AU4I - Australians United for Israel The organizational name of this group was originally Australian friends of Israel Australia’s Role in the Establishment of Israel A public talk by Dr. Chanan Reich Australia played an important role in the adoption by the United Nations General Assembly of the historical Resolution on 29 November 1947 to partition Palestine to a Jewish and an Arab State. That Resolution also called for the internalization of the cities of Jerusalem and Bethlehem, with the aim of ensuring free access to the Holy Places for Christians, Muslims and Jews. The latter provision was accepted very reluctantly by Ben-Gurion. But, under Australia's persistence, the UN again passed similar resolutions in 1948 and 1949 recommending the internationalization of Jerusalem. In 1948 and 1949 Australia also supported Israel's admission to the UN. This largely pro-Zionist policy can be credited to Australia's Minister of External Affairs, Dr. Herbert Vere Evatt. This talk, presented at the AGM of the Australian Jewish Historical Society AJHS(Vic) took place at 8.00 pm Thursday, 16th February, 2012 Dr. Chanan Reich is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Political Science at the Yizre'el Valley Academic College, Israel, and Adjunct Research Associate at the School of Historical Studies at Monash University. He is the author of ‘Australia and Israel: An Ambiguous Relationship’ (Melbourne University Press, 2002) - which is THE book on the diplomatic-political relationship of Israel and Australia 1946-1969. The Podcasts Chanan Reich Talk (36 min) The opening survey is not included in this podcast. Click to download Podcast as an MP3 Chanan Reich Talk - Discussion 1 (9 min) After the talk by Chanan Reich there was a most interesting 9 minute discussion of why Australians, had such a different attitude to the Jews and to a Jewish state from that of the British Government. This was attributed to Australia's WW1 intense involvement in the Middle East, fighting the Ottomans, both the ANZAC brigade at Gallipoli under Monash and the Light Horse fighting from Beersheva to Damascus under Allenby, and to the WW2 experience in the Middle East, where our forces were aided by Jews from Palestine such as Moshe Dayan, and opposed by Arab nationalists. The first to comment is Howard Nathan, who was a junior staffer in the Department of External Affairs not long after Evatt was Foreign Minister. Download as a MP3 at http://www.4shared.com/mp3/W9eHCrig/Chanan_Reich_Talk-Discussion1.html See also a discussion of the Ambiguous relationship between Israel Australai and other "good friends of Israel" here