What began as a powerful anti-Palestinian campaign by a few Zionist organisations and individuals turned into a victory for Adelaide Writers' Week (AWW) and the Palestinian writers who attended.
The sessions featuring the Palestinians, particularly those held in conjunction with Australian First Nations writers, were phenomenally popular; hundreds of people attended these sessions.
As Louise Adler said, “People are free to deeply object. They don’t have to come. Or come, and you don’t need to agree with what people think. But people listened. These steadfast Adelaide audiences came out in their thousands and listened with courtesy and respect for the conversation. It should be something that lifts the spirits of all of us.”
“The definition proposed for adoption by the South Australian parliament is one devised by the International Holocaust Remembrance Association (or IHRA). It is a flawed definition because it singles out one group of people for special treatment. This motion is specific to Israel and to Israel only. The motion moved by One Nation’s Sarah Game gives Israel a ‘get out of jail free’ card.
The motion itself determines the ways in which we might be allowed to criticise Israel without finding ourselves labelled as antisemitic.”
"During my visit to the neo-natal unit at Makassad Hospital, I met the sole survivor of premature triplets who were born at 26 weeks – doctors had to tell her parents over the phone that both her siblings had died, as her mother had to return to Gaza days after giving birth. This particular baby had been ready to go home since March, yet it was only last week that her mother was issued a permit and was able to collect her and take her home."
"The isolation of the Gaza Strip dramatically intensified during the second Intifada, and then again, following Israel's unilateral removal of settlers (the "disengagement") in 2005 - a development which, contrary to Israeli claims, did not change Gaza's status as Israeli-occupied. "Movement has become the exception, and restriction is the rule," said Hary, whose NGO works to protect the freedom of movement of Palestinians."
"They also continued to use force as well during the incursions into the West Bank. In the Gaza Strip, Israeli forces wounded 11 civilians, including 3 children, a paramedic, and a journalist, while participating in the Return March. Moreover, 2 Palestinian civilians were wounded after being targeted in the border area of the Gaza Strip. In the West Bank, Israeli forces wounded a Palestinian child."
"So it’s time to fantasize, to dream about a general election, but a different kind, a dream about democracy. It won’t happen soon, but one day it will. Israel will have to become a democracy because it doesn’t have the right to exist otherwise. Without real elections, it’s not a democracy. What it imagines as democratic is an electoral trick. A fundamental rule in democracies is the universal right to vote. One person, one vote."
"The political component of the administration’s peace plan—which Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor, is overseeing—has not yet been unveiled. There are many reasons to be skeptical about the Trump administration’s proposed economic workshop in Bahrain. For one, laying out an economic plan ahead of a political vision is simply the wrong way around."
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