Friends of Bethlehem
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The Marrickville-Bethlehem sister city agreement has received a lot of media attention. Here is some of it: Marrickville meets Bethlehem, controversy erupts Wednesday, 29 August 2007 Antony Loewenstein writes in Crikey.com: Back in 2003, Palestinian Christian politician Hanan Ashrawi was awarded the Sydney Peace Prize. The Zionist establishment reacted with predictable apoplexy and accused her of supporting terrorism and not recognising the Jewish state. After months of fruitless lobbying, then NSW Premier Bob Carr resisted Jewish pressure and presented Ashrawi her award. He later told me that the Zionist lobby "should be much more relaxed about the fact that, in a pluralist media, there will be criticisms of Israel appearing." Four years later, it seems that the Jewish community has learned nothing. When Sydney’s Marrickville Council announced in June it was achieving sister city status with the occupied Palestinian town of Bethlehem, the Zionist lobby went into overdrive. More... Marrickville and Bethlehem sisters to sign Tue 21 Aug, 2007, Rashell Habib, Inner West Courier A five-person delegation from the Palestinian city of Bethlehem is hoping to arrive in Australia this week, after overcoming reported attempts by Israeli officials in Tel Aviv to delay visa applications. The delegation includes Bethlehem Mayor Victor Batarseh, his wife Marcelle, Father Amjad Sabbara from the Church of the Nativity and lawyer Anton Salman. The delegation plans to arrive in Sydney on Thursday to sign a sister city agreement with Marrickville Council. Claims by the Jewish community that Marrickville Council could inadvertently fund the Islamic terror group Hamas through its sister city relationship with Bethlehem have been strongly rejected by the council which has voted to formalise the sister city agreement. More... O little town of Marrickville what a fuss you've caused June 20, 2007, Sunanda Creagh Urban Affairs Reporter, Sydney Morning Herald THE war in the Middle East has come to the inner west. Marrickville Council last night voted to formalise a sister city relationship with the City of Bethlehem Council, drawing fire from a Jewish community group. The NSW Jewish Board of Deputies says the Palestinian council is controlled by the Muslim organisation Hamas. "Their raison d'etre, as clearly expressed in Hamas's charter, is the destruction of Israel and, worse than that, to kill every Jew," the board's chief executive, Vic Alhadeff, said yesterday. But Haskell Musry, a Jew who attended last night's meeting, said Mr Alhadeff did not speak for the majority. "I think most of the Jewish community would be unconcerned," he said. More...  |