The Israeli (Terrorist) Prime Minister
By Graham Pitts
Jun 5, 2024
How important is language? It’s a truism to point out that my “terrorist” is your “freedom fighter” or vice versa but sometimes the choice of words sometimes becomes so ridiculous that warnings should be issued. Beware the squishy grammar of a politician excreting nonsense. Be quite alarmed when the power of lobbyists and Party donors brings about an attempted rephrasing of reality.
Take for example the recent faux-indignant plop of Peter Dutton when the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) applied for arrest warrants for Israeli leaders Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant (as well as three Hamas leaders). The Leader of The Liberals burst out with the statement that such an act “… is completely and utterly repugnant to compare the Israeli Prime Minister to a terrorist organisation leader.”
Oh? Then have a look at a once-secret but now freely available document from The National Archives of Australia (NAA: A1838: 1453/1997: 553194). It’s a “Ministerial” providing advice under the hand of Sir Tasman Hayes, the Secretary for Immigration. Dated January 26th 1956, it refers back to two years earlier when, on the advice of A.S.I.O. and The Minister of External Affairs plus The Australian Legation in Tel Aviv, a visa to allow a “Mr. Beigin” to enter the country was refused. The grounds for the refusal included “Mr. Beigin had been the leader of the former Irgun Zvia Leumi, the principal terrorist organisation which operated in Palestine against the British.”
The man in question was Menachem Begin, the Israeli Prime Minister from 1977 to 1983.
The same document says “His visit was to be sponsored and organised by The Zionist Revisionist Organisation of Australia, the same body which is making representations to The Minister now. (I believe this body is regarded unfavourably by A.S.I.O.)”. It also points out that he had been refused a visa to the United Kingdom.
The file is 53 pages long and available digitally on the National Archives of Australia website. It contains some fascinating details. For example, other documents in the file affirm that Begin was widely acknowledged as a former terrorist leader and was particularly involved in the murder of two British Army sergeants. Curiously the file also contains a number of pages from 1962 to 1963 which were, and remain, redacted in 1991.
So there you go. So much for it being “… utterly repugnant to compare the Israeli Prime Minister to a terrorist organisation leader.”nd Irritations extend its voice and reach.
Graham Pitts is a researcher and playwright whose best known plays are “Emma--- Celebrazione!” And “Tour of Duty”.
https://johnmenadue.com/the-israeli-terrorist-prime-minister/
