On Saturday 7th September, Mai Saif of Free Palestine Melbourne endorsed Samantha Ratnam at the Wills Campaign Launch in Coburg.
MEDIA RELEASE FROM FREE PALESTINE MELBOURNE
On Saturday 7 September, Free Palestine Melbourne will formally endorse Greens candidate Samantha Ratnam’s campaign for the Federal seat of Wills at her campaign launch.
“This will be the first time we have endorsed a candidate at any election,” said Mai Saif of Free Palestine Melbourne. “We are not endorsing the Greens or any other political party but are convinced that Ms Ratnam would better represent the concerns of Wills voters regarding the Palestinian genocide.”
The decision to support Ms Ratnam was taken following recent comments by Peter Khalil in an interview with the Financial Review and his refusal to attend a public forum hosted by Free Palestine Melbourne on Justice for Palestine and Australian Foreign Policy this month.
“That made it easy for us,” said Mai Saif. “He was recently appointed Special Envoy for Social Cohesion and yet he can find the time to disparage pro-Palestine activists in an elite newspaper while snubbing an invitation to answer questions on Australian foreign policy from the Wills community. Ms Ratnam, on the other hand, immediately accepted our invitation and has consistently defended Palestinian human rights.”
While Free Palestine Melbourne is endorsing Ms Ratnam’s campaign, it also intends to run its own campaign in Wills.
“We are not anti-Labor or pro-Green. Support for Palestine throughout Wills is both broad and deep. Support for Palestine at the branch level of the Labor Party is close to 100%. We want to help elect a representative who will properly represent the people of Wills and send a message to Mr Albanese that he should not run Zionist candidates if he wishes to hold onto Labor electorates.”
