Loss of innocent lives off Christmas Island: another opportunity to fundamentally change policies!

The Social Justice Network is expressing its deep sadness and sorrow for the tragedy off Christmas Island today which resulted so far of death of 27 asylum seekers. Such number that is not final and could be increased further in the next few hours.

But this sad tragedy should be used by the government to reflect on the current policies and seek fundamental changes to them.

“We wrote to this minister and to the previous one warning them about consequencies of current tough policies. We detailed to them proposed full plan to relieve the issues of unauthorized arrivals” said Jamal Daoud, spokesperson of SJN. “Such plan that would work to stop the flood of boat people in very humane way”

The plan points include:
1- Significant increase to the quota of refugees and humanitarian intake.
2- Set up processing centre in Indonesia to process protection applications and transfer applicants found to be refugees to Australia.
3- Fundamentally reform the highly discriminatory and inhumane immigration system.

The network deeply believes that such plan would result in smooth humane solution for this issue. A solution that is similar to Malcolm Fraser’s solution to Vietnamese boat people crisis in mid 70s of last century.

“We note that the issue of unauthorized arrivals is complex issue that needs holistic approach and not cosmetic steps by caving in to racist rhetoric of needs to toughen measures proposed by Liberal opposition”

“We also note that any empty rhetoric vended by so-called progressive parliamentary politicians would not solve any problem if fundamental changes to address racism and discrimination in the system are not taken. We note that such fundamental reforms could see many boat people arriving on other categories, including skilled migration and family reunion”.

“The new government’s legislations in this regard, which saw no opposition by the Greens party and the independents, made the migration system more discriminatory and racist. The new skilled migration system, for example, will benefit only English speaking people to migrate to the country. The new regulations tightened the language requirements to the extent that only English speaking people can be qualified”

We note also that the Greens party had participated in racist Anti-population debate and supports less migration. Such move that will leave no other options for many non-English speaking people in war-torn countries but to come by unauthorized route.

The tragedy today constitutes golden opportunity for the minority Labor government to seek fundamental changes to address the racist inhumane system. While we hope that the minority government will take this opportunity, but we understand that the reality is different story.

At least we hope that the government would not give up to the opposition’s racist calls and use the tragedy to fundamentally change policies in the opposite way. Accepting any changes to re-introduce Temporary Protection visa system or re-opening of Nauru detention centre would be fatal for Labor-Greens government.

The Liberal opposition would dance form joy to prove that “Howard was right”.

For media interviews, Jamal Daoud can be contacted on 0404 447 272

Open Letter to the minister: Please act to stop other deaths inside detention centres

Dear Hon Chris Bowen, Minister for Immigration and Citizenship

We wrote to you on earlier occasions several times asking you to act to stop the flood of blood inside Australian detention centres. Today, we are writing to you to ask you to take urgent action to stop yet another loss of innocent life inside these “hell holes”.

We understand that Mr Samisoni Bolatagici has written to you recently asking you to use your discretionary power to stop his deportation to his death, or at least to uncertainty and possible persecution. We understand that you did not yet take any decision to accept or refuse this request. Nevertheless, your department has acted in a pre-emptive way and detained Mr Samisoni. And even before handing him your decision, they informed him that he will be deported tomorrow. And yet, your department refused media reports (we are aware of its validity for some time now) that they delay handing decisions to detainees, because they know the devastation effect they will have on mental health of already depressed detainees.

Usually your ministerial intervention team does not bring to your attention cases that they decide not worth bringing to your attention. And usually they are wrong on doing this, with usual disastrous consequences. We understand that the case of Samisoni is one of these cases that could have disastrous effect if you do not intervene.

Mr Samisoni is the cousin of Josefa Rauluni, the Fijian guy who lost his life inside Villawood detention centre late September. He is also a comrade of Mr Rauluni in their struggle to expose the dictatorship of Fijian rulers.

Not only this. Mr Samisoni had witnessed the suicide of his cousin and was the first to inspect his dead body. He was the last to speak to Mr Rauluni. You can imagine the deep traumatic scars this left him with.

We expected that your department will take all these into account when they deal with Mr Samisoni’s case. But we are proved to be wrong again. We misjudged the lack of humanity in your department’s managers and case officers. And that is big worry for us.

We are afraid that if your department officials will go ahead with deporting Mr Samisoni tomorrow, you will have more blood on your hands. Mr Samisoni is traumatised enough to commit desperate act if he will be enforced to return to his imminent death or persecution.

We are afraid that you will be known as the bloodiest immigration minister in the history of this nation. So far, there were 3 deaths in detention centres since you became minister. There were also a lot of blood spelt, but lives not lost, fortunately. We hope that you will take urgent action to stop the flood of blood started with you resuming your responsibility as minister for immigration.

We know that you and your party want to be seen as tough decision maker, but in the wrong issues we are afraid. We want you to be tough on taking decisions to relieve the life hardship millions of Australians are facing now. We want you to take tough decisions to build tens of thousands of homes to relieve rental crisis. We want you to show some toughness when you deal with tax-evasions of millionaires. And we do not mind you to be very tough trying to restore humanity to this nation. But we expect you to be very soft when you are dealing with very vulnerable people running from homelands for freedom and to save their lives and the lives of their beloved ones.
So far, you and your government disappointed us deeply. But we expect that disappointing actions will not result in more blood spelt inside the detention centres.

We frankly do not know how you really feel after this blood that flooded your detention centres. And we do not want to put ourselves in your shoes.

We want to ask you here to show some compassion.

Enough blood spelt.

In our previous letters we asked for specific requests. But in this letter, in addition to specific request of stopping the deportation of Mr Samisoni, we can offer you our advice. We do not mind to meet with you and give you some practical advice how to deal with the crisis inside the detention centre. And we can do this with a lot of love and compassion, not with more blood.

Thanks for your time and if you need any more information concerning this case or to discuss any aspect of this letter, I can be contacted on 0404 447 272

Yours sincerely


Jamal Daoud

Another loss of life inside detention centre: coalition government has blood on its hands, again!

The Social Justice Network holds the Labor-Greens government full responsibility of the new loss of innocent life tonight inside Villawood Detention Centre. The Labor harsh treatment of refugees, including detention with no time limits, and the Greens treating of these highly humanitarian crises as political football, has resulted in the death of Iraqi asylum seeker, Ahmad El Eqabi. We understand that the Iraqi asylum seeker hanged himself just after midnight after losing any hope of humanitarian treatment by this coalition government.

“The situation inside all detention centres is very volatile and could explode at any minute. Yet all parliamentary political parties (Labor, Liberals and Greens) are enjoying making it a political football for cheap electoral gains” said Jamal Daoud, SJN spokesperson. “Despite our repeated warnings of the seriousness of the situation there, no one of these political parties were treating this issue as humanitarian priority”

The weak Labor government which desperately needed the Greens and independents support to form government, was and still a soft target if the Greens had the commitments to act on this issue. The Greens is clearly enjoying media stunts trying to bite more of the Labor votes, on the expense of innocent lives.

“We demanded just after the last election that the Greens take serious steps to enforce change of current inhumane treatment of refugees. Instead, the Greens were putting ridiculous bills on cosmetically changeing the current regime”

“If the reports are true and the Iraqi asylum seeker has lost his life, his blood would taint the Greens and Labor forever. This time it is not the extreme Liberal party, but the Greens - Labor “progressive government “which caused this tragic loss of human life. Both should bury their heads in shame and disgust”

The Iraqi asylum seeker leaves three daughters behind him in Iraq. We wonder who will explain to them how their father lost his life fighting for basic human right.

