Israel’s crimes get stamp of approval

Israel and Australia’s joint projects normalising Israel’s war crimes and crimes against humanity have sunk deeper in the degenerate mire of hasbara — propaganda and lies.

Australia Post and Israel Post collaboratively issued two stamps last month commemorating the Australian Light Horse and the World War I Battle of Beersheba in Palestine.

The $2.60 stamp features contemporary images of Australian Light Horsemen. The 60c stamp features the statue of an Australian Light Horseman in the Park of the Australian Soldier, which was built in the city of Beersheba in southern Israel. The statue was funded by the Pratt Foundation, based in Australia.

The stamps make up a cynical rewriting of Australian war history that uses the ANZAC myth to deodorise Israel’s stinking reputation around the world.

Australia Post said of the stamps: “The capture of Beersheba allowed British Empire forces to break the Ottoman line near Gaza and then advance into Palestine, a chain of events which eventually culminated in the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948.”

Connecting the “capture of Beersheba” to “the establishment of the state of Israel” is an outright lie. Former Australian communications minister Stephen Conroy repeated the lie: "It's a wonderful tribute to the fourth Light Horse Brigade and recognises a chain of events that eventually culminated in the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948."

The real chain of events began in 1895, with the Zionist ambition to take over Palestine for a Jewish homeland. This was accelerated in 1947 by Plan Dalet’s systematic ethnic cleansing of Palestine that destroyed over 500 villages, slaughtered thousands and forcefully deported more than 700,000 indigenous Palestinians.

Israel then unilaterally declared an independent state in breach of Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations, which guaranteed independence for Palestine.

Today, the Australian Zionist lobby has used the stamps to inflate the lies. The Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce said when it announced the stamp: “During WWI, Australian troops fought alongside the British army to conquer Israel from under Ottoman rule ... The friendly Australian soldiers were remembered fondly by residents of the Jewish colonies of Israel. Warm ties were also formed with the Australian soldiers who were stationed in Israel during WWII.”

Fact: During World War I and II, Israel did not exist. Both wars were fought on Palestinian soil.

Australia Post managing director Ahmed Fahour said the Battle of Beersheba “is something close to the hearts of both Israelis and Australians”.

But it was in fact Palestinian fighters who helped the ANZACs. The west and south-west of Beersheba were defended by regiments of mostly Arab farmers, who were defending their own fields.

Turkish forces had destroyed orchards, water sources and crop supplies. Palestinian foodstuffs and livestock were requisitioned by the British military and consequently there was a shortage of basic food and commodities.

One generation later, the same villagers were forcefully routed by Jewish militias to Gaza where they remain in desolate refugee camps under the illegal and inhumane Israeli siege.

The statue of an Australian Light Horseman in the Park of the Australian Soldier was funded by Zionist Richard Pratt, the late Australian Visy Industries billionaire. It has been described as a “permanent memorial to those who died in battle for the Jewish state.”

The Park of the Australian Soldier is included in “The Anzac Trail from the Be’eri Badlands to Be’er Sheva”. This is a project of the Jewish National Fund (JNF), which seizes Palestinian properties in East Jerusalem and razes villages on the ancestral lands of impoverished Bedouins.

Concerned Australians have bombarded the Postal Ombudsman, Australia Post and Conroy with protests against the government’s commandeering of ANZAC and Palestinian history for the whitewashing of Israeli state terrorism and demanding the withdrawal of the stamps.

Young ANZAC soldiers did not sacrifice their lives to give the stamp of approval to Israel’s impunity to violate international law and wreak inhuman suffering on Palestinian people.