David Leyonhjelm (NSW, Liberal Democratic Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate:

(a) notes that:

  (i) in his address on 30 April 2018 to the Palestinian National Council in Ramallah, the Chairman of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, included the following statements:

"The Jews who moved from Eastern and Western Europe had been subjected to a massacre by one country or another every 10-15 years, since the 11th century and until the Holocaust in Germany. Okay?

But why was this happening?

...the reason for the hatred of the Jews is not their religion but their function in society. That is a different issue.

So the Jewish question, which was prevalent in all European countries, the anti-Jewish (sentiment) was not because of their religion, but because of their function in society, which had to do with usury, banks, and so on.

You may or may not know this, in 1933, one month after Hitler's rise to power, there was an agreement between the German Ministry of Economics and the Jewish Anglo-Palestinian Bank in Jerusalem. They agreed that any German Jew who wants to emigrate to Palestine could have his movable and immovable property transferred to Palestine.

Did Hitler love the Jews to such a degree? Any Jew who wanted to emigrate to Palestine was entitled to receive all his property, both moveable and immoveable.

... So their narrative about coming to this country because of their longing for Zion, or whatever - we're tired of hearing this. The truth is that this is a colonialist enterprise, aimed at planting a foreign body in this region...",

  (ii) these statements by Mahmoud Abbas, which relied upon quotes from Karl Marx, Josef Stalin and Isaac Deutcher, are historically incorrect, and

  (iii) the Holocaust resulted from the Nazi belief that Jewish existence must be totally eliminated everywhere – in May 1941, Hitler said, "Germany's goal will be the extermination of the Jews who reside in Arab territories under British rule";

(b) condemns this anti-Semitic speech as historically inaccurate and incompatible with the aims of the peace process and two-state solution between Israel and Palestinians; and

(c) calls on the Government to support the State of Israel as a democratic nation governed by the rule of law having a legitimate right to exist.

James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to make a short statement.

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for one minute.

James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On 4 May Foreign Minister Bishop condemned the comments by the Palestinian National Authority, saying they were deeply regrettable and anti-Semitic, going against historical facts. Similar condemnation also came from a number of foreign ministers. President Abbas reportedly later apologised, saying:

… we condemn anti-Semitism in all its forms and confirm our commitment to the 2-state solution and to live side by side in peace and security.

Australia's support of a two-state solution is consistent.

Question agreed to.