(NEWS) Record Number Of Australian Pollies For Israel

"THE largest ever Australian parliamentary delegation to visit Israel will travel to Jerusalem in December.

They will be part of a dialogue hosted by the privately funded Australia Israel Leadership Forum.



Julia Gillard has given approval for six ministers and parliamentary secretaries to be part of the trip led by Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd.

They will be part of a record 17 members of the House of Representatives and Senate who will take part in the visit.

The other Labor MPs are Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, Industry Minister Kim Carr, Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture Mike Kelly, Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs Richard Marles and MPs Michael Danby and Anthony Byrne. Bill Shorten, the Assistant Treasurer, is expected to join.

The Liberal Party plans to send nine members and senators -- deputy leader Julie Bishop, Christopher Pyne, Andrew Robb, George Brandis, Kevin Andrews, Brett Mason, Mitch Fifield, Steven Ciobo and Guy Barnett.

And the ABC will break with long-held tradition and allow a journalist to attend, political editor Chris Uhlmann. AILF is the project of Melbourne property developer Albert Dadon and is modelled on the Australian American Leadership Dialogue begun by businessman Phil Scanlon.

Mr Dadon said the record number of participants 'is testimony of the goodwill that exists between Australia and Israel'.



Asked who was paying for the 17 members of parliament, Mr Dadon said: 'The general rule for parliamentarians taking part in the leadership forum is that they pay their own way to Israel and we take care of all expenses on the ground except for ministers, who are also paying for their expenses.'

Five journalists are expected to attend, Uhlmann, Greg Sheridan from The Australian, Steve Lewis from News Limited, Tony Walker from The Australian Financial Review and Lenore Taylor from The Sydney Morning Herald.

On the trip, a ceremony will be held at Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum to honour William Cooper, the Aborigine who led a protest to the German consulate in Melbourne in 1938 after Kristallnacht (On November 9, 1938, the Nazis launched their first anti-Semitic attack on German Jews, to become known as the Night of Broken Glass).

While various organisations protested after Kristallnacht, Cooper is the only known individual to have organised a demonstration.

Funding for a 'chair' dedicated to studying resistance during the Holocaust will be formalised.

'It's fitting that the study chair at Yad Vashem that will be researching the resistance against the Nazi occupation during the Holocaust be dedicated to the memory of the only man in the world who had the courage to protest and stand up against Kristallnacht,' Mr Dadon said." (source)