Accusations of anti-Semitism rife as the Australian Senate debates BDS

Who needs to take a principled stand on human rights issues when parliament’s time can be spent simply commending and condemning on one’s whim? National’s Senator Ron Boswell doesn’t like the BDS:

Senator BOSWELL: I move the motion as amended:
That the Senate—
(a) condemns the intensification of the Global Boycott Divestments and Sanctions campaign being conducted against Max Brenner chocolate cafes;
(b) rejects this tactic as a way of promoting Palestinian rights; and
(c) agrees with the New South Wales Greens MP Mr Jeremy Buckingham’s assertion ‘that the tone and the public perception of the Max Brenner protests may be counterproductive to the cause of peace and human rights in the Middle East’.

Question agreed to.

While the ALP, Liberal, and National Senators voted in favour of this motion, it is noteworthy that The Greens decided to vote against it.

Liberal Senator Eric Abetz took the opportunity to let the house know he felt the BDS campaign to be ‘vile and detestable’ (and in case it wasn’t noted, he shared that it was, to his mind, ‘vile and detestable’ four times over).

After his rant, and with reference to Senator Boswell’s remarks from the previous day (that ‘the Greens do not want to do the right thing’; ‘the Greens want to intimidate Jewish business’; ‘this is 1939 revisited’), Greens leader Bob Brown said:

Senator BOB BROWN: What we have just heard is hectoring, an untoward diatribe from the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate utilising a great concern around the world about its inability to settle the Middle East question, the travail of the Palestinian people and the security of the people of Israel [...]

What we are seeing here is a totally disgraceful debasement of the way in which this house works—by innuendo, hatred, use of the word ‘vile’, inference across the chamber against honourable senators—and the diversion of a debate that is about the healing of wounds in the Middle East and about what we can do in this chamber to help see the Palestinians have statehood in their own right and the Israelis, with their statehood, being able to live together with the Palestinians, instead of seeing, in Senator Abetz’s own words, the vilest effort to introduce into this chamber a denigration of honourable members of the Senate.

The Greens take second place to none in moving in this chamber to have the issue of Palestine and Israel maturely debated. Time and time again these attempts are voted down by both the major parties. It is our job as senators to debate the issue of the Middle East, because it concerns the peace of the world. What we are getting in the motion that has just gone through the Senate and this motion from Senator Abetz is a tawdry descent into disgraceful calumny—unwarranted, unjustified and totally undignified—against fellow senators.

And on it went, with Senator Boswell having another go, accusing the Greens of anti-Semitism and racism:

Senator BOSWELL: [...] We need this motion to be determined by this parliament of whether the Greens should be censured for the racist, anti-Semitic carryings-on over the last six months when their members of parliament have addressed anti-Israel rallies.

Then Liberal Senator Mitch Fifield had a go, spruiking the Zionist mantra of Israel’s democracy (so long as you’re Jewish) and freedoms (unless you’re Palestinian), (emphasis is my own):

Senator FIFIELD: Let us be absolutely clear: the BDS campaign is part of an orchestrated campaign to delegitimise the state of Israel. Senators, including Senator Brown, who refuse to condemn the BDS movement are well deserving of a motion that decries their incapacity to condemn the BDS movement. That is why a suspension of standing orders should be granted. There is no human rights element to BDS. There is no high purpose or motivation behind the movement. It dresses itself up in the clothes of the anti-apartheid movement, that great and successful movement that sought to fight the abomination of separate racial development in South Africa. But in dressing itself up in the mantle of the anti-apartheid movement, it debases and devalues that noble campaign that was successful in ending apartheid in South Africa. There is no comparison and there can be no comparison between the state of Israel and apartheid era South Africa. Israel is a free and democratic state. The rule of law prevails. There is freedom of speech. There is freedom of association. There is freedom of assembly.

South Africa was a nation where citizens were not all equal before the law. The Middle East, in contrast, is a land where two peoples, Israelis and Palestinians, ultimately seek a two-state solution; they seek two states to live side by side in peace and security. Sanctions, boycotts and divestments will not help the creation of a two-state solution, a two-state solution which I support, a two-state solution which everyone on this side of the chamber supports. Neither will denying the legitimacy of the state of Israel help achieve the goal of a Palestinian state. The real goal of those who support BDS is not a two-state solution. The movement is not pro-peace, the movement is not proPalestinian, the movement is unequivocally and unashamedly anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish.

Although I think boycotts are misguided, people should feel free to buy or not buy whatever product they want. What must be condemned are secondary boycotts. What must be condemned is intimidation. What must be condemned is denigration of a people. What must be condemned are lies about a nation. What must be condemned are the shadows of anti-Semitism, which we see in the placards outside Max Brenner coffee shops around the world. What must be condemned is that shadow of anti-Semitism, which we hear in the chants and the cries of those who are protesting outside legitimate businesses that are simply trying to earn an income, make a living and employ people. In Australia we must stand against those who seek to prevent freedom of association. That is what they seek to do by these secondary boycotts. They seek to prevent people going into a shop of their choice. That is opposing freedom of association.

Greens Christine Milne then said that, actually, the Senate should be debating the question of Palestinian statehood, and the two-state solution, and noted:

I urge the coalition to abandon this depth that they have sunk to in trying to suggest that anybody in this parliament—anybody in this parliament, Senator Abetz—has any sympathy with the Nazis, because that is not the case and it is a grossly offensive way to treat the Senate chamber and the Australian people who elected us and who expect us to behave in a responsible manner. This is a very low point in the Senate.

Yep. Read the full debate on Hansard (pdf). And stay tuned. Thursday is general business.

Featured image of Rabbis for Palestine BDS rally in Canada by Mike Gifford.