Apartheid? No, Bob Carr, Israel is a bold work in progress

Nick Cave will ignore the BDS movement by playing in Israel next month. Picture: AFP

Remember when Greg Hunt, as minister for the environment, announced a plan to kill two million cats? He spoke of the “tsunami of violence and death” spread by the feral killing machines. The plan was to shoot, trap and poison them. Sounds good so far, but Hunt put a few notable noses out of joint — including French ­actress Brigitte Bardot, who thought it “animal genocide”, and English singer Morrissey, who called it “idiocy”.

I’ve never been a fan of the ­former Smiths singer. He adopts the pose of a sullen miserablist, but then the poor fellow is from Manchester. Nonetheless, were I in Israel this weekend, I’d go along to his concert at the Zappa Amphitheater Shuni, and not just because it is set gloriously in Roman ruins just south of Haifa.

Morrissey is a regular in Israel where he has, understandably, a significant fan base. And that won’t be just because of his music. Whatever one might make of his odd songs, Morrissey is one of a growing band of artists brave enough to challenge the Palestinian-orchestrated Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.

And so is Nick Cave, who has come under intense fire from some deluded rock stars in the West, including Britain’s Brian Eno and Roger Waters. But Cave toured Israel in 2017 and plays there again next month.

Some BDS sympathisers believe they have joined a campaign similar to the one that put pressure on South Africa’s racist government in the 1980s. For them, describing Israel as an apartheid state is a favoured tactic.

For almost five decades, the people of South Africa were divided along racial lines in a barbaric, strictly enforced system that socially, economically and, of course, politically neutered the black majority so that white ­supremacists could run the country for the benefit of its minority white population.

Not enough whites fought against this absurd cruelty, but one who did, as an isolated member for many of her 36 years in the parliament, was the legendarily resolute civil rights campaigner Helen Suzman, a prominent Jew among many in South Africa who opposed the inhumane racial divisions.

Labelling Israel an apartheid state is lazy and uninformed, but seems to be gaining favour among the Western supporters of BDS, despite Arabs living in Israel having rare democratic rights.

Nevertheless, BDS supporters portray Israel as racist and adrift from international norms, as white-ruled South Africa was some 40 years ago.

This week, Sydney’s The Daily Telegraph newspaper revealed that former foreign minister and NSW premier Bob Carr, a sometime commentator in this newspaper, had last week sent an email to Labor supporters with the ­subject line “State Conference Motions” and opened with the words “APARTHEID … SETTLEMENT EXPANSION … HUMAN RIGHTS”.

Former NSW Premier Bob Carr. Picture: NCA NewsWire

Apparently, the southern Sydney Kogarah branch of the Australian Labor Party has passed a motion demanding the next federal Labor government “work with the European Union and the like-minded governments to apply bans to products produced in Israeli settlements, any investment or finance associated with settlements, given that all settlements are illegal at law and a barrier to a two-state solution”.

Apartheid? Really, Mr Carr? A few days ago it was announced by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem that an Arab woman, Professor Mona Khoury-Kassabari, would become its first Arab vice-president. One of her roles will be to promote the interests of Israeli communities under-represented in academia, including Arabs.

One in every five Israelis is Arab, and they vote, sit in parliament, are on the Supreme Court, and since 2004 it has been law that every state-run company must have at least one Arab citizen on the board. There are Arab generals in the Israeli Defence Force, there are senior Arab Israeli police officers, road signs there are in Hebrew and Arabic, and some are even in English, which can be handy for those of us who visit from Australia.

When Nelson Mandela — who knew more about apartheid than most — was president of South Africa, that country had ­robust ties with Israel.

Martin Luther King knew a great deal about racism and discrimination. Ten days before he died, he had this to say about ­Israel: “Peace for Israel means security, and we must stand with all our might to protect her right to exist … Israel is one of the great outposts of democracy in the world, and a marvellous example of what can be done, how desert land can be transformed into an oasis of brotherhood and democracy.

“Peace for Israel means security, and that security must be a ­reality.”

But, of course, some British rock stars are wiser than that.

Now, as with Morrissey, I am not a fan of Nick Cave. We wrestled in 1984 over a frozen pizza at a London supermarket and he won. He’s a big fellow. I said to him “You’re Nick Cave,” which he could not deny. I had seen him with his band The Birthday Party in Brixton three years earlier. Had I been honest, I would have told him it was the worst show I have ever seen — the band was so bad, a woman near me threw up.

But Cave is a man with values. In 2017, he smartly dismissed those who would attack him for performing in Israel. When he was last there, he attended a press conference to explain his presence.

He said his decision to play two concerts in Israel was a “principled stand” against the BDS lobbyists, and because he loved “Israel and I love Israeli people”.

This angered Waters: “I read Nick Cave’s press conference statements with a mixture of sorrow, rage and disbelief … this is about children, like the young boys blown to bits while playing soccer on the beach in Gaza. Boys murdered by Israel.

“Nick, the moment came and went, brother. You missed it. If at some point in the future you want to climb out of the dark, all you have to do is open your eyes. We in BDS will be here to welcome you into the light.”

Cave saw through this shallow nonsense: “After a lot of thought, a lot of consideration about the whole thing, I rang up my people and said, ‘We’re doing a European tour — add Israel’.”