The detainee, a Muslim by faith, leave this life on the first day of Eid Al Adha (the celebration of sacrifice). Instead of celebrating with family and friends, these people will be left to grieve his life loss.

The network hopes that this will be the last human life to be lost in the Australian hell holes. We hope that it is time for fundamental changes to our immigration system to stop such atrocities from happening again as first step to regain Australian reputation as democracy with respect for basic human rights.

For more information, you can contact Jamal Daoud on 0404 447 272.

After today’s historical High Court decision: Labor needs to overhaul mandatory detention system!

The Social Justice Network welcomes the historical decision by High Court today that affirmed the Australian obligation to insure natural justice for all on its land. The decision is widely expected to have big implication on treatment of boat people by this government. The decision will be landmark in breaking the deadlock this government cornered itself inside for the last year.

“While the decision itself will not directly change the government’s inhumane and harsh treatment of asylum seekers coming by boats, but the implications of the decision will enforce the government to change its policy on this issue” said Jamal Daoud, spokesperson of SJN. “The government will find itself in very difficult situation if will not abandon its harsh treatment of boat people”

“From our regular consultations with detainees, we expect that there will be flood of court cases to review the decisions to mass refuse the majority of detainees. This will have direct impact on stopping deportations of “failed” refugees”.

“Immediate result of such move will be that thousands and thousands of asylum seekers will continue to be detained in already overcrowded detention centres. This will add to the high tension in the detention system to the point of total collapse”

“Today’s decision also made the differences between detaining people inside migration zone and outside migration zone to be nil. Such result that will practically dismantle the offshore processing arrangement”

All these factors combined will need prompt action by Labor to defuse volatile situation inside detention centres and to relieve the overstretched resources in overcrowded centres.

If Labor decides to ignore the situation, issues could get out of government hands. We do not believe that Labor can survive in opinion polls if situation continues as status quo. The Labor government is under fire at the moment from all sides. This include from own party members and supporters, union officials and some Labor backbenchers.

Today’s decision and its expected implication will add more evidence of the need to overhaul mandatory detention system. Such system that proved to be expensive, both morally and financially.

The SJN vows to continue fighting against the inhumane mandatory dentition system until the release of all asylum seekers to community until their claims finalised.

For more information, you can contact Jamal Daoud on 0404 447 272.

The Greens bill on Children in Detention: media stunt with no real change

The Social Justice Network joins its voice with other human rights group of deep disappointment with the Greens bill on Children in detention, introduced today. The bill has introduced nothing different from Labor’s disappointing commitments towards the children in detention.

While the group is yet to give detailed comments on the Greens bill, but the initial reading is not positive. The bill will not legislate ending the mandatory detention of children, minors and their parents/guardians. This is total departure from the Greens election slogans of fighting to scrap mandatory detention altogether.

“Today’s bill is exposing without doubt the real nature of the Greens party: party that have politics totally different rom policies. The policies which are designed to fool voters are totally different from Greens stances inside the parliament” said Jamal Daoud, spokesperson for SJN. “The Greens votes’ jump from 2.5% prior to 2001 election to massive 12.5% in the last election was due for large party to their slogans of opposing inhumane mandatory detention system altogether”

“The bill leaves mostly everything for minister to decide on. This includes the time frame and definition of “housing”. Practically, there is nothing different between the Greens bill and the policies implemented by Liberals and promised recently by Labor”

“Every decent Australians who voted for the Greens in the last election has thousand reasons to ask the Greens to clarify this total departure from policies published on the Greens website and in election material since 2001 lection”

The Greens today give more example that it is a party that cannot be trusted on any issue. The opposition to harsh treatment of asylum seekers was in the heart of the Greens empty rhetoric for the last decade. If they cannot honour simple promise, how they can deliver on larger issues of economic management, foreign affairs, welfare system, public sector management and other huge issues that need reforms.

“Today’s disappointing bill is no different from the other Greens action of not honour election policies and promises. We all remember how the Greens swallowed their commitments to abolish government’s rebate on private health insurance, abolish the “Anti-Terrorism” legislations and many other policies. But in parliament they did just the opposite”

“Today’s bill should be an eye opener for anyone who wrongly put their bit on the Greens to make the society more just and fairer. It is very clear that the Greens is part of the problem and cannot be part of any solution”

“The Greens, if they were serious on ending the harsh inhumane mandatory detention system, they would have put it in their agreement with Labor to form the minority government. The Labor then was desperate to form a government, and they could have accepted releasing 700 children from detention”

The network declared rightly that the role of the Greens in this government would not be more than opportunistic voice to get more exposure by spreading more empty rhetoric, with no actual actions.

The network will continue to expose the true face of political forces, especially the ones that claim to be “progressive”. Progressiveness means for us not only a set of code words, but practical steps to achieve better society.

The SJN vows to continue fighting against the inhumane mandatory dentition system until the release of all asylum seekers to community until their claims finalised.

For more information, you can contact Jamal Daoud on 0404 447 272.

Government step to release children from detention: too little too late to correct cruel practices!

Government step to release children from detention: too little too late to correct cruel practices!

The Social Justice Network (SJN) welcomes the Federal government’s announcement of new policy to start releasing children and their families from detention centres. But it considers the step to be too little too late. The government should start defuse the crisis by releasing all detainees who were in detention for more than 90 days, as per Labor’s official policy on mandatory detention centre.

“While the SJN campaigns to dismantle the mandatory detention system altogether, but the today’s announcement is a positive small step in the right direction” said Jamal Daoud, the SJN spokesperson. “The step will inevitably followed soon by further steps to release more detainees after the clear failure of the mandatory detention system”

“In this instance we notice the cheap way the Greens leaked the new announcement, to claim exclusive credit for the change. The Greens claimed that their demand of children release from detention was the main and only factor that brought this positive change. This is total false and misleading claim that caused deep shock and disappointment among human rights activists who campaigned for years to achieve this change”

The Greens misleading claims is both an assault on our intelligence and an assault on the feelings of thousands of activists and tens of organizations that worked very hard to change the heart of the government on this issue.

The claim is totally false and misleading as the Greens and all Australians know very well that the racist Liberal party demanded the release of children and their families from detention long before the Greens senators woke up and started to make demands on this issue.

The Greens party could claim credit for this change if they at least included this demand in the agreement with the Labor party to form a minority government. In that agreement and during the whole period of negotiation with the Labor party, the Greens did not even mention the issue of children in detention.

Any detailed analysis of the reasons of these changes would mention that the real reasons were:
1- The Labor tough treatment of the “boat people” proved to be a failed election strategy that cost the Labor a lot of votes.
2- The tough treatment attracted criticism from even Labor bases, where the Unions and many sections of Labor members and MPs were critical of such tough treatment.
3- The criticism also was tense from human rights organizations and public figures.
4- The situation inside the detentions centres had reached the crisis point with no horizon of easing under current practices. On the contrary. The situation proved to be very volatile and could explode very soon if the government does not change its attitude and practices.
5- The election is over and the Labor government that thinks that it will serve full term has enough time to clean the mess, even with criticism from racist opposition.
Taking into account the Greens cheap tactic of leaking changes and claiming credit, the Greens tactic is very simple, but very cheap. The Greens tactic is to claim any credit of changes to current situation, but to blame the Labor for all misachievments. We saw this when the Greens claimed credit for government promises to discuss introducing carbon tax. It also claimed credit for starting debate over future Australian commitments in Afghanistan. The Greens were very quick to claim credit, even before achieving any real change or achievement.

But the Greens is not taking any blame for indifference on issues of aliening public services, mandatory detention system, growing racism and Islamophobia, deteriorating life style and the situation of indigenous people. On this instance we note that the Greens are part of the government, as according to their agreement with labor to form minority government.

