Gareth Smith, Palestine Liberation Centre
Israel’s Netanyahu who is about to be charged with bribery is so desperate to win the coming election that he has allied his party to the extreme right wing Otzma Yehudit. This ultra-nationalist Jewish power are followers of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, who was banned from the Knesset in 1988 due to his racist views. The party supports extending Israeli sovereignty throughout the West Bank and expelling Israeli Arabs it deems to be disloyal. It includes members who view Baruch Goldstein, who massacred 29 Palestinians worshipping at the Cave of the Patriarchs in 1994, as a hero.
Netanyahu’s promised the merged party two ministries if he continues to govern after the April 9 election.
Israel now, under this Netanyahu snafu, is so on the nose that the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council and the Zionist Federation of Australia have expressed their ‘deep dismay’. No doubt it will take more than this for the Australian government to support the Palestinian struggle.
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