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Byron Shire
March 28, 2024

Balance

Latest News

Where should affordable housing go in Tweed Shire?

Should affordable and social housing in the Tweed Shire be tucked away in a few discrete corners? Perhaps it...

Other News

Cinema: Wicked Little Letters

Based on a true scandal that stunned 1920s England, Wicked Little Letters centres on neighbours Edith Swan and Rose Gooding in the seaside town of Littlehampton.

Editorial – Let’s do the development dance!

Some good questions were raised by residents at last week’s Council meeting – and were ‘taken on notice’ by Mayor, Michael Lyon.

Mandy Nolan’s Soapbox: Why Being Seen is Beautiful

There is something profound about being seen. Being accepted and loved for exactly who you are. It’s life changing. It’s simple. It’s transformative. But some people don’t get to experience this. Nearly half of transgender Australians have attempted suicide.That data tells the very real impact of discrimination, stigma and lack of access to gender-affirming surgery. I write this as a woman who was born a woman, who identifies as a woman. I’ll admit, that even in that gender role, that fits within the societal binary, I’ve had my own challenges.

We just love him!

If you’re over 50 you might not be a fan of Tom Jones, but you can bet your mum is. If you’re under 40 you might not even know who he is, but your grandmother probably wet her pants at the mere mention of his name.

Queer family visibility

Did you know that, statistically, if you’ve met a redhead, you’ve also met a trans person? Over 800 trans and gender diverse people live in the Byron Shire, which includes at least 200 children. They’re often a bit hidden though, so come on down and celebrate with them this Trans Day of Visibility!

Urgent appeal

At last Thursday’s Byron Council meeting a long and dedicated campaign to save rail tracks and restore trains in...

Gareth W R Smith, Byron Bay

Danny Wakil you are wrong to claim that people do not have a ‘balanced view’ of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The problem is that they do, and it is not ‘like every conflict… nuanced and complicated’.

Terrorism gave birth to Israel with the Haganah and Irgun’s commander, Menachem Begin, killing Palestinians and Britons (176 at end of 1947) and placing a 350kg bomb in the King David hotel, Jerusalem. Recent historical discoveries by Akevot, the Institute for Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Research (IIPCR), support Ilan Pappés claim that Israel practised ‘ethnic cleansing’ in 1948 when it terrorised between 700,000 and 800,000 Palestinians into abandoning their homes and farms. Palestinians call this the Nakbah or Catastrophe.

Akevot (IIPCR), has also unearthed details of the gang rapes, murders and looting perpetrated by the Jews, which have been kept secret for 73 years. These atrocious crimes have never ended; the Nakba continues.

According to Samidoun, the Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, ‘Israeli occupation authorities arrested 3,100 Palestinians, including 42 women and 471 children, throughout the month of May, in different areas of Palestine, at demonstrations, in night raids and random arrests’. Israel’s May Gaza blitzkrieg killed at least 253 Palestinians, including 66 children, and wounded more than 1,900 people, according to the health ministry in Gaza. Seventy-four government buildings, three mosques, 16,800 housing units and 66 schools were destroyed, bringing the cumulative total of homeless people to 58,000. 250,000 cannot access piped water because water treatment plants were deliberately bombed. Perhaps, for a nuanced and balanced approach, Danny, I invite you to share the damage and death statistics resulting from Gaza’s rocket attacks on Israel!


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1 COMMENT

  1. Nice summary Gareth, unfortunately Danny Wakil and the legion of Israel defenders will never read the history because they do not wish to confront the truth of Israel’s crimes against the Palestinians. The pro-Israel propaganda movement is one ofthe best organised in the world, as you know, and a sparrow cannot shit over Israel without a barrage of letters condemning this atrocity. Both major political parties are petrified of the power of this lobby and really on platitudes to avoid moral action.
    Few people will read books like Antony Lowenstein’s ‘My Israel Question’ which lays it on the line. The lobby calls him a ‘self hating Jew’ just as we are called anti-Semitic

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