The Greens cheap claims of credit over the changes are both regrettable and highly condemned. The Greens should be ashamed from themselves for not using their numbers in both houses to enforce wide spread changes to highly inhumane mandatory system. The Greens has nothing to be proud of in this regard and on this issue.

The same senator who made these shameful claims failed to support the many desperate asylum seekers who protested outside the Federal parliament in the last few years. The senator could not leave her public-funded air-conditioned office in the parliament house to approach Bseem Mohamed, Aminovs family or Musher Saleh to know why they were protesting there. The Greens senators, including Ms Sarah Hanson, showed no humanity to show interest in helping desperate people protesting against their deportation to unknown fate.

The Greens has nothing to claim credit on the issue of migration and refugees.

The network will continue its campaign to expose the inhumane and brutal nature of the mandatory detention system. And the network will not hesitate to expose the hypocrite forces that want to trade the suffering of thousands of vulnerable people for more votes. This is why the network is not participating nor urging decent Australians to participate in rallies designed to fool Australians. Such rallies and protests that invite the Greens politicians to be the only political speakers, in an attempt to win them more votes. Such rallies that does not serve any noble cause, but to deceive Australians and give them false impressions on who really supports the refugees’ rights. If the Greens genuinely support the refugees’ rights, they should have taken practical steps to relieve the asylum seekers. In this instance we note that the Greens politicians’ pilgrimage to detention centres starts only before elections.

The network vows to continue its campaign until all detainees are released and mandatory detention dismantled.

For more information, you can contact Jamal Daoud on 0404 447 272.

After Viva Palestina: Social Justice Network participates in the Asian Aid Convoy

After the success of its campaign to achieve the first Australian public participation in Viva Palesina aid convoys which resulted in the participation of 3 Australian activists, the Social Justice Network proudly announces that it will participate in the Asian aid convoy to deliver aid to Gaza and try to break the siege.

“The SJN actively participated in the initial preparation and communications to send the first aid convoy from Asia” said Jamal Daoud, spokesperson of the SJN. “The convoy that will starts from India through different Asian countries to end up in Lebanon, before sailing to Al Arish in Egypt”

The idea came from the fact that Palestine is in the continent of Asia, while all aid convoys were coming from Europe. Consequently, representatives of more than 50 Asian non-government organisations met in Tehran mid September and decided to organise gigantic aid convoy.

“The convoy will commence its journey to Gaza from New Delhi on the first of December, to reach Gaza by 27 December. This to coincide with the anniversary of the latest Israeli barbaric war on Gaza”

The convoy will include representatives of non-government organisations from India, Pakistan, Iran, Indonesia, Malaysia, Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Australia. Such organisation that made it very clear that they oppose the illegal and inhumane blockade of Gaza and will challenge it by all means until it will be dismantled totally.

“The network will announce its campaign to collect money to fund its participation in this new initiative. Such money that will be used to buy medical and food supplies to be delivered to Gazans”

The network will soon announce the names of its members that will participate in this convoy.

“In regard to Viva Palestina 5 convoy, we have the pleasure to announce that Egypt gave today, at last, the permission for activists to sail to Al Arish before entering Gaza. The convoy, which consists of around 150 vehicles and 400 activists, is expected to start sailing from Syrian port of Latakia in two days”

“Our representative on the convoy, Omer Quaider, communicated to us the high emotional feelings among all participants at the moment, despite all obstacles and hard work. At last they will enter Gaza and will deliver the aid”

“Mr Quaider was sending us reports and pictures about the very warm reception the convoy participants were receiving in all European countries. He told us that the reception got very warm when the convoy entered the Turkish border, where the participants were treated as heroes. The participants visited the cemetery where victims of Israeli assault on Freedom Flotilla were buried”

The network is making the necessary contacts with human rights organisations to encourage them to participate in these efforts. The network will announce soon the result of these contacts and the final details of the initiative. More information will be available after the network’s representatives will attend regional organisational meeting in Malaysia, 3 October 2010.

For more information, Jamal Daoud can be contacted on 0404 447 272

Viva Palestina 5 entered Turkey: Social Justice participant is hopeful and enthusiastic to enter Gaza soon

Social Justice Network’s representative on Viva Palestina 5, Mr Omer Quiader, communicated to the network his high emotional enthusiasm and hope to enter Gaza soon, possibly within the next 10 days. Mr Quaider told us that today they crossed the border of Turkey to a very welcoming reception from officials and civilians.

“While the convoy received warm welcome in each city they entered en route to Gaza, the welcome in Turkey was exceptional” said Mr Quiader “The Turkish officials and ordinary citizens welcomed us with very warm reception and expressed deep support for Gaza people”

The aid convoy travelled from London on 18 September. Then it crossed through to Paris and many other French cities. From there they convoy crossed to Italy, then to Greece and from Greece to Turkey. The convoy is expected to reach Gaza by 10th of October.

“Despite the long journey we travelled so far, all participants of the convoy have high morale and enthusiasm to reach Gaza and participate in breaking the siege”

Mr Quaider through his phone and email contacts in the last few days expressed his satisfaction with the progress of the mission and the goals it achieved so far. He told us that despite all obstacles, he would love to participate in any similar future missions.

“The encouraging messages we are getting from supporters in Australia and in all cities we crossed in the last 2 weeks are highly encouraging. The messages are strong signal of wide spread opposition to the illegal and brutal siege of Gaza. They are clear indication of wide spread support for any mission to end such brutal siege”

“The participants of the convoy are activists from many countries around the globe. We have three activists from Australia participating for the first time in these convoys”

Mr Quiader also praised and thanked all Australians who donated for the campaign to participate in this convoy. It is the first time that Australia was mentioned in the world media of participating in these noble convoys. This itself is very positive step to engage Australian citizens, politicians, media and non-government organizations in the fight to dismantle this highly inhumane siege that imprison 1.5 million Gazanas and deprive them of all vital needs.

For media interviews or comments on the progress of the convoy, you can contact Jamal Daoud, the spokesperson of SJN on 0404 447 272

Detention centres’ crisis: real reasons behind these desperate actions

The death of Fijian asylum seeker in Villawood detention centre on Monday and the rooftop protest of many detainees is a clear indication of mandatory detention regime in deep crisis. All these are also clear indication of Federal parliament empty of any real progressive force that works to dismantle this highly inhumane regime.

“The issue of boat people was high profile issue in the last Federal election conducted 21 August this year. The issue gave boost to especially the Greens, who promised then to work to dismantle the mandatory detention system altogether. Yet after the dust of the election had settled, the Greens failed to act to fulfill their election promises”

“The Greens had the chance to demand even partial dismantling of the system when they negotiated the agreement to back the Labor to form minority government. The Greens failed to do so. It even failed to even mention this highly humanitarian issues during the long negotiation with the Labor”

The Labor - Greens - Independents failure to address this issue was the real reason for the wide spread disturbance inside the centre. The detainees’ hope was dashed after the minority government was formed and the new minister vowed to toughen treatment of asylum seekers and facilitate quick deportation of “failed” detainees.

“The detainees told us before election that the only hope they have then was that the Greens possible hold of balance of power which means ability to bargain with the government for quick fix to detention centres crisis” said Jamal Daoud, spokesperson of Social Justice Network (SJN). “But when the agreement was signed between the Labor and the Greens with no mentioning of their suffering, the detainees expressed deep disappointment and total loss of hope”.

Yesterday, the detainees expressed to us their believe that they were left alone to fight for their freedom. This is why few of them decided to take desperate drastic measures, like committing suicide, rooftop protest and complete hunger strike.

