A senior Muslim leader says it’s “unfair” that Australians are banned from fighting in Syria or Iraq but allowed to join Israel’s Defence Force.
Samier Dandan, president of the Lebanese Muslim Association, said just as Australians who have gone to Iraq and Syria to fight as enemy combatants could face prosecution when they return, those who fight for Israel in the occupied territories should as well.
He said banning people from joining the IDF would ensure “we don’t create more heat within the Australian social fibre among people from different cultures”.
“It’s hard when you say something to one side and they look and say how come we’re not being treated the same. It’s not fair,” he said.
The comments come after the government in recent weeks expressed concern about the threat posed to Australia by jihadists returning from Iraq and Syria.
Mr Dandan also hit out at the Abbott government’s decision to refer to East Jerusalem as “disputed” rather than “occupied” territory.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has defended the government’s decision to refer to East Jerusalem as disputed by describing the shift as a “terminological clarification”.
Senior Labor MP and former immigration minister Tony Burke said his party is unequivocal in its view that East Jerusalem is occupied.
Mr Burke, whose seat of Watson in Sydney’s southern suburbs is home to a large Muslim community, yesterday criticised the federal government’s decision to recalibrate its policy on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
“There is a limit to what we can do as a nation, but we can speak the truth and we must speak the truth about Palestine,” Mr Burke told a large crowd gathered in front of Lakemba mosque to mark the end of Ramadan.