This week sees the 30th anniversary of the shameful, ill-advised Oslo Accord between Israel and Palestine. (more…)
Category: Religion
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Imagine a day when the whole planet was at peace
The UN International Day of Peace is next week, September 21st. It is a day for rekindling our noblest aspirations. Imagine even a day when the whole planet was at peace. A day when our most attractive power, our capacity to love, was all one could see. A day when not one person was killed by hateful violence. A day when no one was fearful for their loved ones. (more…)
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The Palestinian catastrophe: Occupation, Illegality and Apartheid
It is time for us to use the words Occupation, Illegality and Apartheid. We are applying these words to an occupying power truculent and implacable in its determination its occupation will never end, committed to a creeping annexation to deliver it a permanent hold over Palestinian land and Palestinian people. … Twenty years ago it would have been unthinkable that Australia’s oldest and largest political party would endorse Palestinian recognition. That’s now taken for granted as the very least we can do in the face of a cruel and continuing catastrophe. (more…)
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Justice delayed is justice denied: The case for a Palestinian state
Peter Wertheim (July 24, 2023) suggests that the Government should resist the call by Former Foreign Minister Bob Carr to recognise a Palestinian state. However, Wertheim’s remarks reflect widespread misapprehensions about relevant history, facts on the ground and international law. (more…)
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The future of the Catholic Church: Creating unity through diversity
Official surveys all show that the Catholic Church in Australia is in serious trouble. Any refusal by the church to be fully inclusive of women and diverse sexualities will almost certainly lead to a much smaller church than has historically been the case in Australia. If the church cannot accommodate greater inclusion and equal human rights, then the continuation of the church as we know it is unsustainable in the long-term. (more…)
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Religion and social policy network welcomes the Statement from the Heart
The Statement from the Heart’s affirmation of the spiritual sovereignty of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their ancestral ties with the land is welcomed with gratitude by the Religion and Social Policy Network of the University of Divinity. RASP is humbled by the audacious generosity extended to the non-Indigenous Australian people through the forgiveness and renewed co-existence offered to us through the Statement. In the face of disproportionate levels of incarceration, the devastating alienation of children from their families, and the theft of country never ceded, we do not merit this forgiveness. (more…)
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The branding
The alleged branding of the Star of David on the face of a Palestinian man by Israeli police has left many around the world aghast at the barbaric cruelty and violence of such an act. It has been reported in numerous media outlets yet is, so far, glaringly left out of others. This kind of humiliation and violence seems to come from another era in a time when racial violence and the attacking of the underdog whilst authorities turned a blind eye was de rigueur. But it’s 2023. (more…)
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A ‘Statement From The Heart’ should always be cherished
How is it that the Uluru Statement from the Heart is even slightly controversial? (more…)
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At National Conference, the ALP has the chance to recognise Palestine as a state
The 1948 Palestinian catastrophe, known to Palestinians as the Naqba, saw 750,000 of their predecessors driven from their lands, over 500 villages and towns destroyed, the extent of the killings, destruction and dispossession denied and no-one held accountable. How should Australia respond? (more…)
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The other form of abuse in the Catholic Church
When we hear the term “abuse” in relation to the Catholic Church, we immediately think of crimes of a sexual nature committed against children by the clergy. (more…)
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There is no legal impediment to Australia’s recognition of Palestine
At the Australian Labor Party’s upcoming national conference in Brisbane, recognition of a Palestinian state — pursuant to Labor’s 2021 national platform that supports the recognition of Israel and Palestine as part of a two-state solution — is on the agenda. Senior Labor party figures, including former Foreign Ministers Bob Carr and Gareth Evans, have already come out in support of recognition. They have made cogent moral and political cases for recognising Palestine but have not addressed the legal arguments in as much depth. (more…)
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If not now, when? The ‘fiction’ of the two-state solution
If Palestinian leaders can’t sort out their differences and unite now, when Palestine is at the precipice of disaster, then when? (more…)
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Compromised by vested interests: UNCOP culture doesn’t match reality
At the end of a Retreat together on “Spiritual Leadership in Difficult Times”, a German social scientist asked me to help her to organise a Retreat for decision-makers at the next UNCOP – the annual UN Conference of Parties focused on preventing catastrophic climate change in ways that are just. Just, yes, especially towards those who have had the least benefit from a carbon economy but need help with adaptation, mitigation and support as regards the loss and damage already suffered. (more…)
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Enough carrots. It’s time for the U.S. to use sticks to change Israeli Policy
It’s hard to know whether to cry or laugh reading the highlights of the hour-long conversation Joe Biden had with the New York Times’ Thomas Friedman on Tuesday, after meeting President Isaac Herzog. (more…)
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Is Pope Francis preparing for the next pope and an “October revolution” in Catholicism?