They believe that all parliamentary politicians are treating their plight as political football for own benefits: The Liberals will win more racist votes, The Labor confused and hope to win back some racist votes and the Greens to win more progressive votes.

One Sri Lankan detainee laughed yesterday when he was told that Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young would visit Villawood DC next Wednesday. He commented: “We know that the Greens could end our suffering just in few days if they determine to do so. Without the Greens support in parliament, the government would collapse immediately. The Labor does not want this to happen. So the Greens could use this fact to push for end of the crisis almost immediately. We know that they are treating our suffering just as media stunts to improve their electoral rating for the next election”

The network will continue its campaign to highlight the inhumanity of the mandatory detention system and the need to dismantle it totally. The network understands that the attack on refugees rights is part of continuing attack on multiculturalism. All political parties are participating in this attack, including the so-called progressive parties like the Greens. The clear evidence of this is the lack of any objection from all parliamentary parties of the abolition of “Multiculturalism” from the cabinet departments titles. It is also very evident in lacking Non-English speaking representation in parliament.

The network will continue to fight racism, Islamophobia and all kind of discrimination. This will include encouraging voters to vote away from mainstream parties (Liberals, Labor and the Greens) in the next state election. We are definitely running non-English speaking candidates in the March NSW state election.

For more information, you can contact Jamal Daoud on 0404 447 272.

The latest suicide inside detention: Labor-Greens-Independent coalition government has blood on its hands!

The new Labor -Greens - Independents government has blood on its hands following the suicide of Fijian detainee at Villawood detention centre. The incident caused wide spread protest among detainees who declared hunger strike and few of them staged protest on the rooftop. They are demanding immediate release from detention and review of their cases by either totally independent body or the court.

“The detainees’ desperate action came after their hopes were dashed following the formation of the minority government. The asylum seekers hoped that the Greens will negotiate with the Labor to demand immediate end of inhumane treatment. They apparently swallowed the empty rhetoric of the Greens on supporting the refugees’ rights during the election campaign”.

“Many asylum seekers had expressed to us that they are prepared now to go to the end with their desperate actions after all hopes in the new government was evaporated with the new minister’s comments threatening to deport all asylum seekers whose applications were rejected by his department. The smaller partner of the government, the Greens, was silence on such cruel comments”

Today’s tragic loss of innocent young life is a clear evidence of parliamentary political parties dealing with this highly humanitarian issue as political football for electoral gains only.

The Social Justice Network was right to declare that the new government would be more conservative than the previous one. The network declared rightly that the role of the Greens in this government would not be more than opportunistic voice to get more exposure by spreading more empty rhetoric, with no actual actions.

The network believes that the Greens could play more constructive role in enforcing the government to retreat of its harsh treatment of refugees and asylum seekers. The Greens has proved with no doubt that it prefers to issue media releases and give media talks than take any practical steps to enforce the government to end its brutal treatment of detainees

While the network holds the government responsible for the blood spelt today inside the detention centre, it holds all partners (Labor, Greens and Independents) the same share of responsibility.

The network will continue to expose the true face of political forces, especially the ones that claim to be “progressive”. Progressiveness means for us not only a set of code words, but practical steps to achieve better society.

The SJN vows to take actions to expose the hypocrisy of the Greens and the inhumanity of Labor. We demand that Labor – Greens – independents government release all asylum seekers to community until their claims finalised.

For more information, you can contact Jamal Daoud on 0404 447 272.

SJN condemns the new government’s move to expand Curtin and other detention centres

The new Labor – Greens – Independents government’s announcement of expanding detention facilities, including the notorious Curtin DC, is a clear indication of the direction this government will take on the issues of asylum seekers arriving by boats. This announcement should be condemned by all Australians who believe in human rights.

“The announcement exposes the hypocrisy of the Greens party, the partner of this government that campaigned very hard on more humane treatment of refugees and asylum seekers during the last August election” said Jamal Daoud, spokesperson of SJN. “The announcement proves that all what the Greens were campaigning on were no more than empty rhetoric to win votes from progressive Australians”

“The Greens complete silence on this issue during their negotiation with Labor to form minority government is clear evidence that the Greens is using the suffering of these vulnerable people as political football to win more progressive votes, only”

“The Greens could demand during the negotiation that Labor honour its previous commitments to reform immigration detention system into more humane one”

“The Greens interest during the negotiation was focussed on Carbon Tax and Climate change legislation. While we understand that these issues are highly important, the Greens could use their numbers in parliament and senate to include the issues of asylum seekers “rotten” in detention centres in any agreement with Labor”

“We witnessed how Julia Gillard vowed to seriously consider Carbon Tax in the next few months. She could be enforced to make commitment towards asylum seekers too.”

“The Greens never had any interest to take actions on asylum seekers issues. So far and during the last 2 decades of mistreatment of refugees and asylum seekers, the Greens did not take any practical actions to force the government of the day to change its inhumane treatment of refugees. The Greens are very skilful in issuing media releases about this issue.”

“Today’s announcement is bringing Australia back to dark days of Howard’s era. Even during Howard’s era, Iraqi and Afghani asylum seekers were never forcefully deported back to their homeland”

The SJN vows to take actions to expose the hypocrisy of the Greens and the inhumanity of Labor. We demand that Labor – Greens – independents government release all asylum seekers to community until their claims finalised.

For more information, you can contact Jamal Daoud on 0404 447 272.

SJN announces its official participant in Viva Palestina 5 convoy bounds to Gaza soon

Social Justice Network is proudly announcing that Mr Omer Quiader will be its official representative on Viva Palestina 5, the international aid convoy that aims to break the illegal and inhumane siege of Gaza. Mr Quiader, a very active member of the network since its formation, will leave on 14 September to London to join the gigantic aid convoy. The convoy then bounds to Gaza form London on 18 September.

“The SJN participation is the first Australian participation in these courageous convoys bound to Gaza to highlight the inhumanity and barbarity of Gaza blockade” said Jamal Daoud, SJN spokesperson and coordinator of the campaign. “We are proud that we will be the first Australian organization that will participate in these convoys”.

“We also proud that our campaign in Australia to fundraise enough money to enable us to participate had drawn attention to the devastating consequences of the 4 years illegal blockade of the strip”

“The network is proud also that its campaign had urged other organizations to start discussing their participation in this convoy and future ones. While we are proud to initiate this process, we are welcoming any move in this direction”

The network had hoped from this campaign to bring the debate about Israeli barbaric actions against Palestinians under its occupation back to the Australian political arena. It is very clear that our participation and other organizations following our suit are good moves in this direction.

The network had raised around $8,800 for this mission in very short time. The network has transferred the amount of $6,500 to Viva Palestina organization to pay for half truck full with medical and food supplies. The other money will be used to pay for logistical expenses of sending our activist to deliver aid to Gaza strip.

The network had published the names of major donors on its website of www.socialjustice.net.au

Our team is very happy and proud of their active role in achieving this goal. They are proud to be first Australians to participate in such moves aiming to break the siege of Gaza. While this is the first participation of our organization in these overseas missions, but we are determined not to be the last.

For more information or to arrange media interviews with our representative, you can call Jamal Daoud on 0404 447 272.

Federal election results: clear message of dissatisfaction of current political system

There is no doubt that the recent federal election’s result was a political earthquake that will have deep consequences on Australian politics for decades to come. So far the media and parliamentary parties are engaged in extensive talk about two issues. The first is the inability to form government for days or weeks. The other one is the rise of the Greens and its holding of balance of power.

