Shaoquett Moselmane, a Labor MP in the NSW Legislative Council, is the first Moslem in the NSW Parliament.
The former mayor of Rockdale, Moselmane is one of six candidates in the pre-selection for the seat of Barton which Robert McClelland is vacating at the next federal election.
To raise his profile among Moslem pre-selectors in the southern Sydney electorate, Moselman gave an adjournment speech on March 14 on the subject of a homeland for the Palestinians.
“All people have a right to a homeland, “ said Moselmane, “all people, including Jews, Kurds, Armenians and Palestinians.
“All people have a right to exist and receive the protections under international law and live in peace and security. Since the 1948 United Nations resolution to divide Palestine between the Jews and Arabs, the Palestinian people have been left to suffer the indignity and trauma of people dispossessed.”
Moselmane had just said, “Ever since 1948 the Israeli Zionist plan has been acquiring territory to expand the borders of the Jewish colonial state. Zionist ideology demanded …” when Mosleman’s Labor colleague, Walt Secord, jumped to his feet with a point of order interrupting “Shock’s” speech.
“My point of order is on relevance,” said Secord. “The member is not speaking to the motion and as the Deputy Chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Israel I disassociate myself from his remarks.”
Secord was immediately joined by Dr Peter Phelps, one of Liberal Party’s most extreme right-wingers, who also raised a point of order.
Moselmane continued his speech amid further delaying interjections by Secord, Phelps and others.
In another intervention, Secord shouted: “This is simply an anti-Israel rant and he is not speaking to the motion.”
Repeated interjections are a classic way of preventing Members from having the views placed on the parliamentary record. Eventually the MP runs out of time and has to sit down.
Phelps was reprimanded by Premier Barry O’Farrell after he tweeted a Blue Mountains human rights lawyer saying: “Go fuck yourself, commie.”
On another occasion from Bungendore railway station he tweeted it was “small but perfectly formed like Jo Tovey [Sydney Morning Herald political reporter]”.
Secord is a rabid Zionist. Because he has Canadian Indian ancestry it would be logical to think he might find common cause with the Palestinians who are suffering the same cultural genocide and dispossession as the North American Indian people.
No so. Secord worked on the Australian Jewish News, acted as Premier Bob Carr’s spinmeister for almost 10 years and was the closest political ally of Eric Roozendaal, another uber-Zionist.
In 2011 Labor’s administrative committee gave him an Upper House seat ($143,033-a-year) until March 2015. He is filling the vacancy left by the retirement of another giant of NSW right-wing Labor politics, Eddie Obeid.
Greens condemn one-sided debate
Another blow in support of Palestinian rights was delivered in the Upper House by Greens MP David Shoebridge in the same debate.
He criticised the “study tour” of Israel by a delegation of Upper House MPs from all parties, except the Greens.
Facing a chorus of Liberal and Labor hecklers, and the wrath of Fred Nile, leader of the so-called Christian Democrats, Shoebridge said:
“I speak to this motion and note at the outset that it is a very unbalanced one. Indeed, a member asked if The Greens took part in this study mission to Israel. As far as I am aware, no Greens member of Parliament went on this study mission. That was primarily because of the one-sided nature of the itinerary, which is reflected in the one-sided nature of this motion. In a motion that purports to talk about building an understanding of the complex and various issues impacting on Israel and other jurisdictions within the Middle East, it is extraordinary that in the more than 100 words and five paragraphs of this motion not one word is mentioned about Palestine or the Palestinians. The human rights of the Palestinians are airbrushed out of the motion, just as they were airbrushed out of the itinerary of the study tour that travelled to Israel and some very small parts of the West Bank. Having heard the contributions of members who went on the study tour and having read the motion, I can see that this is little more than a public relations exercise for the Israeli Government. Indeed, this public relations exercise has been run in part through the offices of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies which arranged the tour and, I understand, partly paid for the study trip to Israel.”
Labor’s lone voice
Shoebridge was supported by a lone Labor MP, Lynda Voltz, who later issued a press release saying:
“Lynda Voltz, Labor MLC, today said that she was surprised that a study tour organised by the Jewish Board of Deputies to Israel and Palestine appears to have narrowed the views of those members of the NSW Parliament who attended.
“She was also surprised at the unprecedented and undemocratic attacks on her parliamentary colleague, the Hon Shoaquett Moselmane, both during the debate and since as he defended the rights of the Palestinian people.
” ‘I was astounded at some of the outrageous statements made by those members who attended the tour which showed a lack of historical knowledge on Palestine and ignorance of the reality on the ground in the occupied territories, particularly Gaza’,” Ms Voltz said.
“For a tour that was meant to enlighten those who went they have returned with a particularly binary view of the Palestinian issue.”
Ms Voltz said that she had twice travelled through the Erez Border crossing into Gaza and was surprised that the study tour participants could come away with such a distorted view of the situation of the 1.6 million people who live in this 48 square kilometres of land.
“If the delegation had bothered to pass through the checkpoint into Gaza as I have done on a number of occasions they may have been able to broaden their view,” said Ms Voltz.
She said the attacks on her parliamentary colleague Shoaquett Moselmane MLC both within the chamber and by the Israeli lobby group since had been outrageous and indicative of attempts by the conservative Israeli lobby group to stifle debate on the issue of Palestine.
“I am still at a loss as to understand why Shoaquett is being singled out so vociferously for exercising his democratic right to express a view on the rights of the Palestinian people,” Ms Voltz said.