Pauline Hanson, the founder and leader of Australia’s One Nation, a right-wing political party, who represents Queensland in the Australian Senate, on Wednesday was told to remove a scarf with the Israeli flag on it during a motion to acknowledge the Nakba (the Arab version of Israel’s 1948 War of Independence. The word means “catastrophe”).
Hanson, 70, ran a fish and chip shop before entering politics in 1994 as a member of Ipswich City Council in her home state.
In addition to acknowledging the Nakba, Greens senator Jordon Steele-John’s motion also wanted the government to “expel Israel’s ambassador to Australia, put sanctions on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his war cabinet, end military trade with the State of Israel, end support for the invasion of Gaza, and call for a permanent ceasefire and an end to the occupation of Palestine.”
As Hanson entered the chamber to address the motion, she was wearing a blue and white scarf emblazoned with the Star of David and printed text across it. However, Greens Senator Dorinda Cox, presiding as chair, instructed her to remove the scarf or turn it around to conceal the Star of David, saying, “It is against standing orders for you to have any slogans upon your dress.”
Before expressing her perspective on the motion, which she characterized as an “unbelievable stunt,” Hanson acquiesced and removed the scarf.
“Talking about genocide and displacement, the Jewish people have been treated like this for centuries, thousands upon thousands of years by different races and countries,” Hanson said.
“It breaks my heart to see that same thing happening in our country with the Jewish students who are mistreated on university campuses to see that what is happening on our streets in Australia with the Palestinian protest marches.
“This is a political stunt and it’s been driven by the Labor and the Greens to actually support those Muslims in this country purely for the vote.”
Over in Victoria, the state parliament on Wednesday banned the keffiyeh. State Parliament Speaker Maree Edwards said the Arab scarves were being used as a political item of clothing. On May 7, Speaker Colin Brooks instructed Victorian Greens MP Gabrielle de Vietri to remove her keffiyeh from the parliamentary chamber after Liberal MP David Southwick voiced that he found the traditional Arab headdress offensive.
Pauline Hanson’s One Nation website featured her appearance (see above) on Chris Kenny’s Sky News this week, where she explained exactly why she wore the Israeli scarf. She made it clear to Kenny that she values the Jewish community and wants to do everything she can to ensure their safety, whether on university campuses or in the community broadly.
Here Goes:
“On October 7 last year internationally recognized terror group Hamas invaded Israel and killed, abducted, and raped more than 1200 innocent Israeli men, women, and children. Their attacks were as indiscriminate as they were despicable.
“These are simple facts: the attack was unprovoked, unreasonable, appalling, and vile. There has never been such a large loss of Jewish life since the Holocaust of World War II.
“Hamas is the democratically elected government of Palestine. Palestine and Hamas are not two separate identities, they are one and the same. The people of Palestine, under the authority of their elected Government, invaded and attacked a neighbor. Hamas, and the people of Palestine, oppose the existence of Israel and call for the destruction of all Jewish people.
“In response to the attacks, Israel has invaded Palestine in self-defense, in no different way to the American response to Pearl Harbor, or Australia‘s response to the civilian loss of life in Darwin by the hands of the Japanese during World War II.
“In the Senate this week Pauline Hanson asked the Labor government to ‘please explain’ why they supported an abhorrent and repugnant United Nations motion pushing full recognition of Palestine in their governing body. It was an outrageous move by Australia and unmasked Labor’s nod to the domestic growth of antisemitic fever.
“Labor’s response? That line from Shakespeare’s Hamlet comes to mind, “God hath given you one face, and you make yourself another.” Labor speaks out of both sides of its mouth when dealing with our Jewish community. They condemn Hamas, the democratically elected government of Palestine, and then vote in the general assembly to support their bid for full status and a ‘two-state solution’.
“Labor wants to reward Hamas terrorism because that group of antisemitic barbarians has huge support in the socialist left of Labor and the Australian Greens. It is enough to make any level-headed Australian dizzy with nausea. It’s as if Labor and the world learned nothing from the crimes inflicted against the worldwide Jewish community from the 1930’s to 1945.”
Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party has no seats in the 151-member Australian House of Representatives. It has 2 seats in the 76-member Senate.
PAULINE HANSON AND ISLAM (FROM WIKI)
In 2015, Hanson claimed that Halal certification in Australia was funding terrorism. After the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting, Hanson called for a ban on Muslim immigration to Australia. That same year, Hanson announced policies including a ban on building new mosques until a royal commission into whether Islam is a religion or a political ideology has been held and installing CCTV cameras in all existing mosques. She has called for a moratorium on accepting Muslim immigrants into Australia. In her 2016 maiden speech in the Senate, she said “We are in danger of being swamped by Muslims who bear a culture and ideology that is incompatible with our own” and should “go back to where you came from”, and called for banning Muslim migration. The speech prompted a walkout by Senate members of the Australian Greens.
After the January 2017 Melbourne car attack, Hanson repeated her stance on banning Muslims from entering Australia. In a live interview after the attack, she stated, “All terrorist attacks in this country have been by Muslims.” In response, the Islamic Council of Victoria asked for a public apology for Hanson’s statement.
(Or else they’d send a suicide bomber to her house? – DI)
On March 24, 2017, after the 2017 Westminster attack, Hanson announced in a video posted to social media, holding up a piece of paper with her own proposed hashtag “#Pray4MuslimBan.” “That is how you solve the problem, put a ban on it, and then let’s deal with the issues here”, she said.
On June 22, 2017, Hanson introduced a motion in the Australian Senate calling on the government to respond to the Halal inquiry. The motion was passed.
On August 17, 2017, Hanson wore a burqa on the floor of the Australian Senate in a move to rally support for a national ban on the religious attire, citing “national security” concerns. The move quickly became widely condemned by Labor, the Greens, and the Liberal Party. In response, Attorney-General George Brandis, who is tasked with advising on national security legislation, gave an “emotional” speech calling Hanson’s stunt “an appalling thing to do” and advised Hanson “to be very, very careful of the offense you may do to the religious sensibilities of other Australians,” to which both Labor and Greens’ Senators gave a standing ovation.
Conclusion: If you’re Jewish and living in Australia, don’t vote Labor or Greens.
