Press Releases

PM HAS DRINKS AND PLAYS TENNIS WHILE ROME BURNS OR SYNAGOGUE SMOULDERS “I am standing outside Channel 7 in Cairns at 1pm today to read my statement on the action governments need to take urgently re the firebombing of the synagogue in Melbourne and the alarming rise in antisemitism in Australia” said Munganbana Norman Miller. “Our PM’s priorities are so wrong that he doesn’t visit a burning synagogue but flies to Perth and has drinks with donors and plays tennis. It sounds like Nero playing...

PARLIAMENT HOUSE CANBERRA CALLING FOR AUSTRALIA NOT TO ABANDON ISRAEL AT UN  My name is Munganbana Norman Miller, cofounder of Indigenous Friends of Israel International. I am standing here as an Aboriginal leader in front of Parliament House Canberra today, 6 December, on the 86th anniversary of the stand of Aboriginal William Cooper and the Australian Aborigines’ League in Melbourne.   It was a stand against antisemitism then and mine is a stand against antisemitism now. He protested the...

CALLING FOR AUSTRALIA TO REVERSE ITS POSITION AT UN RE ISRAEL.
“It is a retrograde step by the Australian government to support a UN motion which effectively requires Israel to withdraw from so called “occupied territories” said co-founders of the Indigenous Friends of Israel International, Norman and Barbara Miller today. 

CALLING FOR AUSTRALIA TO WITHDRAW FROM ICC AND CONDEMNING ITS ISSUING OF WARRANTS TO ISRAEL “It is a reprehensible, illegitimate move which member states should not cooperate with” said co-founders of the Indigenous Friends of Israel International, Norman and Barbara Miller re the International Court of Justice’s (ICC’s) issuing of arrent warrants involving the only democratic state in the Middle East, Israel. “It is false moral equivalence to issue arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin...

Indigenous Friends of Israel International co-founders Norman and Barbara Miller said, “We condemn the horrifying pogrom that took place on 8 November in Amsterdam, the home of Anne Frank, a young girl whose diary and death during the Holocaust has impacted many. Not only that, but it was also on the eve of the 86th anniversary of Kristallnacht in Germany and Austria that was the spark that lit the Holocaust, even though it was preplanned as this pogrom appears to have been. In Amsterdam Jews...

“The double standards and bias against Israel shown by Foreign Minister Penny Wong and the Albanese government risks trashing its relationship with Israel,” says Indigenous Friends of Israel International co-founders Norman and Barbara Miller. “Israeli Ambassador to Australia, Amir Maimon was reportedly summoned to a meeting in Canberra in June and warned his nation could not expect Australia's support if it went to war with listed terror group Hezbollah in Lebanon. This is despite Israel...

“Poster girl for Hamas, Senator Lidia Thorpe, should resign. Her latest radical chic is a green Hamas-style headband in Arabic drawing attention to her ill-conceived support of their cause,” says Indigenous Friends of Israel International co-founders Norman and Barbara Miller.  “Outrage over her selfie wearing the headband on X led to her removing it yesterday less than 24 hours after posting it. Many complained about her ‘dressing up’ as a terrorist and that it was offensive and divisive, so...

Indigenous Friends of Israel co-founders Norman and Barbara Miller have applauded Tuesday night’s Sky News documentary Never Again: The Fight Against Antisemitism hosted by former federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg. The Millers say, “The Never Again documentary was a defining moment for Australia when a number of prominent Australian leaders called out the alarming rise of antisemitism in Australia.” “These included former Prime Ministers John Howard and Julia Gillard, the current Prime...

“On the eve of the 76th anniversary of the proclamation of the state of Israel on 14 May 1948, Australia has betrayed the only democracy in the Middle East at the recent UN vote on Palestine,” claims Indigenous Friends of Israel co-founders Norman and Barbara Miller.  “On Israel’s Day of Independence or National Day, it will be asking if it has any allies in the world. Prime Minister Netanyahu has said he will go it alone if he has to so that more October 7s, promised by Hamas, will not occur...

“International Holocaust Remembrance Day should not be wiped off the calendar,” say Co-founders of the Indigenous Friends of Israel, Norman and Barbara Miller. “But that is just what Time and Date website have done. It’s a disgrace.” “This is just another form of Holocaust denial. This world-wide commemoration of the most horrific event in history with the deaths of 6 million Jews through the gas chambers, hard labour, starvation, and the shooting of defenceless men, women and children must be...

