Sharma hosted far-right Israel group disavowed by other Jewish associations

Labor MPs have accused Liberal politicians of encouraging extremism by appearing at a Parliament House event organised by a controversial right-wing pro-Israel group whose star speaker has dismissed a two-state solution as a fantasy.

Debate about the event will add to a febrile atmosphere in parliament this week, with the Coalition preparing to attack Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for his response to a requested International Criminal Court arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Greens planning to test Labor’s divisions by introducing a motion supporting Palestinian statehood.

Liberal senator and former ambassador to Israel Dave Sharma said he would continue to meet with the Australian Jewish Association. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Labor’s divisions on the Middle East have been visible in recent weeks, with Albanese criticising Labor senator Fatima Payman’s use of the phrase “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, and Labor MP Josh Burns opposing the government’s decision to support extra Palestinian rights at the United Nations.

On May 13, the Australian Jewish Association (AJA) thanked NSW Liberal senator Dave Sharma – who previously served as Australia’s ambassador to Israel – on social media for hosting a screening of a portion of the movie Whose Land? and a discussion by the film’s presenter, Richard Kemp, at Parliament House.

Prominent Jewish groups have previously disavowed the AJA and its president, David Adler, saying the association is “utterly incompatible with Jewish values” and engages in “reckless social media ‘click-baiting’”.

The group has held events with One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, groups that help young settlers establish unauthorised outposts in the West Bank, and Yad L’Achim, an ultra-Orthodox organisation opposed to interfaith marriage.

Alex Ryvchin, co-chief executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, said the Australian Jewish Association did not speak for this country’s Jews.

Alex Ryvchin, co-chief executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, announced in November that he was cutting off contact with the group, saying: “Please be aware that the ‘Australian Jewish Association’ has no representative status and in no way speaks for or reflects the views of Australian Jews... We urge media, government and other stakeholders to be aware of who this group is before engaging with them.”

Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council chairman Mark Leibler blasted Adler as an “unrepresentative extremist” leading a “fringe organisation” during the Voice to parliament referendum, when the No campaigner questioned the skin colour of Indigenous journalist Stan Grant and Indigenous senator Lidia Thorpe in social media posts.

The website for the two-part documentary Whose Land? says the film “reveals that the ‘Palestinian’ claim to any part of the land has no historical basis at all”.

The film is based on interviews with legal experts and former Israeli officials who disparage terms such as the “occupied Palestinian territories”, defend Israeli settlement building in the West Bank, and declare Israel has rightful sovereignty over the entirety of the territory that formed British Mandatory Palestine. This area includes the entire West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem.

These issues are hotly debated among international law experts, as well as Israeli and Palestinian advocates.

Kemp, a retired British army officer and passionate defender of Israel, said in a 2015 tweet: “The two-state solution is a fantasy.”

In a 2014 article for the Gatestone Institute, a conservative US think tank, he wrote: “There can be no two-state solution and no sovereign Palestinian Arab state west of the Jordan [River], however desirable those things might be. The stark military reality is that Israel cannot withdraw its forces from the West Bank.”

Kemp did not respond to requests for comment via email and telephone.

Labor MPs said Liberal MPs’ attendance at the event brought the Coalition’s stated commitment to a two-state solution into question.

Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care Ged Kearney said: “Senior Liberals are holding themselves to a different standard than they hold everyone else.

“Their credibility is shot, pandering to fringes who deny legitimate Palestinian claims to any land at all. All of us need to get behind a two-state solution. It’s the only way to get a lasting peace in the Middle East.”

Other Liberal MPs who attended the event included Andrew Wallace, Bert van Manen and Warren Entsch.

Labor MP Julian Hill said “the AJA has a dark ideology and has been rejected by mainstream Jewish Australians.

“As a former ambassador to Israel, Dave Sharma can’t plead ignorance – he knows what these people represent.”

Sharma said that his attendance at the event did not mean he endorsed everything in the film.

“I meet with, and will continue to meet with, a number of community organisations and groups, including the Australian Jewish Association, to hear their views,” he said.

“Labor’s attempts to create a distraction from their own policy convulsions and inconsistency, and failure of leadership on antisemitism, are transparent.”

Sharma said he supported a two-state solution, adding there were major practical hurdles.

He questioned whether Labor MPs would refuse to meet Australia Palestine Advocacy Network president Nasser Mashni, who previously advocated “the decolonisation of Palestine and the ending of Zionism”.

Liberal MP Andrew Wallace said he had no qualms about attending the event as a strong supporter of Israel. “It’s hard to imagine a long-term negotiated peace process without a two-state solution, but not one foisted upon the parties by the international community.”

AJA president David Adler said Whose Land? was a significant movie that “gives a different view to the two-state solution mantra”.

“I can’t imagine why any Labor MP would think our event was inappropriate,” he said. “Are they advocating censorship? It’s nuts.”

Adler said the AJA’s strong social media following – it has 61,000 Facebook followers – showed it had substantial support among the Jewish community.

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