“The results of the federal election, which produced the first post World War hung parliament, came with positive outcomes in addition to the negative ones” said Jamal Daoud, spokesperson for the Social Justice Network. “Away from quick superficial analysis, any deep look at the outcomes would find deep changes of voters’ attitudes and voting patterns”

“Growing numbers of voters could finally cross the psychological barrier of fear from consequences of fundamentally changing voting patterns. This include voting informally in large numbers, especially in areas with high ethnic and religious minorities”

“We believe that all indications so far are pointing to the direction that the message of the SJN is getting through growing numbers of voters, especially Non English speaking and Muslims voters”

“Since the NSW 2007 state election, the network was asking voters to vote away from the three mainstream political parties (Labor, Liberals and the Greens), even if this means to vote informally when there is no strong independent”

Taking into account that the network is active mainly in NSW, we came to the above mentioned conclusions when taking into account the federal election result, where:

1- NSW had the highest informal votes among all other states.

2- The Greens got the least votes in NSW, comparing to Greens voting in all other states.

3- The high multicultural and high Muslims seats scored the highest informal votes in the state. Blaxland, Watson and Fowler (where Muslims presence is very high), scored informal votes between 13 – 15%. In the same seats, the swing towards the Greens was minimal.

“On the other hand and where there was no campaign similar to the network’s one, the Greens success in Melbourne seat was backboned on Muslim votes. The Muslims did not have the real picture and true information about the reality of the Greens regressive policies and stances. We believe that should the network have campaigned in Melbourne seat, the results there would have changed fundamentally”

“While we are in discussion with many organisations and individuals of possibility to campaign in the state seat of Melbourne in the coming Victorian election, the network will try to prove this fact when the voters go to the polls in March NSW state election”.

“The highly encouraging comments and offer of help from voters in different NSW seats, is another evidence of the growing support for the network’s vision”

“The network believes that all three mainstream parties have more in common than in difference on important issues. One of the most important issues for the voters is the growing Islamophobia and attacks on Multiculturalism”

While the network decided not to run candidates in the federal election for many reasons, we are most likely to run few candidates in the next NSW state election, March 2010.

One of the positive outcomes of the election was the emerging of Muslims and Non – English speaking votes as decisive ones in the Australian politics. But so far, all mainstream parties were successful in deceiving these voters by making more promises, with no real action to empower the community to participate in decision making process.

The network will continue its campaign on the issue of empowering these communities, by all means.

It is interesting also to note that the balance of power became double as a result of this election. The major balance of power was shifted from the Senate to the House of Representatives. This will have great impact on the stability of the government for the next few months/years. It would be interesting to see how the government would act under such circumstances.

For media interviews, Jamal Daoud can be contacted on 0404 447 272

Gaza people need your help: help us participate in Viva Palistina 5 convoy to Gaza

Dear Sir / Madam



The Social Justice Network in cooperation with many other community organizations is intending to participate in the Viva Palistina 5, a convoy of humanitarian aid to Gaza. This convoy also seeks to highlight the brutality of this inhumane siege.



To be able to participate in this convoy, Social Justice Group is seeking your kind support to fund this noble mission.



Social Justice Network has taken many practical steps in the past to promote human rights in the society and abroad. The most important human right is equality between people regardless of race, nationality, sex …etc.



You can check our previous campaigns on our facebook

www.facebook.com/pages/SOCIAL-JUSTICE-PARTY/103934736320714



Our ambition is to raise enough money to purchase trucks full of medical and food supplies. Each truck would cost around $17,000 (with its full load of medial and food supplies). The money will also insure our physical participation in the convoy by sending 2 Australian activists with each truck purchased, to accompany the convoy to Gaza. This would be the first Australian participation in such noble missions. This would be very important to insure that the issue of Israeli illegal occupation of Palestine and the inhumane blockade of 1.5 million Gazans become prominent item in our political and public debate.



You can donate by writing a cheque and send it to our address mentioned above. Or you can direct deposit into our account. You also can donate at our website at www.socialjustice.net.au by clicking donate button on the right. We will provide you with official receipt for your donations. We will also provide you with regular updates on the progress of the campaign.



Thanks for your support and hope that the time when there are injustices in the world become something from the past.



Our banking details:



Bank: Commonwealth

Name: Social Justice Network Incorporated

BSB: 06 2133

ACC: 10871919

6 July 2010

Labor government’s new asylum seekers policy: nice rhetoric with big disappointing conclusions!
After promising start of her policy delivery, PM Julia Gillard, greatly disappoint asylum seekers and the human rights supporters in the country. After Ms Gillard started her policy with outlines that dismiss Liberal opposition racist myths and slogans about unauthorized asylum seekers “problem”, she ended up with similar conclusions and slogans.

It was great to see Ms Gillard dismisses that Australia is facing “unauthorized arrivals problem”, by confirming that the numbers of these are greatly insignificant and constitute no trouble to security or economy. But then when she started to outline her party’s policy, she just did the opposite.

It was also great to see Ms Gillard emphasizing that the racist and inhumane treatment of asylum seekers is damaging the Australian chance to play significant role in international relations and politics, then she resorted to adopt much of Howard’s extreme racist and inhumane policies that undermined the Australian status and influence.

The Social Justice group believes that the policy outlined by Ms Gillard today not only won’t work to solve any issue. But we believe that this policy is just design to win Labor another term in office.

We deeply believe that Ms Gillard’s “East Timor solution” (which is a replica of Howard’s inhumane Nauru solution), will produce (if will go ahead) the same inhumane damages the Nauru’s did. In this instance, we would like to ask our PM how she would insure the humane administration of these “regional centres”? If the government does not control what is happening inside detention cetnres inside Australia, where we are witnessing increasing mental health problems and many self harm attempts, how it could control what is happening outside Australia?

While we believe that Ms Gillard’s policy announcement could win her back vital votes in marginal seats and could deliver her a win in the next election, but we think that Labor government had wasted golden opportunity in the last 3 years to fix this issue for good. We wrote to previous PM few letters advising him about more appropriate humane steps to end the racist debate about the asylum seekers issue. Few of these points were:
1- Talk more frequently about the facts in this regards. Such facts like: the real numbers of asylum seekers around the world, the numbers of asylum seekers arriving to other developed countries and the humane treatment they are given there.
2- Increase the quota of refugees accepted under migration program.
3- Participate in advocating for peaceful solution to armed conflicts that produce high numbers of refugees and asylum seekers.

Ms Gillard mentioned how Australian governments (before Howard’s government) dealt with unauthorized arrivals. We thought that Ms Gillard would propose adopting “Fraser’s solution” to ease the racist debate mounted during 70’s in the face of Vietnamese unauthorized arrivals. Unfortunately, she just mentioned the name of Former PM Fraser, but adopted Howard’s policies.

While we believe that policy announcement today will not fix any problems, but will somehow neutralize the issue of asylum seekers debate in the next election. This will leave us with huge job to continue fighting for the rights of refugees and asylum seekers. Such fight that would not be won only by empty rhetoric exercised by opportunist politicians and political parties. Such parties, especially the Greens, can spread all empty rhetoric they can before the next election. Their empty rhetoric of announcing big promises will not fix the problem. Such issue could be more easily tackled by increasing representation of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in their membership, hierarchy and candidates for high-profile seats. Their continued refusal to give these communities a voice, is a stark evidence that the campaign they lead is not more than an election campaign of empty rhetoric that will vanish immediately on the next day election night concludes.

Ms Gillard’s today announcement is a clear indication of the total failure of the Australian current policy in dealing with global refugees’ crisis. Instead of taking proactive steps to face the crisis, the Australian government is still lagging behind its Western democracies counterpart.


