Very exciting news just in from Jerusalem Open House.
Dear friends,
After almost five years of legal struggle, we, at the Jerusalem Open House, are proud to announce that the Israeli Supreme Court decided this morning that the Jerusalem Municipality must fund the LGBT community as it does other sectors of society. This, after years of homophobic refusal of City-Hall to support the JOH and its activities.
The direct result of this ground-breaking ruling is that no official body within Jerusalem will be able to discriminate Gays, Lesbian, Transgender and Bisexual people as a policy.
It’s a time of celebration here at JOH, but it’s also a time of gratitude. We want to thank you for supporting our struggle and being by our side. . You gave us not only the means, but also the strength to bear-on. You have a part in today’s victory.
In the spirit of the High Holidays, we’re happy to see that the judges in Jerusalem has finally fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy: “And I will restore your judges as at first and your counsellors as in the beginning; afterwards you shall be called City of Righteousness, Faithful City.”
With this down, we now remain with merely 699 places in the Israeli law where the LGBT community suffers from discrimination. We look forward to our next challenges!
Warm regards from Jerusalem,
Yonatan Gher,
Executive Director
OR
Click here to find out about all the convenient ways to support the Jerusalem Open House.
It is a web site I have set up highlighting the link between the systemic vilification peddled by your ‘star’ and the inevitable result is has on the mental health of the 10 % of young people in this country who are not straight.
For years Davenport has banked great wads of money from the gay community by flogging it their expensive underwear, but when the time comes to discipline one of your ‘ambassadors’ for vilifying that community, you are missing in action.
It’s not good enough, and we are not going to put up with it.
Starting tomorrow (Thursday) we are going to be hitting the GLBTI and metro media with the website, and that is just the start. If you google ‘Davenport’ and ‘suicide’ you will see we are already at number six out of 360,000.
You should ditch Stephanie as an ambassador, as Jaguar have done. To do anything less is to simply profit from hatred and vilification.
Stephanie Rice can burst into tears as often as she likes but I can see no concrete offers of help, monetary or otherwise, to genuinely assist the GLBTI community deal with the vilification related rates of suicide and depression that are endemic in our communities.
If it’s one thing we’ve learnt fighting HIV / AIDS over the last quarter of a century, it is that persistence works. Sooner or later, the broader community are going to associate Davenport underwear with bad corporate governance, and you don’t have to be clairvoyant to work out what that will mean for your bottom line.
It’s unfortunate it’s come to this, but for too long sport has been a ‘safe harbour’ for behaviour that would be unacceptable in any other context, and too often companies that profit from the sporting world won’t step up when required.
Those days are gone.
Rob Mitchell
Member Governance & Inclusion Project, Vic Dept. Sport
Member Integrity In Sport Committee, Australian Sports Commission
The Age ignored the Jewish Community Council of Victoria and the JCCV had a foot stamping, huffy puffy hissy fit.
The JCCV, under its current leadership, has shown itself to be an arrogant organisation that demands everyone act on its own terms. It is an organisation that has perfected the art of the Double Standard.
The JCCV formally broke off all communications with gay Jews last year. It did this because important questions were asked of it that it was not prepared to answer, and it put up a pathetic smokescreen. Read Searle’s letter to me here and some background on an earlier blog of mine.
So when The Age won’t rush to the JCCV’s beck and call why should anyone care?
RELATIONS between The Age newspaper and the Jewish community leadership have further soured, amid claims of persistent bias in the newspaper’s reporting on Israel.
August 25, 2010, 11:27 am
JCCV president John Searle. Photo: AJN file PETER KOHN
RELATIONS between The Age newspaper and the Jewish community leadership have further soured, amid claims of persistent bias in the newspaper’s reporting on Israel.
To make matters worse, Jewish Community Council of Victoria (JCCV) president John Searle said the newspaper’s editor Paul Ramadge appeared unwilling to conduct the most basic communication with the Jewish communal leadership.
A joint statement from Searle and Zionist Council of Victoria (ZCV) president Dr Danny Lamm on August 20, revealed that Searle had not heard back from Ramadge after a telephone message he left with his office on June 4 about the newspaper’s coverage of the Gaza flotilla crisis.
The JCCV and ZCV confirmed on Monday that the phone call, a June 8 letter from the ZCV’s public relations chair Sam Tatarka, and a June 10 letter from Searle had all been ignored by The Age.
Searle had written to Ramadge about his failure to respond to the phone message, advising the editor: “Your attitude bespeaks scant respect for the Jewish community.”
But following an AJN request to The Age this week for a comment, Ramadge responded to the JCCV and ZCV on Tuesday, apologising for the delay.
In last week’s statement, the JCCV and ZCV said The Age coverage of Israel ranged from journalist Michael Backman’s 2009 “smear job” on Israeli backpackers in Nepal, to biased reporting of the flotilla incident, to “the more subtle and insidious”.
