Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I commence by also thanking the member for Fadden for bringing this motion forward for the parliament to consider, because there is never enough opportunity to stand in this place and restate our commitment and support to—as the preceding member referred to in his speech—not just an ally but a friend. I share that sentiment resolutely. Today we acknowledge the 70th anniversary of the rebirth of the modern state of Israel and also the 80th anniversary of the conference at Evian-les-Bains on the plight of the Jewish people and refugees in the lead-up to the Second World War.

One of the things I'm most proud of about the Goldstein electorate is not just that it is named after a woman and a suffragette—a Jewish one, at that—but that it is one of Melbourne's and Australia's largest Jewish communities, because of the migration waves of South African and Russian Jewish people particularly towards the northern parts of the electorate as well as many other people of European Jewry in parts of Brighton. The Jewish community enriches the Goldstein community as well as Melbourne and Australia. Every day I'm reminded of that in engaging with the Jewish community, who are full participants in our community and support each other. Only last week I was at the UIA dinner in Melbourne with Dennis Prager from the United States, a radio talk show host who'd come out to speak at the event to celebrate the way Jewish people support each other as well as the communities that surround them.

Our need to support them in return is critical. As the previous speaker noted, Israel is not just an ally of Australia; like the United States, it is a friend. It's an enduring friendship which we should all be proud of. Our relationship with Israel is built very much and clearly on strong foundations of mutual shared values, our mutual commitment to democracy around the world and within our own countries. It's a commitment built on anchoring the rights of the individual to be free to pursue their life, their opportunities and their enterprise, and a commitment to human rights and progress as the foundations of our nations and what we aspire to achieve together.

We know the rich history of Israel and its modern state. It is a nation that has taken sand and tradition and turned it into a modern state of culture, progress and economic opportunity and is a beacon for the light of the world. The people of Israel should be enormously proud of what they have achieved and what they have succeeded in delivering together. But we should never lose sight of the fact that there are always those with causes who want to delegitimise the state of Israel in its current form. We see this emerge in our country and others, around boycott divestments, sanction programs, and political movements and efforts to create moral equivalence about the state of Israel and its place in the world. I want to make it clear that there is no moral equivalence in my mind. There is no preparedness to turn a blind eye and to suggest that we should not truly value the important role of Israel as the home state of the Jewish people.

Particularly I want to stand up and speak out always against the efforts to delegitimise the state of Israel through the United Nations, where some countries want not just to continue the stigmatisation of the Jewish people but to sever their connection to their homeland. We have seen this in resolutions, particularly in the past couple of years, to try to sever the connection between the Jewish people and the Temple Mount. The tragedy of the holocaust, of course, was a human genocide—there were millions of people who died, were displaced and were treated in the most appalling conditions. But we should never underestimate that part of the objective of the holocaust was not just a human genocide but a cultural genocide as well. When we see international bodies moving motions or resolutions to try to continue to sever those relationships between culture and tradition, and homeland and state, we continue that cultural genocide. We must stand proud and we must stand clear against these efforts. We must do it in celebration of the 70th anniversary of the rebirth of the state of Israel.

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