AFOPA MEDIA REPORT, 28 JULY 2017

Selections from Australian newspapers.

Erdoğan: Israel is harming Jerusalem’s Islamic character, The Guardian, 27JUL2017

Israeli officials brand Turkish president’s comments ‘absurd’ as unrest continues at Jerusalem’s holy sites. ...

Benjamin Netanyahu threatens to expel al-Jazeera from Israel, The Guardian, 27JUL2017

Prime minister accuses Qatar-based network of ‘stirring violence’ in coverage of protests around holy site in Jerusalem. ...

Israeli security forces and Palestinian worshippers clash outside al-Aqsa mosque, The Guardian, 28JUL2017

Scenes follow jubilation over Israel’s decision to remove controversial security devices installed at one of Jerusalem’s most-revered sites. ...

Muslims return to al-Aqsa mosque to pray after Israel removes barriers, Sydney Morning Herald, 28JUL2017

Jerusalem: Throngs of Muslims resumed praying at al-Aqsa mosque in occupied East Jerusalem on Thursday after Israel, seeking to reduce tensions in an explosive atmosphere, removed the last traces of security structures near the entrances to the holy site before dawn. ...

BDS encourages Israel to enter into a two-state dialogue, Nick Reimer, The Australian, 26JUL2017

A major national conference on the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign for Palestine will be held at the University of Sydney this week. Predictably, the conference has been met with stock accusations of anti-Semitism. With the baselessness of that charge increasingly apparent, it’s a good time to consider a more serious objection to academic BDS: the idea that academics’ duty is to privilege dialogue and debate, not boycott, as the pathway to a more peaceful world. ...

Palestinians die in new clashes over Jerusalem holy site, The Australian, 24JUL2017

Two Palestinians have died in clashes with Israeli forces as the army moved in to seal off an attacker’s home after violence over security measures at an ultra-sensitive holy site. The UN Security Council will hold talks tonight about the spiralling violence after Egypt, France and Sweden sought a meeting to “urgently discuss how calls for de-escalation in Jerusalem can be supported”. ...

ALP on a ‘dangerous path’, Australian Jewish News, 24JUL2017

IT’S a long way from Cairns to Jerusalem, but the distance is shrinking, at least metaphorically, thanks to a group of Indigenous Australians who are committed to seeking justice for Israel in the harsh courts of international public opinion. Munganbana Norman Miller, a Cairns pastor and spokesman for a new support group, Indigenous Friends of Israel (IFI), told The AJN the organisation was formed several weeks ago and has hit the ground running – condemning a push within the ALP for unconditional recognition of a Palestinian state. ...

NSW Labor conference heads for untidy ‘solution’ to Israel-Palestine support, The Daily Telegraph

LABOR heavyweights have tied themselves up in knots trying to solve a problem that has confounded world leaders for decades — Israel and Palestine and the two-state solution. This weekend’s NSW Labor conference had been set to feature a resolution calling for recognition of a Palestinian state in what would have been seen as a black eye for federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, who is pro-Israel. ...