As an example, the organisations pointed out the sub-editing of a story from UK paper The Daily Telegraph, in which The Age version changed “Jewish settlements” to “illegal Jewish settlements” and “West Bank” to “occupied West Bank”.
“I think the fact that they take a report from somewhere else and they republish it but add certain words or phrases that further colour the message is an indication of ill intent,” Dr Lamm said when contacted by The AJN.
Searle and Dr Lamm accused the Melbourne broadsheet of “steering its readership to a more anti-Israel position” which has resulted in “legitimising anti-Semitism”.
“We make this statement with regret. However we have spoken to Mr Ramadge on a number of occasions, both privately and in public forums. While he is adept at making the right noises about The Age’s impartiality, his follow-through leaves a great deal to be desired. We believe that The Age’s record speaks for itself. Quite simply The Age is not a friend of our community.”
In a belated response to the JCCV and ZCV, The Age editor Paul Ramadge this week defended his newspaper’s Middle East coverage.
JCCV letter to The Age
HERE is the letter sent by JCCV president John Searle to Age editor-in-chief Paul Ramage: I write once again to express the concerns of the Victorian Jewish community on The Age’s reportage of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
Firstly, I refer to a letter to you dated 8 June 2010 from Sam Tatarka of the Zionist Council of Victoria. Mr Tatarka’s letter complains in the strongest possible terms about an article by Paul McGeogh published in The Age of 4 June, 2010.
In his letter Mr Tatarka cogently and compellingly reveals the anti-Israel bias in the article, as demonstrated particularly by its language and by omission.
There is no need for me to repeat his arguments, but it is important that you know that the Jewish Community Council of Victoria (JCCV) endorses them in their entirety.
Secondly and more importantly, Mr Tatarka makes the point that The Age has form on this general issue. It is not a matter of the occasional article or letter, but there is a clear and consistent vilification of the world’s only Jewish State in the pages of The Age.
The JCCV has had ongoing communication with you for a number of years on The Age’s bias. Predictably you have consistently stated that The Age is even-handed and that your door is always open to the Jewish community.
I will remind you that these were your exact words when you addressed an audience at the Beth Weizmann Jewish Community Centre on 5 October 2009. You soberly assured audience members that The Age was interested in their concerns and that you would always be responsive to them.
In this regard, I will also remind you that you took certain such concerns away with you. To this day, you have not responded, despite our follow-up request that you do so. And indeed, I am still awaiting your reply to my telephone call to you of 4 June 2010. Your attitude bespeaks scant respect for the Jewish community.
I am not requesting your response to this letter — because frankly your assurances are no longer seen as credible by our community — other than a clear policy change to even-handedness as evidenced in The Age’s future content.
Until this is forthcoming I have no doubt that those of your readers who value Israel receiving a fair go will dwindle even further.
This news of a brutal attack on Simon Margan, a Jewish gay man in Sydney, is extremely disturbing. Whilst there does not yet appear to be any indication Simon was brutally attacked because he was Jewish, there appears to be strong evidence he was attacked because he was gay. Despite that, there needs to be support from the Jewish community to say that it is unacceptable for any member of the Jewish community to be subjected to vicious hate attacks, especially if they are motivated by homophobic intolerance.
There has been no visible support from the Australian Jewish community to date on this matter, specifically addressing homophobic intolerance and violence. This situation is now critical and there must be strong, visible support from the entire Australian Jewish community that hate crime and intolerance based on sexual orientation is unacceptable. There must also be a strong message that any intolerance of a person based on their sexual orientation is completely unacceptable.
I call on the leaders of the Australian Jewish community to take an immediate and effective stand.
I hope to see a media statement from the Jewish community issued before the end of this week.
Michael Barnett.
———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Roy Freeman
Date: 12 August 2010 14:35
Subject: [Dayenu] Oxford Street Attacks
To: Dayenu Yahoo
I just wanted to share with you news of this disturbing unprovoked attack that took place on Oxford Street on Monday evening. Gay-rights activist and Dayenu member, Simon Margan, was attacked along with 5 other people before the assailant was caught. Simon was kicked in the eye, which shattered his eye socket. He will have to have plastic surgery as a result.
If you were around Oxford Street on Monday evening and witnessed any of these attacks, please contact Surry Hills police.
A few days ago Gregory Storer, candidate for the Secular Party in Melbourne Ports, posted a blog “No to the Chaplaincy Program!“. Read it, it’s got some good facts and figures about how tax-payer money is going to support loony churches that put in inappropriately qualified (or unqualified) chaplains who invariably prey on young kids’ impressionable minds in the guise of doing good in schools, when the money should be spent on providing qualified counsellors.
Today I received an email about the High Court challenge to this insidious program. Take a minute to read it. You might also want to consider supporting it with a few dollars. I plan to.
