“Don’t send that little red Pommie Commie up here again!”

That was the message from Toowoomba in Queensland after a visit by activist Wendy Turner, who had migrated from England as a young mum in 1977 to live in what journalist Chris Masters called “The Moonlight State”; Queensland during the reign of Joh Bjelke-Petersen.

On Friday night, the “Pommie Commie” was feted at Melbourne Town Hall, after receiving the 2025 Jerusalem (Al Quds) Peace Prize from the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network for her years of work advancing the cause of Palestinian rights in this country.

Introducing Wendy to the packed Main Hall, 2018 Jerusalem Peace Prize winner Professor Stuart Rees called her “a resister”, someone whose life of trade unionism and human rights work has resisted bullies and political fatalism, whether it was in the workplace or the streets or the corridors of power. In the latter, APAN president Nasser Mashni described her as “kicking down doors” so that Palestinians could walk through.

Rees connected Wendy’s resistance to the defiant refusal of Palestinians in Gaza to leave their homeland and to the words of poet Dareen Tatour, who was jailed by the Israeli authorities for writing “Resist, My People, Resist Them”.

After receiving the prize, Wendy took the audience back to the Bjelke-Petersen era, remembering the struggle for freedom of association and the right to demonstrate, including one conga-line march in single file that ended at Parliament House in Brisbane. She drew a line from the activism of “those dark days” of infiltration, arrests and beatings by police to the fight for justice for First Nations people, the Your Rights At Work campaign and advocacy for Palestinian rights.

A union-sponsored study tour to the Middle East in March 2010, which took her from the refugee camps of Lebanon to Gaza’s al-Wafa Rehabilitation Hospital (destroyed by an Israeli air strike in 2014), also included current ACTU secretary Sally McManus. It set Turner on a course to meet Palestinians and activists across Australia, leading ultimately to the formation of APAN at a conference in Canberra and her election as its inaugural secretary.

Turner was similarly instrumental in founding Labor Friends of Palestine, and she was keen to remind her audience of the resolutions passed at conferences and the motions carried at branches across the nation, including calls for Palestinian recognition and against continued military ties with Israel, through the efforts of rank-and-file Labor Party members.

“I have been asked by my Palestinian friends why I am still in the Labor Party,” she said. “We too are angered when the government does not use the words or take the actions we would like to see.

“There are those who would love to see the likes of me and others leave, but that, my friends, would be just another win for the Zionist lobby.”

Vowing to keep the question of Palestine in front of the ALP, she declared: “I ain’t going anywhere.”

It was a defiant note in keeping with another poem Professor Rees cited, “Blessed is the Man” by American poet Marianne Moore, which praises the one “who does not excuse, retreat, equivocate; and will be heard”.

On a night when hundreds came together in sombre remembrance of the terrible atrocities of the last 16 months, but also to celebrate the work that has been done to keep the cause of Palestine before the eyes and ears of the Australian public and to combat the scourge of anti-Palestinian racism, the figure of Wendy Turner standing at the lectern was a reminder of the power of one committed to the work of many.

A small woman born in Yorkshire stood tall in the Town Hall in the company of politicians, journalists, Indigenous and Arab and feminist and queer activists and supporters of the Palestinians from every creed and walk of life.

If only her friend from Toowoomba could see her now.

https://johnmenadue.com/wendy-turner-wins-al-quds-peace-prize/

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

HYPOCRISY ISN’T ONE OF THE SINS OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.

HENCE ITS POPULARITY IN THE ABRAHAMIC TRADITIONS…

https://www.voltairenet.org/article221809.htm

Former Israeli Defense Minister General Yoav Gallant acknowledged on 7 February on Channel 12 that he had ordered the IDF on 7 October 2023 to apply the "Hannibal Directive". According to him, it was implemented in some places, but not in others [1]. In extreme situations, this protocol provides for killing Israelis rather than letting them fall into the hands of the Palestinian resistance.

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

Social cohesion is supposedly the order of the day. Our rights are being steadily eroded in its honour. One would hardly imagine that a religious institution would host a political figure for whom fear and division are lifeblood. Yet, on Thursday, 20 February, Emanuel Synagogue hosted Peter Dutton.

Dutton’s current shtick is weaponising antisemitism for political gain, specifically to intensify the persecution of immigrants, asylum seekers, welfare recipients, environmental defenders, and, of course, pro-Palestinian activists. For Jews who quake at the growing influence of the far-right in this country, his welcome into a synagogue is profoundly unsettling.

In the looming shadow of the proposed (since passed) laws against protest near places of worship, three anti-Zionist Jewish women decided to challenge this egregious abuse of the sanctity of the synagogue. Surely, a place of worship relinquishes its status as a sacred space when it becomes the venue for a political event.

Two of us, Judith Treanor and Suzie Gold, stood several metres from the synagogue entrance, holding small innocuous signs. Quickly, the head security wrangler arrived, and asked why we were there and if we were part of the community. Judith pointed out that the latter wasn’t his concern, but confirmed our Jewish identity and our intention to protest Dutton’s attendance at the synagogue. She found it deeply enjoyable to tell him her name means “woman of Judea”. All this took place on a public footpath.

