Fifty people gathered outside of the Crown Casino on March 18 to protest Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's support of a gala dinner of the United Israel Appeal — Refugee Relief Fund (UIA), a Zionist organisation.
According to the Melbourne Age, during Rudd's speech he said that he was \"a friend of Israel\" and said its establishment in 1948 was \"Australian Labor government handiwork\".
The Melbourne Palestine Solidarity Network organised the picket in opposition to Australian bipartisan support for Israel's system of apartheid, against the illegal Israeli siege of Gaza and in solidarity with Palestinians.
On March 12 Rudd moved a motion to honour Ha'atzmautael's \"independence day\". This was despite more than 100 Palestinians being killed by Israeli attacks on Gaza in recent months.
Australia is a signatory to the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits the punishment of protected persons. For the Australian government to pass a motion in support of 60 years of ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians by Israel, particularly while Israel is involved in an illegal and brutal siege of the Gaza Strip, is a disgraceful violation of international obligations.
Concerns have been raised that the UIA may be involved in violating international law by changing the population of the Occupied Palestinian Territories and displacing the Arab population within Israel.
About two thirds of the fund goes to financing Jewish-only migration from around the world. Its sister organisation, the Jewish National Fund, secures land that can be leased only to Jewish people.
The Australian arm of the UIA, which is approved for tax deductibility, raised $42.5 million in 2006, making Australia the organisation's largest donor per capita.
The Israeli Law of Return grants Jewish people globally the right to settle in Palestine, while depriving Palestinian refugees forced to leave Palestine by Zionist forces in 1948-49 and 1967 any right to return to their homes and historical land — a violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions 181 and 195.