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Ex-Australian Labor Party Chief: Proposal to Ban Israel Trips “Verges on Anti-Semitic”

Australia’s former national Labor Party president Warren Mundine said he was “disgusted” by a resolution being considered by the New South Wales (NSW) Labor Party to ban its members from traveling to Israel on trips sponsored by Jewish organizations, calling the move “an illogical, verging on anti-Semitic approach,” The Australian reported on Tuesday.

New South Wales is a state in the southeast of Australia that includes Sydney, the country’s largest city.

Mundine warned that adopting the resolution at its convention, which starts on February 13, would make NSW Labor a fringe party.

“We do not do this to other countries,” he observed. “Name another country that the Labor Party bans people from going to? There are none.”

“What is the difference with this country?” Mundine added. “The only difference is that they are Jewish, and I just find that quite sickening that a party that I was president of would move down that road.”

According to The Australian, 39 of the resolutions proposed for the conference concern Israel, while just 17 focus on all other international issues, including the Syrian civil war and the Paris bombings. No resolutions dealing with either Saudi Arabia or Iran were proposed.

The paper added that the move was in part driven by a desire to appeal to Muslim communities in southwest Sydney.

“In politics you understand these things, but there is a moral line that you do not cross,” said Mundine.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that the proposal in question, which was brought forth by the group Labor Friends of Palestine, calls for no Labor officer, member of Parliament, or Young Labor member to “accept a paid trip from the Israel Lobby” while Jerusalem “continues settlements, refuses a Palestinian state [and] brutally mistreats Arab residents of the West Bank.”

The Herald added that the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies regularly organizes subsidized tours for politicians and reporters to Israel. The group’s chief executive, Vic Alhadeff, said all such trips also include visits to the West Bank, where attendees meet with “top-level Palestinian officials”.

“This ensures the integrity of the program and gives Australian delegations an opportunity to see for themselves the reality on the ground,” he explained.

Bill Shorten, federal leader of Australia’s Labor party, has refused to endorse the anti-Israel proposal, instead “trusting MPs to form their own judgments about their travel arrangements.”

[Photo: CISAus / YouTube ]