The group will continue its campaign to lobby the government to change its approach to this issue fundamentally.

For more information, you can contact Jamal Daoud on 0404 447 272

Community support for the lunch with Villawood detainees: strong message of refusal to mandatory detention system.

21 June 2010

This year, Social Justice group has decided to celebrate its annual World refugee Day celebration inside the detention centre. The community lunch with detainees would send practical message to politicians not to turn the plight of highly vulnerable people into election bazaar.

“The group’s decision to take such practical step was highly welcomed by community leaders, active members and even business owners” said Jamal Daoud spokesperson of the group. “Many community leaders are participating in this lunch. The list of participants includes: Rev. David Smith, Dr Ibrahim Abu Mohamed, Dr Fida Al Majzoub, Sheikh Younis Al Muzafer, Emad Ashour and many others”.

“The businesses we approached showed high sympathy with the asylum seekers plight and donated generously for the community lunch”

“On recent previous occasions, community members donated generously when we approached them to donate electrical appliances”.

All this is as clear sign that our politicians in Canberra do not represent their constituents. Indeed, it sends strong message that community members are expecting a lot of their politicians to help these vulnerable people, not to detain them or return them to their death.

The group decided to celebrate the occasion in very practical way away from empty rhetoric and more electoral promises from different political parties. The group believes that actions are usually louder than talks.

This year’s celebration of WRD is a good opportunity for the group to assure its commitment to continue fighting until we see the mandatory detention system abolished altogether. The group is also advocating for Australia to increase significantly the quota of refugees it accept annually. This would reduce the numbers of boat people arriving to our shores.

“The inhumane treatment of asylum seekers proved to be not the solution. On the contrary. It created more troubles for Australia and Australians”.

The community leaders and active members will take multicultural food to participate it with the detainees. But in fact, they will participate with the detainees their hopes that their plight will finish soon.

The community leaders and active members will gather outside Villawood detention centre main gate at 15 Birmingham Ave – Villawood at 1 pm. Then they will take food and soft drinks to the inside of the detention where they will enjoy lunch with detainees from different backgrounds.

For more information, you can contact Jamal Daoud on 0404 447 272

Social justice group strongly condemns the Israeli state terrorism: Australians parliamentary politicians’ complete silence is highly condemned!

Social Justice group is condemning in the strongest words the Israeli barbaric inhumane massacre against the international activists part of the Free Gaza flotilla. This massacre that resulted so far in killing more than 10 innocent activists and injuring dozens more, according to Israeli sources. The Israeli army conducted this massacre in the international water, even before the activists entered the Gaza waters.

“The international activists part of the flotilla were not armed and the flotilla only carried humanitarian aids. There was no excuse for these barbaric actions which cost many lives” said Jamal Daoud, the group’s spokesperson and leading candidate for the next election. “While we are at the moment watching with deep sadness the loss of innocent lives, we are not surprised by this barbaric action as Israel has conducted regularly massacres against innocent people”.

While this massacre is added to the previous massacres that Israel conducted against anyone who challenges its illegal actions, it comes as clear evidence of the deep crises it goes through since its defeat in Lebanon 2006 and then in Gaza 2008 - 2009.

Few months ago, Israel forged foreign passports, including Australians, to conduct another illegal action. The international community, including Australia, did not take decisive measures to discipline Israel to enforce it from taking further barbaric actions.

This time, international community (including Australian government) should take urgent decisive actions against Israel. This should include cutting ties and expelling Israeli diplomats. Without such tough actions, Israel will continue its violations of human rights of anyone dares to criticise it or take actions against its illegal actions.

We now know that there are few Australians were on board when ships were attacked by Israeli navy. Consequently, we urge Australian government to act immediately by calling the Israeli diplomats and get some clarifications about the need for this barbaric action against unarmed international activists and about the fate of Australian journalists.

On this issue, we condemn the Australian government’s silence on this barbaric action. We also strongly condemn the so-called progressive small parliamentary parties, especially the Greens, for their complete silence over these crimes. In this instance we note that these parties (the Labor and the Greens) got the biggest slice of the Muslims, Arabs and progressive votes in the past decade. We urge these communities to take these into account when they go to the election later in the year.

The group will participate in organising and participating in other activities on this issue in the next few days. One of these actions would be the rally in Canberra on next Thursday. We will announce details of these actions later on.

For media contact, you can call Jamal Daoud on 0404 447 272

Under slogan of “No Islamophobia …No Racism”: Social Justice group runs candidates to promote real Multiculturalism and equality

As announced earleir, Social Justice group has announced this week its canididate for the senate for the next Federal election, 2010. The lead canididate for the senate is long time human rights activist and freelance journalist, Mr Jamal Daoud. The group also decided to run canidates for few high multicultural seats.

“Real Multiculturalism means equal representation of all different ethnic and religious groups in the decison making bodies. This value is not supported or promoted by the traditional parties” said Jamal Daoud, the media spokesperon of the group and the senate leading canididate. “We understand that the flourishing racism in society is a reuslt of the monopoly by one ethinicty and followers of Jeodo-Chrisitan faiths on decison making bodies”.

With both the government and opposition parties are engaging in racist debate over the issue of boat people and the “homegrown terrorism”, there is high need to challenge these racist claims and accusations. With total lack of progressive force in the parliament to seriously challenge these setbacks to human rights of refugees, asylum seekers and Australian Muslims, the need is very high to run candidates of these targeted communities to lead the struggle.

The group’s decision came after the pro-multicultural coummunities and organisations did not see any party taken decisive steps to promote members of marginlaised groups to the parliament and other decision making bodies. Even the so-called progressive small parties (especially the Greens) have failed the marginalised groups. In this instance they note the total absence of any multicultural faces in Parliament and in traditional parties hierarchies.

“Without equal representation of marginalised groups in decision making bodies, the issues causing their marginalisation would never be in the centre of any debate by decsion making bodies. The group’s desicion to run canididates from marginalised groups is to give these marginalised communites a chance to voice their concerns and highlight their issues”


“The marginalised communites of indegenous people, newly arrived immigrants, refugees and people with disabilities are totally absent from any representation in the federal parliament”.

“Even though these marginalised communites are making up more than 40% of the Australian population, their representation in the Federal parliament is nearly nil”.

“Even the so-called left progressive parties have failed to field any candiate from these marginalised communities in any safe or semi safe seat in the coming election”

“Real multiculturalism and social justice in any society means that the marginalised people should be allowed to have a fair share in having a say in the future of the nation they belong to. It means too that they should have equal access to resources and common wealth”

“The traditional parties, including the so-called progressive ones, are infact part of the problem and definitely canot be part of the solution”

“The history of Australian political life is not so bright when it comes to involving the highly marginalised communites. This is why racism and discrimination was always high on the agenda for political campainging through the Australian history. This election is no diferent”

The group hopes from this campaign to give the marginalised communites hope of possibility to get some share in politico-economical life of this nation. It is not acceptable that marginalised communites and their suffering would be used continually as electoral slogans for some parties to gain more votes. If these parties are serious about its empty rehtoric, they should give some power and voice for these marginalised communities to lead the fight for their rights.

The NSW voters will have the chance to vote for the first Muslim candidate for the Federal senate in this year’s election. This would be the practical effective way to fight growing Islamophobia and racism in the society.

The group will announce later the names of other candidates and the seats they will run for.

For more info about the campaign, you can contact the group’s spokesperson Jamal Daoud on 0404 447 272

The government’s new policy on asylum seeker: inhumane policy made on run!

The Rudd government has announced yesterday a new policy allegedly to fight people smuggling activities. The policy includes suspension of applications’ process for Afghani and Sri Lankan asylum seekers. This would practically means keeping asylum seekers behind bars for longer times.

