Australia’s shameful government has acted shamefully yet again

There are simply no words to describe how the Australian Jewish community has been feeling in recent days.

Australia, always known to be fair and just, has brought great shame on itself when the current Labor government decided to deny a visa to former Israeli government minister Ayelet Shaked, stating that her presence could “vilify” Australians or “incite discord.”

Yet the same government had no issue granting a visa to UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese in November last year, despite her long record of anti-Israel sentiment and accusations of antisemitism. She has vilified both Israel and Jews, including stating that America was “subjugated by the Jewish lobby” and comparing Israel to the Nazis.

But we shouldn’t be surprised, for this is just one more step in what has become a series of steps leading down a stairwell of moral decline in which the values of decency, democracy, freedom, and justice have been cast aside, and replaced with a twisted alternate reality, in which guidance is taken from morally corrupted institutions like the International Criminal Court (ICC), the International Court of Justice (ICJ), and the United Nations – a body in which the majority of members are not even democracies.

This point cannot be lost. Australia, a country founded on fair and democratic principles, is taking its lead from organizations that are not democratic.

When Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong decided to reverse the previous government’s recognition of west Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, she claimed that “Australia will always be a steadfast friend of Israel.”

Yet the actions of this Australian government have shown the very opposite.

It wasted little time in making its decision on west Jerusalem, doing so in October 2022, just months after it was elected in May 2022. This step was nonsensical since, in any possible future agreement, the western part of Jerusalem would have remained in Israel’s hands anyway. Wong also stated that the previous government’s decision to “play politics” caused “distress” to many people in the Australian community while completely ignoring the “distress” she caused the Jewish community with this decision.

Advancing its anti-Israel sentiment, it then decided in August 2023 to adopt a one-sided policy by referring to all areas of Gaza, east Jerusalem, and the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) as “Occupied Palestinian territory.” In doing so, it arrogantly assigned to itself the ability to rule on disputed territories on the other side of the world. It also meant that by blindly recognizing Palestinian demands, there was effectively no need for negotiations anymore. So, it decided to “play politics” itself by siding with the Palestinians in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Australia then doubled its funding to $20 million for the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA. This came despite UNRWA’s documented links to terrorism, including proof that its members participated in the atrocities of October 7 and that its facilities have been used by Hamas.

On October 7 itself - even as Hamas terrorists were running rampant in southern Israel - Foreign Minister Wong called on Israel to exercise restraint. Israelis were being tortured, murdered, raped, and kidnapped, yet rather than showing moral strength and support by standing unequivocally with our “steadfast friend,” she decided to issue a bland statement condemning the attacks and calling for restraint. 

Throughout the war against Hamas, the Government has often called on Israel to “listen to its friends” and the international community. It urged Israel not to pursue Hamas terrorists in Rafah, claiming it would cause a humanitarian crisis - which was proven false. It has also called on Israel not to attack hospitals, ignoring the fact that Hamas terrorists use hospitals and other civilian sites as terror bases.

This disdainful and dismissive attitude towards Israel continues. In the United Nations, the Government has also decided to change Australia’s voting pattern by backing one-sided resolutions against the Jewish State.

So, the hostile action of denying a former Israeli government minister a visa should not come as a shock but should be seen as another step in the continued anti-Israel strategy the Labor government has been carrying out since it came to power.

The Australian Jewish community – a community that has been under severe strain for 13 long months with rising and often violent antisemitism in the streets of our great cities – is profoundly disappointed, even abandoned, by the weak, equivocal policies and actions of our Government towards the Jewish people and a fellow democratic country fighting for its very existence against genocidal enemies trying to destroy it.

Justin Amler is a policy analyst at the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC). 

This op-ed is published in partnership with a coalition of organizations that fight antisemitism across the world. Read the previous article by Adam Milstein.