Murray’s Masterclass
"There is no crime in being a 21-year-old man who went to a music festival. There's no crime in being a 74-year-old grandfather stolen from your house and your community," says Murray,
“If you had a day where terrorists came and killed 5000 Australians and took 1000 Australians hostage and you knew that those Australians were being raped and tortured on a daily basis, would you not expect the world to be on your side when you asked them to be returned?
“Would you not expect your government to tear up the earth to get your citizens back? And would you not be insulted and offended if nobody talked about your civilians?” British author and commentator Douglas Murray asked an audience comprising mainly non-Jews at Sydney’s Enmore Theatre on Sunday.
“If Australia was repeatedly being rocketed by New Zealand and the rest of the world said, ‘Well, you’ve just got to give them more land,’ I would expect the average sensible Australian … to not view that with equanimity.
“I think all countries know best how to look after their own security,” Murray said, noting if other governments “think they know better” what Israel needs to give up for peace, “They’d better be 100 per cent certain and 100 per cent right.
“Because if you tell an ally or a friend to take that risk and you’re wrong, you might be able to shrug it off, but the morgues in Tel Aviv will be full again.”
Murray noted that “Israel is the one country where the posters of the kidnapped do not get torn down,” telling how a relative of the Bibas family saw a poster of one-year-old hostage Kfir ripped down in Dublin.
“There is no crime in being a 21-year-old man who went to a music festival. There’s no crime in being a 74-year-old grandfather stolen from your house and your community,” he said.
“I would think that those people too are deserving of the world’s empathy, their attention, their care, and an endless call for their release.”
A small group of protesters chanted “Free Palestine” and “shame, Enmore Theatre, shame” outside the venue in the heart of Greens MP Jenny Leong’s left-leaning Newtown state electorate. Murray put it down to “my support for Israel, it’s driving them mad”.
Police formed a cordon between protesters and the theatre to ensure audience safety.
On Saturday afternoon, Murray received a warm Shabbat welcome from a packed Central Synagogue. Arriving later than scheduled due to protesters outside his hotel, he jokingly said he seems to be spending more time in shule than his Jewish friends these days.
Murray told of spending the last few months in Israel and entering Gaza with the IDF, who he said have acted in the most “ethical, disciplined and determined” way.
Prior to Australia, Murray visited South Africa and was scathing in his assessment of its ANC government, who he described as “horribly corrupt”, saying its genocide case against Israel is absurd given it cannot even provide adequate water or electricity for its own citizens.
Murray also spoke at a private UIA event in conversation with Tammi Faraday in Melbourne on Monday before talks at the Athenaeum Theatre on Tuesday and Wednesday.
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