Sea change down under: Ex-Australian Foreign Minister announces himself a ‘Friend of Palestine’
http://mondoweiss.net/2014/11/australian-announces-palestine
Australia’s immediate past Foreign Minister, Bob Carr, has dramatically changed his views with respect to Israel and Palestine. In his article “Why I’m Now a Friend of Palestine” published in last Saturday’s The Weekend Australian he explains his change of heart:
“Pennant Hills Golf Club in Sydney is an unusual place for an epiphany on the changes in Israel. Still, it was there I met a Christian volunteer who went to the occupied territories to escort Palestinian children to school to protect them from verbal and physical violence by Israeli settlers. Violence against Arab Kids? Christian volunteers to protect them? From Jewish settlers? None of this was around in 1977 when I rented a room in Sydney Trades Hall and called on Bob Hawke, ACTU President, to help me launch Labor Friends of Israel. In 1977 the Israeli occupation was 10 years old. There were 25,000 settlers. It was easy to believe the Israelis were holding the West Bank only as a bargaining chip. Arabs were terrorists.
Now the occupation has lasted 47 years. There are now 500,000 settlers. Up to 60 per cent of the Israeli Cabinet is on record as opposing a two-state solution. Palestinians have been part of a peace process for 25 years. Israel has gone from secular to religious. The ultra-Orthodox and religious Zionists hold 30 of the 120 seats in the Knesset. It has gone from cosmopolitan to chauvinist, with some ministers espousing a brand of nationalism like that of France’s Le Pen or Austria’s Jorg Haider.”
Mr. Carr was Premier of New South Wales for 10 years. He was Australia’s Foreign Minister up until September 2013, when Labor lost the last federal election. He is an experienced and savvy political figure widely respected by both sides of politics. He is right in the centre of the Australian political firmament. The antithesis of a fringe player. The pro-Israel lobby has gone into overdrive to try and cut him down. Even equating him with David Irving! But Bob Carr carries too much gravitas to dismiss easily. He has strong credentials; he was, after all, the founder of Labor Friends of Israel.