Michael.
Breaking News! The High Court Challenge against Australia’s National School Chaplaincy Program has announced its legal team. Representing Ron Williams in the court action will be high-profile barrister, Bret Walker SC (Senior Counsel). The importance of having the case represented by such a leading figure in Australian law cannot be overstated.
Walker is one of Australia’s leading barristers. He has been president of both the NSW Bar Association and the Law Council of Australia and Governor of the Law Foundation of NSW. He is Editor of the NSW Law Reports and Director of the Australian Academy of Law.
Walker will be supported by Gerald Ng, Barrister, and the Sydney law firm Horowitz and Bilinsky. The next step in the legal process is approaching, and further details will be released when it occurs.
People, this case is going to be huge and we’re expecting some jaw-dropping revelations to be made about our politicians and education systems. Chrys had lunch with one of the Australian Secular Lobby team this week and, while information about the case is highly confidential she gleaned enough to know this might be an explosive case.
Be a part of it. Please donate whatever you can afford at the High Court Challenge website. Note – money raised goes into a trust for the payment of legal fees, not to Ron Williams and his family. Ron has put the financial future of his family on the line for this and really needs our support. Besides, for a small (or large) investment, this is a chance to be a part of Australian history.
We do hope our Atheist Nexus (Australia/NZ) team will put their support behind this important court action.
The address for the High Court Challenge against Australia’s National School Chaplaincy Program is:
At the Equal Love Rally today, Sir Ian McKellan was one of many speakers to condemn the discrimination against same-sex couples by the Australian Government.
Either you have equality or you don’t. There’s no partial equality.
In the aftermath of the August 1 2009 shooting at the Tel Aviv GLBT youth centre and the subsequent AJN Watch hate blog against gay Jews I wrote a letter (Aug 23 2009) to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ). Two days later (Aug 25 2009) I followed that letter up with a copy of a letter I sent the Jewish Community Council of Victoria (JCCV). It was a very tense time, given these events, both locally in Melbourne and overseas in Israel. It remains disturbing that to the present day neither the JCCV nor the ECAJ have spoken out against this homophobic intolerance and hate.
In my second letter I made mention that the ECAJ Policy Platform page on the ECAJ web site featured Israel at #1 (whilst Australia didn’t feature until at least #13):
The peak body of the Australian Jewish community, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ), does not have a single statement on homophobia. I actually question its priorities and wonder it is it simply a self-serving bag of hot air or if it really gives a damn. First on it’s list of priorities is Israel. I would have thought that an organisation that spoke on behalf of the Australian Jewish community would actually put Australia first and place some importance on the welfare of Australians. Go figure.
You can see the ECAJ policy platform (“Confirmed in 2008”) here as it stood on September 8 2009. As of November 2009, just two months after my letter to the ECAJ, you can see here that not only have they moved Australia to the top of their policy platform list, but there are in fact two entire sections devoted to Australia, appropriately placed above a third section devoted to Israel. Well, that’s quite something. I’m pleased to see that the ECAJ is listening and has started to get its priorities right.
Sadly though there’s still not a single mention of anything closely resembling a policy on dealing with homophobic hate targeting people in the Jewish community. Nor is there a policy on the merits of accepting homosexuality as normal, given the overwhelming evidence of destruction religious intolerance of homosexuality has on young people.
I still maintain that topic #27 (Young Adult Representation) and topic #28 (Jewish Burial Rights) would be best combined and simply called “Jewish Young Adult Burial”, at least while there’s no policy dealing with homophobic hate and intolerance.
Wake up ECAJ. Every day you remain silent and don’t fight the intolerance and hatred of homosexuality in your community, the more blood you will have on your hands. Suicide amongst same-sex attracted youth is a very real problem in the Jewish community. One only has to wonder just how much you love your children.
The Jewish Community Council of Victoria (JCCV) has delighted itself in setting up a reference group to look into issues affecting gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) people in the Jewish Community. It was first announced here by the JCCV on December 24 2009.
The question has been asked of me who is on this reference group. Indeed, a good question. I understand this is the current make-up of the group
John Searle
JCCV President
Heterosexual (married / parent)
Orthodox Jewish
Anton Block
Immediate past JCCV president
Heterosexual (married / parent)
Orthodox Jewish
Dr Ruth Kweitel
Registered psychologist (area of specialty is gambling)
Heterosexual (married / parent)
Jewish (likely orthodox)
Daniel Leighton
Formerly with Jewish care
Heterosexual (married / parent)
Jewish
Sally Goldner Transgender rights activist
Representing GLBT community (person 1 of 3)
Jewish background
Nathan Rose
Representing GLBT community (person 2 of 3)
Jewish
<Person 7> Representing GLBT community (person 3 of 3)
Jewish
Pretty much all the people are either with or sympathetic to the JCCV. The JCCV reps are both orthodox. There are no representatives from the sizable Progressive Jewish community. There appear to be no professionals on the reference group with a background in mental health or depression relating to sexual orientation or gender identity. Lots of Yes people. No surprises.
