The Zionist Federation of Australia is deeply concerned with the renewed rocket attacks on Israeli civilians and the unrest in Jerusalem and fully supports Israel’s right and duty to protect its citizens.
ZFA President Jeremy Leibler said, “Each of the hundreds of Palestinian rockets fired from Gaza and aimed at Israeli civilians is a war crime. Throwing paving stones at worshippers in the Western Wall plaza from the Temple Mount is indefensible, as was the pre-emptive storing of stones and stun grenades in al-Aqsa Mosque – a clear desecration of a holy place.”
He continued, “I don’t want to diminish the complexities surrounding the Sheikh Jarrah issue or the grievances held by residents of East Jerusalem but the incitement by Hamas and the PA to violent attacks on Israeli citizens is completely unacceptable and must be called out for what it is – terrorism. Hamas and the Palestinian Authority are using a complex long standing property dispute to inflame tensions and it seems as if the media as a whole are buying into that narrative”.
Mr Leibler concluded, “We stand with Israel as it attempts to protect its citizens.”