AJN STAFF

Australia's Foreign Minister said more construction in Jerusalem is not helpful to the peace process. Photo: AJN file

FOREIGN Minister Stephen Smith has criticised Israel’s decision to allow the building of more homes in Ramat Shlomo, an ultra-Orthodox neighbourhood of Jerusalem.

Speaking to <I>Sky News<P> on Thursday, Smith called the decision, made on Tuesday, a “bad” one.

“I share the view that this is a bad decision at the wrong time,” he said. “It’s not a helpful contribution to the peace process. It’s not a helpful contribution to the very hard work that’s been going on behind-the-scenes, including from the United States, to try and get Israel and the Palestinian Authority together for so-called proximity talks.”

Approval for 1600 additional houses in the burgeoning area –  where media reports put the average household at seven or eight people – was given by Israel’s Interior Ministry. It is controversial because the building would be beyond the Green Line, but the Netanyahu Government said it never agreed to halt construction in Jerusalem.

The approval followed closely on the heals of United States Vice President Joe Biden’s express support for new, indirect peace talks during a visit to Israel this week. That support is based on the cessation of settlement building in the Palestinian territories. Read the full story

DALIA SABLE

Lion FM will soon be broadcast into Melbourne.

MELBOURNE’S Jewish community is set to have its very own radio station after a temporary licence was granted to Melbourne Jewish Radio.

But it has been no easy feat for the station, named Lion FM, with the founding committee having engaged in a long and arduous application process with the Australian Communication Media Authority (ACMA).

“The application process was extremely difficult and many times people probably counted us out. I have a belief that nothing worthwhile in life comes easily and sometimes you need to dig in and fight for something,” Melbourne Jewish Radio secretary Stephen Fennell told The AJN.

“Some 18 months after we began this process, here we are about to begin our maiden broadcast. This is such a great achievement for the community.”

Expected to be broadcasting full time within the next six weeks, Lion FM will cater to different listening groups. It will include a mix of news and current affairs, light entertainment, music and special interest programs.
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CHANTAL ABITBOL

Hebrew University of Jerusalem's emeritus professor of Holocaust Studies, Yehuda Bauer, speaking at Sydney's Mandelbaum House. Photo: David Gross

A FINAL peace treaty between Israel and the Palestinians would not eliminate the rising levels of western anti-Semitism, according to pre-eminent Holocaust scholar Professor Yehuda Bauer.

“Analyses show reasonably clearly that what is being attacked is Israel as a Jewish state, not just as another state, and that the current conflict serves as a trigger that releases people from a politically correct attitude of opposing anti-Semitism,” the academic said in Sydney last week.

The reason for this, he said, is because anti-Semitism is not only a prejudice, but also a “historically ingrained cultural phenomenon” in the Christian-Muslim world that exists latently and can be aroused by a conflict such as the current one in the Middle East.

Prof Bauer, a past winner of the prestigious Israel Prize and professor emeritus of Holocaust studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, is currently touring Australia. He will be the keynote speaker at Monash University’s upcoming Holocaust Aftermath Conference on March 14 and 15.

Speaking at Sydney’s Mandelbaum House last Thursday, he told the audience, including University of Sydney chancellor and NSW Governor Marie Bashir, that a multi-pronged approach is required to battle anti-Semitism, including the use of mass communication channels to present the “facts on the ground”.
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Orthodox ceremony under the chuppah. Photo: AJN file

NAOMI LEVIN

ORTHODOX rabbis have met with Jewish women’s rights advocates to discuss the anomaly of agunot — women whose husbands will not grant them a Jewish divorce.

The meeting was held in Melbourne last week between the Rabbinical Council of Victoria (RCV) and the National Council of Jewish Women of Australia (NCJWA) – and the person who brought them together was Israeli lawyer Sharon Shenhav, an advocate for women’s justice within Jewish law.

Following the meeting, Shanhav told The AJN she was pleased that local rabbis are taking the plight of agunot seriously through the recent introduction of pre-nuptial agreements.

“Agunot are absolutely still relevant and a problem,” she said of the phenomenon, which has lasted for centuries.

