Will be a staunch pro-Israel voice
Labor Friends of Israel was founded in November last year as a national group to take on the rising challenge Israel and the Jewish community were facing.
The Melbourne launch of Labour Friends of Israel last week heard rousing calls for the party not to go in a dark direction over Israel.
114 people including politicians, trade unionists and Jewish community figures gathered at Temple Beth Israel to hear from former Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and Olympia and former Senator Nova Peris, the group’s patrons.
Labor Friends of Israel was founded in November last year as a national group to take on the rising challenge Israel and the Jewish community were facing regarding misinformation and antisemitism.
Co-convener, former Federal Cabinet Minister Mike Kelly said recent policy directions have been particularly distressing given the long history of ALP support for the creation of Israel and its survival in the face of existential threats.
Other political figures such as former ALP leader Bill Shorten, Macnamara MP Josh Burns and Higgins MP Michaell Ananda-Rajah were present to lend their support.
Andrews said there was a simple reason he is a friend of Israel – it’s the only place in the region where there is a vibrant trade union movement, where women have equal rights under law and has the only Pride March in the Middle East.
He told the gathering that he doesn’t support the creation of a Palestinian State at this time.
“You can only have peace if you have a partner for peace. And at the moment, far from there being the absence of a partner for peace, there is an actively hostile opponent” Andrews said.
He believes people need to be more vocal about what’s at stake.
“We need to make it very clear that the antisemitism that we are seeing in the Jewish community is experiencing today is evil. It’s pure evil” he said.

Nova Peris, Olympic gold medal winner and former Federal Senator gave an emotionally charged speech in which she said, “As a first nations woman I too, like the Jewish people have never ceded sovereignty to our country”.
She said when people ask her why she’s taken on the role of patron of Labor Friends of Israel she tells them that it’s the right thing to do.
“This is the lucky country and history hasn’t been kind to my people over the past 250 years. But the people who did right by my people [are] Labour government people and the Jewish people who have stood by my people”.
Kelly said LFOI aims to advance the cause of social cohesion in Australia, reinforce respect for the rule of law and “challenge the social media efforts of extremists and foreign intelligence services to sow discord and corrode our democracy from within”.
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