Its mid-summer in Rome and last week there was a heat wave with a top temperature of 38° Celsius. Hot days in Rome are stifling, with the heat compounded by the over-whelming influx of tourists. (more…)
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Jenin attack created 4,000 new refugees, part of the endless cycle of Palestinian displacement since 1948
The Israeli army’s recent attack on Jenin refugee camp resulted in 13 deaths (12 Palestinians, including four children, and one Israeli soldier killed by suspected friendly fire). An additional 143 Palestinians were injured, with 20 in critical condition, and up to 4,000 displaced. (more…)
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Albanese: Time to dismantle Israel’s “carceral regime”
“Over 56 years, Israel has governed the occupied Palestinian territory through stifling criminalisation of basic rights and mass incarcerations,” said Albanese in a report to the UN Human Rights Council on 10 July. (more…)
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Fallen potatoes-the failure of the Catholic Church
Cardinal George decided I was a potato. Yes, me and all the other talented committed women of the catholic church. My hope is that George Pell’s death spells the end of the misogyny, clericalism and conservatism within the Church and the fallen potatoes finally get a chance to lead a community with wisdom and kindness. (more…)
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The Palestine question: Western media and long-term solutions
Picture the Western media’s outrage if a Russian helicopter gunship went into an occupied Crimean city neighbourhood and began shooting missiles at civilian homes, claiming a militant lived in one. “War crime” would resound. (more…)
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Silence and the horror of Jenin
Why hasn’t the devastation of almost an entire people been called out for what it is? (more…)
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Calvary Hospital acquisition may open new horizons
How different it might have been if the Catholic Church had kept out of it. If, instead of clergy expressing institutional male outrage, it had been Little Company of Mary Sisters (LCM), in the sensible attire of modern nuns, with SRN, and perhaps even, MBA and MBBS, after their names, saying, “This is our hospital. We have dedicated our lives to caring for our patients here, and we will not let you take it from us.” What would public opinion have said then? (more…)
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Uganda’s version of Christianity
There are no genuine homosexuals in Uganda. They don’t exist. And if it they do, it’s the fault of foreign (read Western) influence. If straight men are recruited into being homosexual, then it must be eradicated before it infects all Ugandan men. Stephen Fry went out of his way in 2022 to dispel such nonsense; even travelling to Uganda to confront those who held such unenlightened views. (more…)
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The case for recognising Palestine
Since a United Nations General Assembly Resolution vote in November 2012, Palestine has had the status of a state within the UN system. It is not a full member state but, like the Holy See, a non-member observer state. Australia – after a heady debate within the Gillard cabinet – abstained on that vote. (more…)
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Israeli Defence Force shoots and kills a 3-year-old
Most people can focus to see if they’re looking at a bird, a car or a person. Throw in a military scope and the sharp eyes of youth and ask yourself if you would spot the difference before you pulled the trigger. (more…)
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Catholics should go where the government isn’t
I do hope that the Catholic Church remains closely involved in providing health care to Canberra citizens, particularly the poorer ones, after the takeover by the government of Calvary public hospital. Indeed I suspect it could be making for itself, and Canberra citizens, greater treasure in heaven if it got entirely out of the provision of government-funded health care and concentrated on areas where the less well-off were not as well served by government as they could be and should be. (more…)
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Australia and apartheid Israel: “not to act is to condone”
The recent Robert Gregory blog in Australian Jewish News demands a response. (more…)
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What will it take for Peter Dutton to say ‘YES’ to the ‘Voice’?
Obviously if the Hon. Peter Dutton were to change his mind and offer bipartisan support for the “Voice” Referendum, its prospects would be immensely improved. (more…)
