A message to Health Workers in South Australia
Contact AFOPA on secretary@afopa.com.au to be put in touch with the vigil organisers.
Australian Museum removes Palestine from Ramses exhibition
See lead item below the UPDATE announcement
UPDATE: Success! Response from Australian Museum following complaints about Ramses Exhibition
Following an email and letter writing campaign by AFOPA, APAN and Palestine supporters around Australia, the CEO of the Australian Museum sent the following message to AFOPA, today, 28 December 2023 (all emphases theirs):
Dear Australian Friends of Palestine Association
Please see the following statement in response to your letter to Kim McKay AO, Director and CEO received on 26 December 2023.
Ramses and the Gold of the Pharaohs exhibition is currently on a 10-city world tour. Produced by World Heritage Exhibitions, the exhibition is now in Sydney at the Australian Museum providing an insight into the rule of Ramses II and Ancient Egypt some 3000 years ago.
To provide both historical and modern geographic context for visitors, text panels refer to both ancient geographic locations such as the site of the Battle of Kadesh and modern geographical context referencing Ramses’ battles in what is known today as Libya and Palestine.
For clarity in the exhibition the text panel will be updated to read:
Ramses was second in command, fighting alongside Seti I in what is today known as Libya and Palestine.
The terms Libya and Palestine are not being removed from the text panels. In the context of this exhibition, we are adding the words “what is today known as” to provide current geographical clarity.
Australian Museum 1 William Street Sydney NSW 2010 Australia
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See also Wikipedia on this topic: Australian Museum
AFOPA thanks all our members and supporters for responding to this campaign and writing to the Australian Museum
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Australian Museum removes Palestine from Ramses exhibition
Post from Australian Jewish Associations' social media announcing their discovery at the Australian Museum
We have just written to the Director & CEO of the Australian Museum in Sydney, Ms Kim McKay AO about our dismay at the Museum removing the word Palestine from part of the Museum's exhibition, Ramses and the Gold of the Pharaohs.
The screenshot above is from the Australian Jewish Association's (AJA) Facebook page, highlighting the use of the word Palestine in part of the exhibition. It appears that the AJA then wrote to the Museum complaining about this. You can see in the screenshot below that, astonishingly, the Museum, via their own Instagram page, told the AJA that the Museum would, in the next couple of weeks, remove the word Palestine from the exhibition.
This attempt to rewrite history for politically motivated reasons cannot go unchallenged. I urge you to write to the Museum about their decision and their dismissive attitude towards the Palestinian community, with whom it appears, the Museum has not consulted about this matter.
This is not an insignificant issue. To let this rewriting of history go unchallenged amounts to cultural genocide, the ideological expunging of cultural identity from history. You can access AFOPA's letter here. An email or letter in your own words would be best.
Contact the Australian Museum:
Kim McKay AO
Director & CEO Australian Museum
1 William Street
Sydney NSW 2010
Australia
c/- feedback@australian.museum
(yes it is an unusual email address)
AFOPA Chairperson's End of Year Message
Dear APOPA members and supporters
We are sending you this last newsletter of 2023 with heavy hearts, but with deep gratitude to all of you who have stood with us at AFOPA. Your steadfast support has given us strength and hope during this most difficult of times. Words will never be able to express how grateful we are for your solidarity.
Since the cataclysmic events of October, we have been overwhelmed by your kindness and generosity. Thank you for your emails, phone calls, orders, visits to the Palestine Centre for Peace, donations and offers of volunteer and professional services. On some days when we were running on empty, you kept us going.
Thank you to the members who have renewed your membership and those who have joined us as members and subscribers. With the help of our wonderful volunteers, online orders have finally been able to be fulfilled. We still haven’t managed to answer all the thousands of emails and offers of assistance received. We will, and hope you understand.
We have been inspired by the mobilisation of so many people at rallies, and the activation of a multitude of initiatives from the grassroots. Palestinian, Muslim and Arab groups, human rights organisations, unionists, doctors, nurses, university and high school students and ordinary Australians from all walks of life, have mobilised and organised in an enormous show of support for the people of Gaza. We will continue to build on this extraordinary momentum.
While the Israeli genocidal war on Gaza continues to wreak death and destruction on the Palestinian people, Australia's leaders continue to lack the moral courage to reassess Australia’s relationship with the apartheid state of Israel. This is shameful and intolerable.
In solidarity with the people of Gaza, Palestinian leaders of Christian denominations came together in Bethlehem and made a unanimous decision to cancel public Christmas celebrations. The Church of the Nativity, famous for its grotto marking the location where Christians believe Jesus was born, normally bustling with thousands of people, is empty. A short walk away, the Evangelical Lutheran Church has placed the baby Jesus wrapped in a keffiyeh in the centre of broken cement to symbolise children being pulled from the rubble.
Many of us are not feeling the Christmas or holiday spirit this year. Many of you have told us that your Christmas will be muted and that your thoughts will be with the people of Gaza. Please take care of yourselves and your loved ones. And never lose hope.
As millions of people who are taking to the streets around the world are demonstrating, it is we, the People, who will force change. In this we remain tireless and resolute. Together, we will amplify the voices of Palestinians for justice and a free Palestine.
Christa Christaki
Chairperson
December 2023
Update on AFOPA activities since the August 2023 AGM
Annual Report 2022-23
AFOPA letters on the catastrophe in Gaza to South Australian Politicians
AFOPA continues to write letters regularly to South Australian and Australian politicians on the catastrophe and genocide in Gaza perpetrated by the state of Israel
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Letter to Senator Wong, Senator for South Australia (ALP) and Australia’s Foreign Minister
From website of the Australian Parliament
10 December, 2023
Dear Minister Wong,
The Australian Friends of Palestine Association (AFOPA) requests an urgent meeting with you to discuss Australia’s current position and actions regarding the crisis in Palestine and Israel.
We have a large and diverse supporter base, which is distressed and troubled by the disconnect between the Australian Government’s position on the current crisis in Gaza, and that of the Australian people who are showing unprecedented support for Palestinian human rights…
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From website of the Australian Parliament
12 December 2023
Dear Senator Birmingham,
We recently became aware that you are leading a cross-party delegation to Israel, funded by the Australia Israel and Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC). This decision is deplorable and unconscionable and leaves us in no doubt that the tour is aimed solely at ensuring that Australian policy is unashamedly biased towards Israel and reinforces Israel’s propaganda…
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Letter to the Lord Mayor of Adelaide, Dr Jane Lomax-Smith AM
From website of the Adelaide City Council
Dear Lord Mayor,
I am writing to express the dismay of the Australian Friends of Palestine Association (AFOPA) in relation to the Adelaide City Council’s recent decision to not light up the Adelaide Town Hall in the Palestinian colours, as you did for Israel..
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From Wikipedia
28 November
Dear South Australian MPs and MLCs, Parliament of South Australia,
I write as Chairperson of the Australian Friends of Palestine Association (AFOPA) in relation to the recent passage of the Israel motion in both houses of the South Australian Parliament. We and our members are very disturbed by the introduction and passage of the motion…