As the make-up of this reference group becomes clearer I’ll post further updates. Stay tuned.
From: Michael Barnett <mikeybear69@gmail.com>
Date: 3 May 2010 02:11
Subject: Letter to the Editor / Your Voice: On Internet Hate
To: AJN Letters to the Editor <letters@jewishnews.net.au>
Cc: yourvoice@jewishnews.net.au
I refer to the cover story on Internet Hate in last week’s edition. The Jewish Community Council of Victoria (JCCV) oversees the B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission (BB ADC). It also auspices a reference group “to address issues of vilification and discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) Jews as well as mental health issues occasioned by exclusion”.
In August 2009 I brought to the attention of the BB ADC the situation where a Jewish blog site in Melbourne was publishing hate material targetting gay Jews in Melbourne and Israel. Deborah Stone of the BB ADC responded by saying “Unfortunately my board is not prepared for our organisation to engage with discrimination issues beyond our specific remit of antisemitism and racism”.
I put it to the JCCV now that if they, and in fact the entire Jewish community, are serious about Internet based hate material then a zero-tolerance for all forms of hate targetting people in the Jewish community must be established. It is unacceptable to selectively fight some types of hate and turn a blind eye to others.
It is also incongruous of the JCCV to claim to be addressing discrimination against GLBT Jews at the same time as not speaking out against the hate material targetting GLBT Jews.
The Jewish community must speak out against homophobic hate from within it’s own walls and not be the perpetrator of hate if it wants the wider society to help when it claims to be the victim of anti-semitic hate.
Michael Barnett.
Ashwood
0417 595 541
I question your level of dedication to removing vilification and discrimination of gay people from what you have written in this email. Until I contacted John Searle in July 2009 he had never once made a single attempt to contact me on any GLBT related matter. In fact he had never once made a public reference to any GLBT matter until I walked into his life. You should also realise that Anton Block, also on the JCCV GLBT Reference Group, was president of the JCCV for 3 years prior to John Searle and not once during his term did he make a single effort to address any discrimination against GLBT people in the Jewish community. In addition, he never once made contact with any GLBT organisation in the Jewish community. If you believe that Searle and Block are driven by a genuine desire to make the entire Jewish community understand that homosexuality is normal and acceptable you must be off in fairy land.
Of course you are not interested in politics or hidden agendas but unknowingly you are taking guidance from one of the most political and agenda-driven individuals in the Jewish community. Unknowingly you have found yourself in the middle of what might be the hottest political situations in the Jewish community. I will keep the spotlight focussed on your reference group Ruth, rest assured of that.
As for appropriate channels, I consider a discussion between you and me on a private basis as appropriate. You need to work through your issues so that you can see that this is a reasonable request.
I would appreciate you reconsider your hostile stance on this matter. It is not very becoming.
Regards, Michael.
From: Ruth Kweitel <Ruth.Kweitel@med.monash.edu.au>
Date: 2 May 2010 09:36
Subject: Re: Discussion re GLBT issues
To: Michael Barnett <mikeybear69@gmail.com>
Cc: nicky.jacobs@education.monash.edu.au, jsearle@vicbar.com.au
Hi Michael,
I joined the GLBT committee because I feel strongly about vilification
and discimination of gay people and this was an opportunity for me to
help do something about it. I am not interested in politics or hidden
agendas which seemed apparent from the inflammatory and vindictive
emails you sent around, in particular naming JCCV Chair, John Searle.
I see my role as a GLBT committee member and am happy to discuss your
concerns but only through the appropriate channels i.e. the GLBT
committee. Obviously there is something going on between yourself and
John Searle, which I have no interest in, and I suggest you resolve
this so we can all work together for the common goal. Until this is
achieved, I see no point to us engaging in discourse and would
appreciate you cease your contact with me.
I haven’t yet heard back from you directly, but I understand from a message Nicky Jacobs sent me that you are uncomfortable in wanting to talk to me.
There are a lot of assumptions being made about me by a lot of people in the community and you clearly have only heard one side of “the story”. I trust as a professional psychologist you are not going to start taking sides on this matter, especially without even having spoken directly with me.
I understand you’re involved with the JCCV GLBT Reference Group from having been in contact with Nicky Jacobs.
I would like to meet you and have a chat about a some concerns of mine behind the formation of the group and general issues in the Jewish community regarding homosexuality etc.
I have been involved with running Aleph Melbourne since 1997 and have over 13 years of relevant experience dealing with both the Jewish and GLBT communities.
My contact number is 0417 595 541.
I will make time to fit in with your availability.
