ABC accused of insulting Jewish community on Rosh Hashanah
Australia’s public broadcasting network was accused of a “studied insult” against the Jewish community for dedicating on Rosh Hashanah almost half of its weekly current affairs show to the Israel-Palestine debate. Monday night’s weekly “Q&A” program on ABC featured Ilan Pappe, who said the pro-Israel narrative “serves as the basis for the continued ethnic cleansing of Palestine.” In a speech in federal parliament Thursday, Jewish lawmaker Michael Danby accused the ABC of “a studied insult” against the Jewish community. Danby said:
Having an academically undistinguished extremist on Rosh Hashanah is like having someone from Hizb ut-Tahrir advocate the abolition of Christianity and Australia on Christmas eve.
Program host Tony Jones said:
A lot of people have made this same point, but it was the only night that Ilan Pappe was available, and we thought it was an important debate and should go on anyway.
Pappe is in Australia to give the annual Edward Said Memorial Lecture in Adelaide and to speak this weekend at the Sydney Opera House’s Festival of Dangerous Ideas on the topic “Israel is an Apartheid state.
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