Australian Jews Angry Over Iran Delegation
Jewish community leaders in Australia are angry that the government is sending delegates to a summit in Iran, though they have been instructed to walk out at the first sign of “anti-Semitic rhetoric.”
Dr. Danny Lamm, president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, said the attendance of two Australian officials at the Non-Aligned Movement’s summit in Tehran next week sends the wrong message to a regime that “sponsors terrorist groups around the world.”
“The Iranian regime does not deserve the kind of legitimacy it will derive from Australia’s presence,” Lamm said in a statement.
Foreign Minister Bob Carr defended Australia’s decision to send Australia’s Ambassador to the United Nations and the Prime Ministerial Special Envoy but instructed them Thursday to walk out if there’s any “anti-Semitic rhetoric.”
“If there is any of that anti-Semitic rhetoric, that inflammatory anti-Israeli rhetoric, from the president of Iran, our ambassador at the UN is under instruction from me directly to be the first on his feet to walk out,” Carr told reporters.
Lamm said Carr’s decision to order a walk out was “reassuring,” but added, “The entire Iranian regime rests on a political ideology that is corrupted to the core with anti-Semitism. It would therefore have been preferable for Australia to have no representation at all.”
The NAM is a group of 120 nations not aligned to any major bloc. Australia is not a member.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!