“The policy is very serious setback of Australian commitments and obligations under Geneva Convention about Refugees status, 1951” said Jamal Daoud, spokesperson of Social Justice party. “It was a move made on run in the face of calls from opposition parties to resort to racism and xenophobia as a major campaign platform for the coming federal election”

“The move is departure from another election commitments made by Rudd government before the last federal election, 2007. At that time, Labor party promised to keep the asylum seekers no more than 90 days in detention centres to process their claims”

“Consequent to yesterday’s move, asylum seekers could be kept in detention for years”

The new policy was not based on any credible reports or information from international and human rights organisations. On the contrary. Currently, we are witnessing surge in military activities and indiscriminate bombing from all sides in Afghanistan.

The government’s policy is no more than a coward move to cave in from opposition parties’ attacks on surge of unauthorized arrivals to Australia. Such move that aims to make racism and xenophobia a major election issue that blankets all other major challenges facing Australia. Such challenges that include: very fragile economy, accommodation crisis, health crisis, drug and alcohol addiction crisis, …etc

Both the government and opposition are claiming that they want to fight against people smuggling criminal activities. But both are directing their activities to punish the innocent vulnerable people. From previous experiences, these people are genuine refugees and would make good citizens. The government’s inhumane harsh policy would result only in causing these asylum seekers trauma and deep mental health problems. By the time they will be released to the community, they would need high support and expensive treatment for rehabilitation.

The Social Justice party opposes such move and believes that such policy would practically fail. Both Afghanistan and Sri Lanka are still highly dangerous areas, as according to the government publicly released travel advices and reports. All what it will do is build up already high racism, xenophobia and Islamophobia. SJP will fight against such moves by all means available.

The SJP will participate in the rally planned this coming Sunday in support of refugees rights. Australia should honor its international obligations and commitments.

The rally will be on Sunday, 11 April 10, 2 pm outside Villawood detention centre – 15 Birmingham Ave – Villawood.

For media comments, Jamal Daoud, the SJN spokesperson, can be contacted on 0404 47 272

Labor government should act to relieve crises, not produce new ones

Today’s transfer of asylum seekers from Christmas Island’s detention centre to Villawood DC is a clear indication of the total failure of the Australian current policy in dealing with global refugees’ crisis. Instead of taking proactive steps to face the crisis, the Australian government is still lagging behind its Western democracies counterpart.

“The Labor government should have acted immediately after was elected 2007 to end the previous government’s highly inhumane practices” said Jamal Daoud, spokesperson of Social Justice Network (SJN). “Such practices that include giving up sovereignty on some of Australian territories, wasting billions of tax-payers money on bribes to neighboring countries and stepping naval patrols and detaining people in remote islands where there is no basic services (including basic health services)”

The Labor government’s approach in this regard was similar to its approach to other crises and issues. The Labor government continued the same failed policies of previous government until things escalated to the point of crisis. The government then acted on run, with no deep changes to policy and approach.

By doing this, the Labor government is attracting criticism from all sides. We are witnessing the Liberal’s insensitive hysterical comments that aim to beat on racist drums, despite the fact that the Labor government is following the Liberals approach in this regard. The government also attracted criticism from progressive organisations defending human rights.

It is very clear that transferring hundreds of asylum seekers to mainland’s detention centres will not solve the problem. The issue of asylum seeking is directly related to the escalating global refugee’s crisis. Such crisis that Australian government participated in its escalation by participating in invading Iraq and Afghanistan. The Australian government cannot avoid its commitments and obligations to help relieving this escalating crisis.

“Australia, as a member of the coalition states who participated in destroying Afghanistan and Iraq, should stand up for their international responsibilities and accept all Iraqi and Afghani asylum seekers”


“Labor’s hesitation to end the suffering of around 2 thousand asylum seekers waiting in Indonesia for between 3 – 7 years for a third country to take them, is the real basis for today’s move”.


Many of these stranded people have family members in Australia, who can look after them and facilitate their smooth integration. Their Australian relatives had applied to the government to end their ordeal by granting them humanitarian visas that will cost Australia minimal financial commitments. The government had refused most of applications for humanitarian visa.

While the network supports the Labor government’s more lenient treatment of arriving asylum seekers, but urges it to take further steps.

The Labor government should reverse the regulations that exclude thousands of Australian islands from migration zones. Australia should resume its global leadership on humanitarian issues by restoring Australian humanitarian commitments. Australia should also increase its quota of refugees accepted. This will defuse calls from the Liberals to play on race card again.

Australia is a signatory to the 1951 Geneva Convention to protect refugees and the subsequent protocol. This convention guarantees the rights of refugees and asylum seekers to move from their country of origin to any country they think will give them safety and freedom.

The Network will continue its campaign to lobby the government to change its approach to this issue fundamentally. In a time when we are witnessing the true and full impact of devastating mandatory detention policy on thousands of refugees who were detained in Australia’s detention centre (and now became recipients of Disability Support Pension) and our bid to get massive compensation for those affected, we urge the government to end the source of such dreadful practices.

Labor government should spend the billions of tax-payers money on ways to relieve the crisis by smooth and humane way of status determination and then on settlement services to facilitate their integration. Instead of wasting these huge amounts of money on producing devastated people with many disabilities.

For more information, you can contact Jamal Daoud on 0404 447 272

Israeli Mossad’s use of Australian passports: Australian government should end its cooperation with this rogue state

While the Social Justice party (SJP) is satisfied with our PM, Hon Kevin Rudd, initial response to the revelation by police in Dubai that some of the new suspects identified in the assassination of a senior Hamas member last month were travelling on Australian passports. But we are waiting to see our government taking further steps to discipline this rogue state.

“The assassins’ use of wide range of developed countries’ passports is further proof that Israel is real threat on global security” said Jamal Daoud, spokesperson of SJP. “The Israeli government is the only government that resort to such actions of extrajudicial steps that expose large numbers of civilians to many threats”

“The Australian government’s persistent support of Israeli’s crimes against humanity including voting against international will last year for UN general assembly’s adopting Goldstone’s report gave Israel wrong message of support of its illegal activities”

After police of Dubai’s revelation, we expect serious implications against Australia and its citizens. This will include international arrest warrant of Australian citizens who insist that they did not commit any crime. It is the responsibility of Australian government, as per our constitution, to protest our citizens.

It will also further damage the image of Australia as a supporter of rogue state that commits international crimes, including crimes against humanity during its invasion of Lebanon, 2006, and invasion of Gaza, 2008 - 2009.

The Israeli move also compromised our sovereignty. They have acted as if they operate Australia in the way they wish.


The SJP urges Australian government to take serious actions to curb the Israeli appetite for blood and destruction. This should include suspending all diplomatic, economic and military ties with this rogue state which is currently led by war criminals, as affirmed by Goldstone’s report and other human rights organisations’ reports.

The Australian government should also revisit all tax-payers money collected by Zionist organizations in Australia annually and sent to Israel to fund illegal activities. Australian people deserve to know where their tax money is sent and what it used for.

The latest development strengthened our vision in SJP to consider Israel as rogue state built on racist Zionist ideology.

In addition to our demand that our government takes serious steps to regain confidence in our passport system and our international relation as a peace loving nation, we are considering taking steps to expose the Israeli crimes that damaged our nation’s reputation and image. We will consult other human rights organizations and pro-Palestinian organizations of the best way to respond to this international crime. These steps could include protesting outside Israeli embassy, writing protest letters to Israeli and Australian governments demanding clearing Australia’s name of any violation to international law and organizing forums and gathering on the issue.

