Published: 7 February 2023
Last updated: 19 March 2024
Speakers at the Sydney rally, supported by the right-wing AJA, accused the Albanese government, the ZFA and Australian Jewish News of being hostile to the Israeli government.
More than 100 people gathered on Sunday afternoon at a rally in Sydney’s east to show solidarity with Israel.
The rally was prompted by the deadliest Palestinian terror attack in Israel in 15 years, leaving seven Israeli civilians dead. The shooting followed a raid by IDF soldiers in the West Bank refugee camp of Jenin in which 10 Palestinians, eight militants and two civilians were killed.
The pro-Israel rally comes as protests attacking the Israeli government's anti-democratic policies spread. Israeli expatriates and Diaspora Jews gathered at events in nearly 20 cities including London, Basel, Munich, Madrid, Sofia, Oslo, New York, Boston, Seattle, San Francisco, Washington, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Vancouver, Toronto and Cambridge, England. In Israel, about 60,000 people demonstrated against anti-democratic policies in the fifth consecutive week of protests.
“There is a sense that this is not only an Israeli democracy issue but also a world Jewish issue,” says Amichai Lau-Lavie, an Israeli-born rabbi and social activist helping organize the New York rally. “We see what we’re doing as standing in solidarity with the best in Israel and protesting the worst.”
The speakers at last Sunday's Sydney gathering had no such concerns about Israeli government. In fact, they attacked the Albanese government, the Australian Jewish News and even the Zionist Federation of Australia (ZFA) as being "hostile" to the Israeli government.
The gathering, at Dudley Page Reserve in Dover Heights, was organised by a private member of the community, Eli Tuvel, and was supported and promoted by the Australian Jewish Association (AJA), a far-Right advocacy group.
Tuvel, in his mid-twenties, told The Jewish Independent that he originally conceived of the idea to organise the rally supporting Israel when the Albanese government, in October, withdrew Australia’s recognition of West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. He said the East Jerusalem synagogue attack prompted him to act.
