How Zionist sponsorship of our politicians pays off
Geez, if you thought the Zionists and their allies in the Murdoch media went to extraordinary lengths to target the Boycotts, Divestments and Sanctions (BDS) campaign in Marrickville, you should see what’s happening south of the border.
For the crime of attending a peaceful demonstration against a Max Brenner chocolate store and their support for Israeli apartheid, four activists have been snatched from their homes in the small hours of the morning, locked in a holding cell, and forced to pay a combined total of $16,000 insuretyto be allowed to leave.
It appears that in the eyes of the courts, protesting in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for freedom is a heinous crime, while Max Brenner’s support for the occupation by its sponsorship of Israel army units isn’t.
Barely a word of the story is being told by the mainstream media here in NSW. The four activists were part of the Max Brenner 19, peaceful demonstrators who were savagely attacked by police at a demonstration on 1 July.
Some weeks after the protest, the court imposed outrageous bail conditions on 11 of the 19. The conditions explicitly deny the Max Brenner 19’s right to assembly by prohibiting them – on the threat of months of imprisonment – from protesting against the company.
This attempt to intimidate the Palestine solidarity campaign in Melbourne has taken place amidst a hysterical campaign by Zionist organisations, Victorian Premier Ted Bailieu, and the police, to silence the BDS movement.
The courts and the cops have gone out of their way to punish the four activists, when none have been convicted of any crime – all they’ve done is attend pro-Palestine demonstrations. In an attempt to isolate and demoralise them, they were denied their right to phone calls when placed in remand. Seven hours passed before they were allowed to speak to their lawyers.
Once the four were brought up for a bail hearing, punitive conditions were placed on their liberty. The magistrate chose the harshest possible conditions for bail for the explicit purpose of preventing them from protesting at, or even near, the Max Brenner store.
To be granted bail, three of the four were made to pay $2,000 in surety each. plus another $8,000 the following week – a sum many times the maximum sentence for the alleged offense. One was singled out for far harsher conditions on the basis that she has been a public spokesperson at the demonstrations.
Once all four were granted bail on these conditions, they were further punished by deliberately delaying their release. Friends of the detainees were forced to wait for five hours to pay the surety.
So who are Max Brenner? They’re a chocolate-maker one hundred per cent owned by the Israeli Strauss Group. For over 30 years Strauss has sponsored two notorious elite Israeli army units – the Golani and Givati brigades. Both have been accused of severe human rights abuses against Palestinians and Lebanese in the 2006 war against Lebanon and Operation Cast Lead in 2009.
Doing business with Israel is doing business with a brutal occupying power that has used military force to maintain its invasion and occupation of Palestinian territory since 1967.
A great deal has been made of a split between Rudd and Gillard over how Australia should respond to a UN vote in support of recognizing a Palestinian state, Gillard wanting to oppose the motion, and Rudd courageously opting for abstention. Ah, but they’re both united on supine support for the Zionist state.
After the pro-Palestinian demonstrators had the crap beaten out of them by the cops, Rudd had himself photographed lolling back in a chair at Brenner’s Melbourne store claiming how it made the best chocolates in Australia and it was just a happy little local business. Come to think of it, sponsorship has probably infested Australian politics for years.
More Nick Possum at brushtail.com
More Nick Possum at brushtail.com.au
