Earlier this month Melissa Parke, Bill Shorten’s “star candidate” for the Perth seat of Curtin, stepped out of the race.
Parke made the decision after comments she made about Israel to a meeting of pro-Palestine Labor activists at the United Voice headquarters in Perth. She had compared Israel’s settlements to China’s activity in the South China Sea, repeated disputed claims that “a pregnant refugee woman was ordered at a checkpoint in Gaza to drink a bottle of bleach”, and discussed Israel in relation to foreign influence on Australian policy-making (both at home and abroad).
“If we are truly concerned as a country about foreign influence in Australia we need to look not only at China but also Israel, whose influence on our political system and foreign policy is substantial,” she said.
Two days later, in her parting statement, Parke tried to explain both her remarks and the decision to leave: “I’ve had 20 years’ experience in international relations and law including living and working in the Middle East … My views are well known, but I don’t want them to be a running distraction from electing a Labor government”.
Rolling controversy
Not a week after Parke left the race, Fremantle MP Josh Wilson copped flak for comments he made at Labor’s National Conference last December. He had said “[Israel] are going to turn Palestine into Swiss cheese”, and referred to it as “an apartheid state”.
Senator for Western Australia and Senate Deputy President Sue Lines made similar statements at the launch of WA Labor Friends of Palestine in March, alleging that an “Israel lobby” has been influencing her party’s policy on Palestine and the Middle East. “Sadly, Israel-Palestine is one of those areas where it’s hard for [Labor] to move forward,” she said. “The Israeli lobby is so powerful within the party and outside of the party and it really does impact on the sort of movement we’ve been able to make in our policy.”
Alex Ryvchin, chief-executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry told WA Today he was saddened to heat “these sorts of dog whistles” coming from an Australian senator regarding a “supposed Israel lobby”.
Bill Shorten was quick to distance himself from the comments made by Parke, Lines, and Wilson. Wilson and Lines both offered retractions, of sorts, with Lines saying that she supports the Labor Party’s policy.
An old problem
Last year the ALP moved closer to accepting Palestinian statehood, passing a resolution at its national conference which called on the next Labor government to support “the recognition and right of Israel and Palestine to exist as two states within secure and recognised borders”. This was a position already held by several Labor state governments.
But the Israel/Palestine question remains one of the sourest flashpoints within the ALP’s murky factional conflicts.
Back in 2014, Bill Shorten kicked up factional strife criticising the position the ALP had taken on the Israeli settlements since 2008 — that they were all illegal in accordance with international law. Contradicting the party’s official party line, Shorten stated that “some” were illegal. This was around the time Bob Carr made his infamous statements about the “pro-Israel lobby” and its supposed hold on the party and then prime minister Julia Gillard.
This is not a new internal conflict for Labor and, like much of the party’s factional chicanery, the conflict doesn’t so much hinge on the content of the comments made or the beliefs held, but rather that there is conflict at all.
“United Labor”
This election Shorten is running with the motif of a “united Labor”, as if he is a Care Bear with a picture of John Curtin on his belly. With this in mind, it’s not surprising Parke, Wilson and Lines seemingly had the choice to drop out or shut up. This election is looking so tight that to alienate one special interest group of community may prove to be fatal.
Special interest groups like AIJAC (Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council) naturally lobby both sides of politics, and like any other group put pressure on politicians to alter policy or clarify a comment. To speak of an “Israel lobby” or to allude to unverified Israeli war-crimes is to throw away votes that cannot currently be thrown away.
Labor holds the inner-city Melbourne seat of Macnamara, for instance, by a margin of 1.2%. MP Michael Danby is retiring, with candidate Josh Burns running in his stead. Danby counted on the support of Macnamara’s Jewish community and it’s a support that Josh Burns, and Labor, cannot afford to lose.
The resignation of Parke and the chastising of Wilson and Lines is not a paranoiac’s story of a Jewish cabal, but rather a neat little parable as to how delicate the negotiations of power are in this election. For Shorten, there is not a fear of division — the division has long existed — but a fear of acknowledging of that division.
Instead of focusing on the relatively trivial issue of differences between members of the Labor Party, you should be focusing on the substance of the issues. It is a fact that both major political parties support the Israeli government.
It is a fact that the media coverage of the Israel Palestine issue is overwhelmingly sympathetic to Israel and self-censors on reporting even the basic facts about daily Israeli atrocities against Palestinians.
It is a fact that the Israeli lobby here (as in the UK, USA and elsewhere, is incredibly powerful, yet stories about “foreign influence” on our politics never mentions this fact.
It is a fact Australia either vote against or abstains on UN Resolutions critical of Israel.
It is a fact that Israel regularly attacks its neighbours, and most recently and frequently Syria without a word of criticism from either our media or our politicians.
It is fact that Israel (along with the US) is a serial violator of international law, but our “rules based international order” loving politicians cannot bring themselves to even allude to the fact.
It is fact that criticism of Israel or its policies are frequently sidetracked by ridiculous allegations that the critic is “anti-Semitic.”
It is fact that our media and politicians persist in pushing the absurd fiction of a “two State solution.”
There are many other illustrations, but those make the point.
Get off your cowardly backsides Crikey and report what is really happening.
Agree, esp the last point – look how long it took for your comment to be released by the ModBot.
A reasonable summation I would think James. The Israe lobby is real, powerful and very sensitive. Parkes claims, apart from the bleach reference which I haven’t heard, are hard to argue.
Not just Labor who doesn’t want to touch this hornets nest.
The great shame of Labor politics today is that it rarely goes deeper into the intellectual dermis than strictly necessary so as not to scare off the timid voter.
The argument being is that you can’t achieve anything from opposition. True enough, but why vote for the timid in the first place?
That said, this election we are seeing a bit of good old fashioned Labor vision. Unlike many, I believe a bit of mongrel will be rewarded at the ballot box.
What a load of codswallop! I don’t know anyone who supports a particular political party who agrees with every last policy position of that party. We are not all meek ‘followers’ as you suggest we should be…and I think Labor should be big enough to acknowledge that.
Now…whether or not that should extend to candidates standing under a party banner, is a decision for that party…and the voting public will either accept that ruling or vote elsewhere. There are a million reasons why people become fellow travelers of any ‘group’, but you would be hard pressed to find even one who agreed with everything that was said/done in such a group.
And finally…debate and disagreement is what moves any group forward…progressive ones that is!
The pro-Israel lobby is a myth, Israeli war-crimes are ‘unverified’, and ‘some’ Israeli settlements on land occupied by an invading army are not illegal under international law – some serious fact-checking needed here.
It is you who needs to fact check. You are utterly wrong on all three counts.
The Voldemort of pressure groups?