Gold Coast advocacy group calls for investigation into ‘material benefit’ of sister city agreement
A Gold Coast advocacy group has called for greater “transparency” after Mayor Tom Tate rejected calls to sever ties with an Israeli sister city claiming the benefits “trump all else”.
Gold Coast
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A Gold Coast pro-Palestine advocacy group plans to lodge a Right to Information request to assess what “benefits” come from a longstanding sister city agreement with Israel’s Netanya.
A petition submitted by Gold Coast based advocacy group FreePalestineAustralia (FPA) has demanded the council sever ties with Netanya amid mounting war crime and human rights abuse allegations over Israel’s bombardment of Gaza following Hamas’ attack on October 7.
However Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate, midway through a full council meeting on Tuesday, rejected calls to sever ties with the Israeli city saying the “benefits” through the exchange of knowledge “trumps all else”.
Mr Tate said works regarding cybersecurity with Netanya would “take us into the future”.
In 2021, the council renamed a beachside area in Surfers Paradise ‘Netanya Place’ to commemorate the 34th anniversary of the agreement.
Netanya Mayor Miriam Fierberg-Ikar said the renaming was a “beautiful gesture” calling Mr Tate a “personal friend”.
The petition has also demanded ‘Netanya Place’ be renamed.
However a letter to an FPA representative on April 10 this year from council said: “Apart from the actual sister city agreement with Netanya signed in 1987, no other agreements or arrangements are in place between our cities.”
The spokeswoman said based on correspondence with Mr Tate’s office, it appeared the city had received “no material benefit” from the sister city agreement.
“We are lodging (the application) in the interest of transparency,” she said.
“When asked directly (Mr Tate’s office) denied any agreements following the initial sister city agreement.
“To then hear that there are cybersecurity arrangements between our cities was quite shocking.”
The representative said the application would also seek to identify how cybersecurity technology developed by Netanya would be used on the Gold Coast.
“We have seen the use of (this technology) in Israel to aid in the oppression and targeting of Palestinians,” she claimed.
“We certainly are concerned about this sort of technology used in our city.”
EARLIER: Tom Tate rejects calls to sever sister city ties with Israeli city
Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate has rejected calls to sever a 37-year-old sister city agreement with an Israeli city.
Dozens of Gold Coasters gathered outside Gold Coast City Council chambers on Tuesday to demand council sever its sister city ties with Netanya.
Several police officers were stationed at council for the full council meeting as an extra security measure.
The meeting was closed for a short time during which protesters continued to chant outside and wave flags.
A petition submitted to council by Gold Coast-based advocacy group FreePalestineAustralia with more than 1000 signatories was launched in January in response to human rights abuse allegations against Israel’s bombardment of Gaza following Hamas’ attack on October 7.
Community advocates have renewed condemnation of the sister city relationship following the bombardment of Rafah, Palestine on Monday which killed 45 people.
More than half of Gaza’s 2.5 million population now reside in Rafah following months of forced displacement.
The bombardment comes just days after the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to halt its offensive on Rafah. The order is legally binding.
It also comes after the ICJ issued arrest warrants for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and senior Hamas leaders.
A Gold Coast-based FreePalestineAustralia spokeswoman said: “This is not a city we want to share a sister relationship with.
“I understand that we can’t just break an agreement over certain disagreements. But there’s a massive difference between a genocide and just mildly disagreeing with another country.
“Israel is in direct contravention of an ICJ order. There is an arrest warrant out for Netanyahu. This is not just a small disagreement and we can’t wait anymore for this.”
However speaking to media on Tuesday, Mr Tate said while the submitted petition will be heard by the committee in due process, he had no plans to look into cancelling the agreement.
“(The agreement) has been around for about 40 years,” Mr Tate said.
“There’s protocol to cancel any sister city relationship. This is something new to us.
“But am I looking at picking one out to cancel when something happens around the world? What happens if something else happens? Do I cancel Dubai or Zhuhai?”
Mr Tate said council evaluates sister city agreements by measuring the benefit it has to the Gold Coast.
He said Netanya’s cybersecurity knowledge was “the best in the world” and was helping the Coast “take us into the future”.
“I’ve got to look at what benefits the city and that trumps all else.”
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