He approved as long as we maintained our distance. When our third activist, Michelle Berkon, arrived, we moved slightly closer but still away from the entrance. The security phalanx offered more obstruction to pedestrians than we did, but the security guy felt compelled to protect the community from the trauma of democracy. He forbade us from approaching further and from walking past the synagogue, threatening to call the police if we didn’t move on. We stayed put.

Within a few minutes, a police car and a patrol wagon arrived. Mention keffiyehs and the crisis in police response times evaporates. The officers conferred with security and synagogue officials before approaching us and asking our purpose. We reiterated our intention to protest a political event and reminded them that the law restricting protest had not been passed. The sergeant said we were “causing fear and alarm” and issued a “move on” order, warning that if we didn’t comply we’d be put “in a cage”, taken to Waverley Police Station, and charged. We complied, albeit in a non-compliant manner. Two “Duttons-in-waiting” strained at the leash, barking orders to “MOVE!” One made a valiant attempt to intimidate Michelle.

We considered remaining at our designated spot, the corner of Ocean and Oxford Streets but, anticipating Duton’s exit, headed for the rear entrance of the synagogue. A security guard spotted us, alerted her team, and said we weren’t permitted anywhere in the vicinity. Suzie asked her, very nicely, to take our photo, but she declined. We hung about for a while, and then returned to our corner.

Within a few minutes, a different posse of police arrived. The sergeant explained he was issuing another “move on” order to protect the good burghers of the synagogue from “alarm and distress”. We explained again that we were Jewish ourselves, and were protesting a political event. Michelle recounted her childhood connection with Emanuel and her parents’ funeral services there. The sergeant demurred that they would have taken place at Chevra Kadisha. His “gotcha moment” was short-lived. He now knows it’s not okay to tell Jews about Jewish cultural practices. He did have the grace to look sheepish. Heeding the call of his earpiece, he wandered away.

The two constables were interested in hearing our views on Palestine, Judaism vs Zionism, and family Holocaust histories. Judith fought back tears as she expressed her heartbreak that a far-right politician was speaking in a synagogue. They were clearly disheartened by what was unfolding. The sergeant reappeared, fortified by new arguments. He asserted boldly that we only objected because we don’t like Dutton. We replied, truthfully, that we were defending people’s right to protest any political event.

He then said our keffiyehs were “causing intimidation and harassment,” but when we removed them, he said it was “too late”, and anyway, it was actually our signs. Suzie staunchly informed him that she had been using that sign for 16 years without issue. He then narrowed it down to Michelle’s sign because of its “German-looking font”. She gave him a short lesson on her right to Holocaust memory. If it weren’t so deplorable, it would have been pure farce.

The good sergeant instructed us to move on, as people were leaving the synagogue. We dallied until he threatened, “We don’t want to take this further but we will”, and told Michelle she’d be charged with breaching the peace if she didn’t hurry up. Apparently, her expression was too loud because he said warningly, “Don’t look at me like that.” As a self-respecting citizen, she replied, “I’ll look at you any way I want,” and, to make it perfectly clear that she understood both the implied threat and her privilege as a white woman, she remarked, “I’m not Black so you won’t shoot me.” The sergeant blustered that this was “intimidating”, reflecting the vacuity of the entire raft of police allegations.

He then warned that if we didn’t provide our identities there’d be trouble, and appeared somewhat deflated when we proudly complied. Judith, seeking once more to impart knowledge, mentioned the Gaza genocide. Probably believing that at last he had logic on his side, the sergeant retorted, “we all have different views on that”, and received another short lesson, this time on the fact that international law wasn’t a matter for his opinion.

Ultimately, we were forced to disperse or risk arrest. Attendees were walking past, scowling and muttering. One man accused Suzie of harassing him and his wife and, to be fair, she was walking in the same direction. Another foamed that we were “shameful and disgusting”. It was utterly absurd. Michelle took a photo of a woman who had been particularly nasty. She turned around looking utterly deranged, and shrieked, “shanda (shame)!” Her husband told us to “piss off” and called us “shit”.

A few days later, we learned that a Jewish officer in the Australian Army has been stripped of his security clearance. He did not consider Israel a foreign state and was willing to share classified information with the Israel Defence Forces. This officer spent nine years with Sydney Community Security Group, which provided security for Emanuel Synagogue for this event. He was trained in Israel by former members of the Israel Security Agency through an organisation funded by the Israeli Government. Via grants disbursed by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, CSG has received millions in Australian Government funding.

Antisemitism thrives on dual loyalty tropes. The Jewish establishment’s support for Israel and consequent bromance with the Zionist far-right thereby cultivate antisemitism, putting Jews at risk. We insist not only on our democratic right to protest any political event, regardless of the venue, but on our obligation to protest the use of our synagogues as networking centres for ideologies inherently injurious to minority communities, and supportive of a foreign state engaged in egregious criminality.

https://johnmenadue.com/police-and-synagogue-attendees-shaken-to-the-core-by-democracy/

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.