“The tragic killing of Australian aid worker Lalzawmi 'Zomi' Frankcom, along with six of her colleagues, in Gaza a few days ago has rightly drawn the criticism of the Australian government even though initial reports are that it was accidental,” said co-founders of the Indigenous Friends of Israel, Norman and Barbara Miller.  “However, the anger expressed by Prime Minister Albanese and Foreign Minister Wong to Israel immediately re Zomi was not there when an Australian Jewish grandmother,...

“Australia is letting down the only democratic state in the Middle East, Israel, and letting down its no 1 ally in the world, the US, in a distressing loss of moral compass and strategic naivete,” said founders of the Indigenous Friends of Israel, Norman and Barbara Miller. “Israeli civilians including babies and Holocaust survivors were tortured, mutilated, raped, and slaughtered in a horrific attack by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Gazan civilians on October 7. Australia should be...

By Norman Miller 16.4.23 As Co-founder of the Indigenous Friends of Israel, I have to call out the antisemitic remarks of fellow Aboriginal Australian Noel Pearson to Julian Leeser, at the time, the Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians. I note that First Nations Australians have had huge support from Jewish people, and particularly Jewish lawyers over the years. Two examples of this are the historic Mabo case where the late Ron Castan AM QC was senior counsel and currently, Mark Leibler,...

Indigenous Friends of Israel (IFI) co-founders Norman and Barbara Miller said, “Adelaide Writers Festival organisers seem to think free speech reads hate speech or racist speech which is not so. In a one-sided propaganda event, the most vitriolic pro-Palestinian writers will have a platform with no opportunity for the other side to be heard. At best, this is a misuse of taxpayers’ money. At worst, it is an intellectual travesty.” “As Indigenous Friends of Israel, we condemn the inaccurate...

PRESS RELEASE RE AUSTRALIA NOT RECOGNISING WEST JERUSALEM AS THE CAPITAL OF  ISRAEL By Norman and Barbara Miller, Indigenous Friends of Israel Jihadi Bob Carr has been pushing the terrorist organization Hamas’ position for some years. So now we have Penny Wong, Anthony Albanese, Tony Burke, and the ALP cabinet reversing the previous government’s decision that West Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. Who is Australia to be telling another nation where its capital is? How insulting! No wonder...

Terrorist organisation Hamas made a statement late last week re the Sydney Festival according to the Palestinian Information Center. They said, “We commend and appreciate this decision that came in solidarity with the Palestinians’ legitimate rights, and in opposition to the Israeli crimes against our Palestinian people. “We declare our solidarity with the participants who have withdrawn from the festival, and we call on all participants to raise their voices in face of oppression and...

By Norman and Barbara Miller  “Regarding the recent motion by the Qld ALP re Israel, it is the Jewish people who have been subject to ethnic cleansing from the land of Israel for many centuries,” said Norman and Barbara Miller, Convenors of the Indigenous Friends of Israel. “If you want to talk about ethnic cleansing, the Assyrians forcibly removed the Israelites from their ancient homeland, the kingdom of Israel (Samaria) in the 8th century BC, and the Babylonians forcibly removed the Jews...

Indigenous Friends of Israel Chairman Munganbana Norman Miller said from Cairns today that he welcomes the statement by Prime Minister Scott Morrison to consider moving the Australian embassy to Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. “Jerusalem has a 3,000 year-old history of being the capital of the Jewish state and the people of Israel,” said Miller who is an Aboriginal of the Jirrbal, Bar-Barrum and Tableland Yidinji tribes. Indigenous Friends of Israel, however, is an international...

Indigenous Friends of Israel spokesperson Munganbana Norman Miller again today urged the NSW and Federal Labor Party not to change its policy towards Israel in the light of the NSW Labor Conference that will be held this weekend and previous statements by Bob Carr. Mr Miller said from Cairns, “We would like to proudly follow in the footsteps of Australian Aboriginal William Cooper, who, in 1938, led a group of Indigenous Australians on a protest walk to the German Consulate in Melbourne to...

Indigenous Friends of Israel spokesperson Munganbana Norman Miller said the national organisation is concerned at the incendiary language of Bob Carr who is leading the Labor Party down a dangerous path in his attempt to get NSW and then federal Labor endorsement of a Palestinian state while Palestinian leaders do not accept the right of Israel to exist and support terrorism. Mr Miller said today from Cairns, one of the higher population areas for Indigenous people, “I support a two-state...