We will make sure that the Israeli crimes and the Australian government repeated support of Israel to become an important election issue for the next federal election.

For media comments, Jamal Daoud, the SJN spokesperson, can be contacted on 0404 47 272

Aminov family’s ordeal: historical victory over state’s might!

The month of January this year will be historic for the Aminov family, for our political group and for many human rights supporters. Two weeks ago, the minister for immigration decided to end the Aminov family’s 12 years ordeal by granting them permanent visas. This good news does not stop. The son Marat has got his citizenship certificate and soon will hold the first passport in his life.

The end of the Aminovs ordeal is undoubtedly one of the most important victories against the highly inhumane migration system we have in this country. It is a system that we thought would be changed totally after the Labor government was elected to office in November 2007. Such thoughts evaporated soon after the appointment of Senator Chris Evans as the new immigration minister.

The extraordinary nature of this case was made by the unique stubbornness of DIAC officials, and their minister, and their refusal to show any kind of humanity in their decisions about this case. The DIAC officials, including the workers in minister’s office, refused even to meet the family members to listen to their compelling circumstances and to try to find a workable solution to the impasse. Not only this: DIAC officials were taking decisions that were neither practical nor logical. They were operating as if they were on other planet.

The ruthlessness of DIAC officials, the minister and his staff, in dealing with this case was unique and exceptional. These officials closed their eyes, ears, hearts and minds to any documented argument we provided them with to urge them to grant this family a permanent visa. The decision was so simple that it only needed the minister’s signature. No more no less. And there was no untoward consequence. What amazed us was the insistence of the DIAC officials that taking the humane decision constituted a big moral and legal challenge. As if the DIAC officials had not deported Australians, detained Australians and caused many to lose their lives.

What makes this a big victory is the tremendous courage and resilience of the Aminovs to end their ordeal, this way or other. The whole family was determined that their ordeal should be ended soon. This is why they took a decision to declare an open hunger strike outside the Federal parliament. They decided that either the minister’s advisors would be woken up, or they would not care to end their lives. At the end of the day they had enough of just waiting for humanity from DIAC and its officials.

We highly praise and remember the high courage of the Aminovs in facing the might of the Australian state on all levels. At different stages, they were subjected to oppression from Federal government, federal police, ACT state government and police, ACT legal system and ACT health services. At different stages all the family members were subjected to state oppression and were detained illegally. The father was in jail, son in a mental health unit and mother not allowed to see anyone of them. The state might was on its fulliest display to discipline the family that dared to stand up for their rights and challenge inhumane treatment.

The family and supporters (mainly our group) were in fact challenging the whole regressive inhumane political system.

The whole family was on hunger strike outside the federal parliament for months, but was not visited by any federal politicians, including the self-styled self-claimed (without any shred of practical prove) “progressive” politicians.

Ms Sarah Hanson-Young, Greens senator and looking after refugees’ portfolio, indicated on several occasions that she was ready to travel from Adelaide (her state) to Canberra or Sydney to deliver a speech at a pro-refugees rally. But she could not move from her air conditioned office at the parliament house to the outside lawn to speak to the family and ask them about their case and how to help them. We know that at a pro-refuges rally, there is always possibility for media circus and a chance to vend more deceiving promises and claims. But in the case of Aminovs, there were no media showing interest in this case.

The inhumane correspondence from minister’s office regarding this case led us to cancel a preference deal with the Labor candidates in the last council election. We, after the minister’s office showed high ruthlessness in dealing with this family’s ordeal, also warned the minster, his office workers and DIAC officials that they will lose their bid to break the soul of the family, as the family had reached the point of total hopelessness from the humanity of the system. We also warned the minister and his office workers that the consequence for their stubbornness could be dire. But they insisted with their heartless approach to this case.

What makes this case an historic victory, is that is exposed the real faces and agendas of many politicians that were trading the misery of refugees and asylum seekers for thousands of votes just before each election by spreading many deceiving promises and claims.

In our support to this family we proved that there is alternative to our “progressive” politicians - those politicians that are mainly acting as machines of spreading lies and deception, but the end of the day, are very skilful in getting progressive voters support, only.

What amazes us is that many of these politicians are demanding that our federal government cut ties with Japan for killing whales. But they are heartlessly silent over destroying lives of thousands of people, in Australia or abroad. The same politician, who called on the Federal government to cut ties with Japan over whaling, was silent over the treatment of the Aminov family. Such treatment could have at some stage cost lives. He also did not care about the killing of people in Gaza, Lebanon, West Bank, Sri Lanka, …

At some stage, the Aminov mum was asking one of the federal politicians to treat the family as one of his dogs. Would he allow a dog without passport or vaccination? But they were with no passport for 13 years. And they were denied any medical health for about decade.

We are proud that our group’s (Social Justice Party’s) efforts and actions have participated greatly in prompting the government to change many inhumane pieces of legislation. The group’s many representations and active lobbying efforts on behalf of married non-Australians have helped to “convince” the government to introduce new legislation to waive the requirement to leave the country and apply overseas. Our group’s representations and active support of several stateless people helped also “convincing” the minister to adopt complementary asylum legislation.

We deeply believe that Australia and Australians deserve better politicians. And we are working to create some real progressive politicians that will stand up for real issues. Yes, we want to look after whales. But, with due respect, we should care about human lives too.

January 12, 2010

Egyptian and Israeli blockade of Gaza should end now!

To mark the first annual anniversary of the Israeli holocaust against the people of Gaza, the Social Justice party (SJP) has called for a vigil outside the Egyptian consulate in Sydney. The party took such this decision in response to calls from advocates of Palestinian rights around the world to target Egyptian embassies and consulates.

The move to target Egyptian diplomatic missions is necessary to highlight the participation of the Egyptian government in the crime of blockading Gaza from the outside world. This crime has cost so far more than 360 innocent deaths because of lack of medicines. It has also made Gaza the biggest jail on earth, where 1.5 million people are trapped against their will.

“The blockade resulted in horrific circumstances in the sieged strip. Because of this blockade, more than 80% of Gazans are unemployed” said Jamal Daoud, spokesperson of SJP. “This has been confirmed by the very bleak picture of life in the strip testified to by humanitarian agencies after 2 years of total blockade.”

Many humanitarian agencies have indicated that half of the Gazans are suffering from anaemia because of malnutrition. In addition to this, hundreds of students and workers cannot travel to their studies or jobs.

The hospitals in the strip after 2 years of total blockade are definitely unable to deal with the wide-scale catastrophe in the aftermath of last year’s barbaric invasion. The injured and sick people could not receive proper medical treatment as more than 150 important medicines are not available in the strip, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

“This total blockade is definitely a war crime against the most populated area on earth. The Goldstone report clearly mentioned this fact many times” said Jamal Daoud, spokesperson of SJP. “And the participation by Egypt in this blockade is definitely a crime against humanity”

In Australia, shamefully, no Australian politician has joined their international counterparts to travel to the strip after the barbaric invasion for solidarity or just for fact-finding. Our group’s efforts to form a wide delegation to visit the strip were lacking only politicians’ participation.

“This gives clear indication about the empty pre-election rhetoric of some so-called “progressive” politicians and “progressive” parties” added Mr Daoud. “In the next Federal election, we will remind the voters, especially those who support Palestinian rights and oppose occupation and colonisation, about this shameful stance of all political parties currently represented in the parliament”.

The vigil will be on Sunday, 17 December 09, outside the Egyptian consulate - 241 Commonwealth St, Surry Hills. The vigil will start at 2 pm.

For more information, Jamal Daoud can be contacted on 0404 447 272