Esther Berkon of the Facebook group ‘Jews for Palestine Northern Rivers’ spoke at the Byron Council meeting under that banner in favour of the motion regarding Israel and the Gaza war. At the time of writing (July 5), the above-mentioned Facebook group does not have even one member aside from the two admin. Let that sink in for a moment. They could not convince even one member of the Jewish community to join their Facebook group, and that is because almost 100 per cent of the thousands of Jews that live in this region, do not agree with these terribly anti-Israel opinions.
Yes there are a few thousand Jews worldwide who are anti-Zionist, and there are millions of Muslims worldwide who are pro-Zionist, and strong supporters of Israel. The Jewish community as a rule want a permanent land partition and an end to the constant threat of war, not just a ceasefire where Hamas will rearm and do it all again as they promised. Israelis and Palestinians deserve to live in peace.
Like all wars, the war in Gaza against Hamas is shit and is creating suffering for good people on both sides. Every day Palestinians and Israelis are being killed and every person in the Jewish community that I have met feels immense pain for Palestinian civilians as well as for the people of Israel. The war could have ended months ago if Hamas returned all of the Israeli hostages and surrendered their fighters but they refused to do either one so this bloody war continues.
Byron Council should be putting their energy into fixing potholes and other local issues, and councils have no business playing with international politics. Several local families that I know personally have been seriously harassed and verbally abused in our local streets and markets, just because they were Jewish, leaving the parents and children completely traumatised. High school kids are being harassed both online and in school receiving death threats and being physically assaulted, just because they are Jewish.
Council should be putting energy into bringing us together as a community, not this.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
