PRO-Hamas activists who boycotted performing at this month’s Sydney Festival have been labelled “useful idiots” for promoting the terrorist organisation’s propaganda agenda.
Federal Arts Minister Paul Fletcher said the political significance of their misinformation “was to advance the cause of Hamas”, a registered middle-eastern terror group.
- Pro-Hamas performers feel ‘culturally unsafe’ with Israel sponsoring a Sydney Festival act.
- Minister reminds them that Hamas throws people they disagree with off tall buildings.
- He says art should be free from political censorship.
It is believed as many as 30 Australian performers withdrew from the nation’s premier cultural event after Israel sponsored one of the festival’s acts.
UNSAFE
“One member of the [boycott] said the sponsorship made them feel ‘culturally unsafe’,” Mr Fletcher wrote in an opinion piece in The Australian newspaper this week.
“Hamas controls Gaza and notoriously deals with its opponents by throwing them alive off tall buildings,” he said.
Mr Fletcher said art should be free from political censorship.
“To describe a work of art, or an arts festival, as ‘safe’ would not normally be seen as high praise,” he said.
“On the contrary, great works of art are often edgy, unsettling or disturbing.
“The lessons of history are pretty clear: if programming and cultural choices are subject to political censorship, you end up with pretty dreadful art.”
Mr Fletcher pointed to the Soviet Union as an example.
HEROIC
“Stalinist Russia, with its turgid dramas and operas celebrating heroic workers exceeding their tractor production quotas, is but one of many examples.
“A lesson from political history is the role of the ‘useful idiot’, as Russian communists disparagingly termed their naïve Left-leaning sympathisers in other countries.
“Evidently, Hamas has some of its own useful idiots to call on.
“The last thing Hamas cares about is a vigorous and lively artistic scene in Australia.”
He said Israel, on the other hand, was an “excellent” friend.
“The boycott’s view about Israel are, to put it politely, difficult to reconcile with reality.
“When Australians look at Israel, what they see is the only multi-Party democracy in the Middle East – not an ‘apartheid State’.
“They see an ally and a friend: a country with which Australia has excellent diplomatic relations and longstanding cultural and people-to-people ties.”PC
Thank-you. But no thanks. Liberals say the right thing but always find a way to betray their supporters.
No-one believes what you say Mr Fletcher – what you say and what you do are miles apart.