She heard from the rabbis, who represented Chabad, Mizrachi and modern Orthodox congregations, that the pre-nuptial agreements — which must be strongly recommended to all couples married by an Orthodox rabbi in Victoria — have been issued more than 600 times already, with only one couple expressing disagreement with the document.
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AJN STAFF

WHEN news broke that the passports of three Australians had allegedly been forged as part of the al-Mabhouh assassination, all eyes turned to Melbourne, where the three came from.

Although all now live in Israel, Joshua Bruce, Nicole McCabe and Adam Korman were all born -– and the former two educated -– locally.

Bruce, a graduate of Leibler Yavneh College, spent a year in Israel after finishing high school in 1998.

He later returned to the Jewish State, settling and spending the past seven years learning at an Orthodox yeshivah.

Bruce’s mother Sarah told the media she was “totally surprised” that her son’s passport had been used fraudulently.
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United Nations. Photo: AJN file

NAOMI LEVIN

WHILE abstaining from a vote is often not perceived as a noteworthy action, last week, two days after launching an investigation into the alleged fraudulent use of Australian passports by the Mossad, Australia was noted as abstaining from a crucial vote regarding Israel in the United Nations (UN).

The vote in the UN’s General Assembly reiterated a call for both the government of Israel and the Palestinians to conduct independent and credible investigations into “the serious violations of international humanitarian and international human rights law reported by the [Goldstone Commission’s] Fact-Finding Mission”.

Australia had previously voted against the resolution, but changed its vote this time around – a move that was heavily criticised by Zionist Federation of Australia (ZFA) president Philip Chester.

When it comes to General Assembly votes, the practice is for Australia to decide its position as close as possible to the actual vote.

However, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith emphasised that the abstention was not “payback” for allegations that Israel forged Australian passports.
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NAOMI LEVIN

AUSTRALIAN police officers are expected to land in Tel Aviv on Tuesday (March 2) to begin investigating allegations that Israel committed passport fraud.

Following the discovery last week of three Australian passports, which were alleged to have been forged by Israeli security service Mossad, Australian Federal Police officers will continue their investigation on Israeli soil.

The officers, who are conducting the investigation alongside the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation and the Australian Passport Office, will speak to the three dual Australian-Israel citizens caught up in the fraud.
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Executive Council of Australian Jewry president Robert Goot. Photo: AJN file

PETER KOHN

THE recent sentencing of five men convicted on terror charges in Sydney shows that Australia’s judicial system is working effectively in helping keep the country secure, according to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ).

The men, aged between 25 and 44 and whose names have been suppressed, were convicted last October after prosecutors alleged they had stockpiled dangerous chemicals, firearms and ammunition, in a plan to wage jihad against the Australian government.

Handing down prison terms of between 23 and 28 years for conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism, Justice Anthony Whealy of the NSW Supreme Court said the five men were motivated by “intolerant, inflexible religious conviction”.

Some of the material seized from the group praised Osama Bin Laden and depicted graphic images of violence inflicted on hostages.
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Chloe Beder, Amanda Rotberg and Judith Aldor celebrate Purim in Melbourne. Photo: Peter Haskin

PURIM fever swept Australia this week with schools and shuls hosting celebrations from Friday until Monday.

Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith. Photo: AJN file

NAOMI LEVIN

THE close alliance between Australia and Israel is on shaky ground after Foreign Minister Stephen Smith confronted Israeli Ambassador Yuval Rotem over the alleged fraudulent use of Australian passports by Israeli secret agents.

In a statement to Federal Parliament on Thursday morning (February 25), Smith confirmed that the passports of three Australians — Joshua Bruce, Adam Korman and Nicole McCabe — had been found in Dubai.

He said there has not been any evidence that these Australian citizens were involved in the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a leader of the terrorist organisation Hamas.

Smith said an investigation is being undertaken by the Australian Federal Police and local security agencies to determine whether the three passports were tampered with and used fraudulently.

“I made it clear to the ambassador that the Australian Government regards this as a matter of the gravest concern,” Smith told Parliament. “I underlined to Ambassador Rotem that Australia expected the Israeli Government, its officials and its agencies, to cooperate fully and transparently with the Australian Federal Police investigation into this matter.”
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