The Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN) condemns the National Press Club’s decision to host the Israeli Ambassador next Tuesday, calling it “disgraceful” and “shameful”.
This decision follows the cancellation of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges, former Middle East Bureau Chief for The New York Times, who has reported extensively from Gaza and exposed the realities of war. Hedges was due to speak on the killing of Palestinian journalists and the distortion of reporting on Gaza, but his address was cancelled after he submitted his speech.
At a time when Palestinians are being bombed, starved and displaced, and as Israel expands its Genocide across the region, this decision cannot be separated from the political climate in Australia. Palestinian voices and their allies are routinely pushed out of public space, protest is restricted and forcefully policed, and communities are targeted for speaking out.
Nasser Mashni, President of APAN, said:
“It is disgraceful that the National Press Club has chosen to platform a representative and an apologist for the genocidal state of Israel, particularly as it expands its war crimes from Gaza to Lebanon and neighbouring countries. Shamefully, the National Press Club silenced a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who has reported from Gaza, exposing the killing of Palestinian journalists, while giving a platform to a representative of the government responsible for that genocidal violence.
That is not balance, it is propaganda, and sadly, this is the ongoing state of the mainstream Australian media.
The National Press Club must demonstrate the journalistic integrity it claims to uphold and cancel the Israeli Ambassador’s address.
At a time when Palestinians are still being slaughtered, this decision sends a clear message to Australian Palestinians and their allies – you do not matter, and those who speak for you will be silenced.”
The National Press Club cannot claim to uphold journalistic integrity while platforming oppressors and silencing voices for the oppressed.“
ENDS