne International Film Festival is receiving Liberty Victoria's free speech award, the Voltaire award, for its "refusal to buckle in the face of intense pressure from a foreign government and a left-wing filmmaker last year".

The "foreign government" was China, which urged MIFF not to screen a documentary on Rebiya Kadeer, a Uighur Independence leader who was also a guest of the festival. The award seems valid here: MIFF allowed for a minority voice to be heard, and didn't kowtow to governmental bullying.

On the other hand, the "left-wing filmmaker" was Ken Loach, whose series of written exchanges questioned MIFF's decision to accept funding from "cultural partner", the state of Israel. Loach wrote:

As you are no doubt aware, many Palestinians, including artists and academics, have called for a boycott of events supported by Israel. There are many reasons for this; the illegal occupation of Palestinian land, destruction of homes and livelihoods, the massacres in Gaza, all are part of the continuing oppression of the Palestinian people.
We hope you can reconsider accepting Israel as a sponsor.

The letters saw a showdown between Loach and festival Executive Director, Richard Moore. Loach eventually withdrew his film, Looking for Eric, from the festival, quoting Israeli poet, Aharon Shabtai:

I do not believe that a state that maintains an occupation, committing on a daily basis crimes against civilians, deserves to be invited to any kind of cultural event.

Despite Moore – the self-proclaimed winner of last year's fracas – crowing that he would not be pressured as "part of an orchestrated campaign", it is bizarre that Liberty Victoria would deem MIFF's position on Ken Loach worthy of an award.

Moore and the festival have consistently misrepresented Loach's withdrawal. As with the Edinburgh Festival, where he successfully made the same appeal, Loach stated: "This is not a boycott of Israeli films or filmmakers but of the Israeli state." Thus, it was always a matter of accepting funding from a country that continuously and flagrantly disregards United Nations regulations and human rights appeals.

As with his opinion piece in The Guardian, 'Censorship has no place in film', Moore continues to frame the issue as one of censorship, claiming:

Politics will always walk hand in hand with film, and with film festivals, but at the core of every festival, from Melbourne to Montreal, is the independence and integrity of the programme.

When Richard Moore and Liberty Victoria recognise the festival's independence, what are they claiming it is independent of – influence from, or relationship to, the outside world? Why shouldn't international law and crimes against humanity be of interest to an Australian film festival? Cultural events, by Moore's own admission, are also political.

There is a history of censorship with Moore and MIFF, as there is with all festivals – whatever the Melbourne International Film Festival chooses to show or omit from the festival's selection helps to decide film in Australia for the next couple of years. It's an incredibly influential position, and a glaring example of censorship through inclusion and exclusion.

Since Moore assumed the mantle of Executive Director, MIFF has gone out of its way to strengthen cultural ties with Israel. In 2007, MIFF showcased the thriving industry of contemporary Israeli cinema. In 2008, perhaps due to some concern about bringing Israeli cinema to the fore, MIFF had a Border Patrol section that theoretically "look[ed], in different forms and style, at the so-called 'Israeli/Palestinian question', from different perspectives".

One of the two Palestinian films to screen in this section was Salt of the Sea. This brilliant film screened once at MIFF, near midnight on a cold wet week night. Filmmaker Annemarie Jacir has described the near physical impossibility of making the film, not least because she couldn't get permission from Israel to shoot in any of the locations. The entire film, which tells the story of a Palestinian-American who tries to return to her grandmother's house, was shot illegally in Israel.

Richard Moore states: "To be frank, there isn't a lot of Palestinian cinema around". But the reason the Palestinian film industry is so small is because Palestinians are living under occupation, in circumstances in which it is almost impossible to finance and resource a film project, let alone get permits to film, particularly if the film is at all critical of the occupying power, Israel.

The argument seems then to not be a question of which films Moore is choosing to bring to the festival, nor about the specific politics of these films, but about the films that can never be made. As Ken Loach suggested, until we have a free Palestine, we can never have industries without censorship. To pretend otherwise is to tacitly approve and support a boycott on Palestine; one where Palestinians can't go to universities or hospitals or visit their families, let alone make cinema, which is a real testament to the brutality of the occupation under which they live.

Israeli journalist Gideon Levy recently wrote:

Doctors, professors, artists, jurists, intellectuals, economists, engineers - none of them are permitted to enter Gaza. This is a complete boycott that bears the tag 'Made in Israel'. Those who speak about immoral and ineffective boycotts do so without batting an eye when it comes to Gaza.

MIFF is right not to bow to pressure from countries like China, who have a questionable human rights record. Equally, they shouldn't bow to the bullying tactics of the state of Israel. Because when you accept Israel as a "cultural partner", then you collaborate in a social, political and cultural denial of an entire people.

This year, Moore is emphasising his autonomy once more by declaring the 2010 festival 'a Ken Loach-free zone': "I won't be going to see his film and if it plays in Melbourne, it won't be in MIFF."

This claim seems more than a tad disingenuous. Moore has, after all, confirmed that this year's festival will again accept Israeli government funding, so nothing about MIFF's understanding of their relationship to the world beyond the festival doors has changed. Most likely, the real reason Loach's film about the war in Iraq won't be showing this year is because he will ask the question: is MIFF still taking money from Israel?

This was never an issue of censorship, or not showing Israeli films. It was always about how Richard Moore and Australian cultural festivals are politicising their programs by accepting money from Israel, thereby supporting the actions of a brutal and oppressive government.

Loach again:

The boycott of apartheid South Africa suffered similar criticisms to the ones you now make. But who would now say it was wrong? ... You either support the boycott or break it.

Jacinda Woodhead is a Melbourne writer and the online editor for Overland literary journal, where she blogs about politics and literature.