TWO of Australia's most prominent left-wing unions have been branded anti-Semitic in an influential Jewish-American online newsletter for linking the 60th anniversary celebration of Israel's statehood to "racism and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians".

The Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union and the Maritime Union of Australia have attracted criticism in the US-based Jewish daily Forward for their condemnation of Israel.

Unionist Stuart Appelbaum singled out the CFMEU and MUA for their "venom" after endorsing an advertisement published in The Australian that condemned a parliamentary motion commemorating 60 years of friendship between Australia and Israel.

Mr Appelbaum's criticism is all the more stinging considering he is president of the giant Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union in the US and president of the Jewish Labor Committee.

In an article called "American labor can help right anti-Israel left", Mr Appelbaum said many progressives in the US were fuming at the lack of support from left counterparts overseas after Israelis living in towns near Gaza had been the "target of choice for Hamas terrorists".

He said the Socialist International's statement last month condemning "the excessive use of force by Israel in Gaza" was salutary compared with some ofthe venom generated by the Left abroad.

It was a triumph of instinct over intellect, Mr Appelbaum said, that the CFMEU and MUA could back a resolution saying, "we as informed and concerned Australians, choose to dissociate ourselves from the celebration of the triumph of racism and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians since the al-Nakba (Catastrophe) of 1948".

Mr Appelbaum questioned why voices publicly seeking social justice served up "these kinds of diatribes against Israel" and held Israel to standards that no other nation would be expected to meet. "One can only conclude that, at least in part, what we are increasingly witnessing on the left overseas is anti-Semitism cloaked under the veil of anti-Zionism," he said.

Andrew Ferguson, the CFMEU's chief in NSW who authorised his union's participation in the ad, told The Australian yesterday: "I do not accept that being critical of policies of the Israeli state makes us anti-Semitic, just as being critical of the policies of George Bush does not make us anti-American."

MUA national secretary Paddy Crumlin was unavailable for comment yesterday, but his union is believed to want to put the onus on officials lower down the pecking order for supporting the anti-Israel ad.

NSW Jewish Board of Deputies chief executive Vic Alhadeff accused the CFMEU and MUA of reacting without the facts.

"The small number of unions that have adopted an anti-Israel position have done so more out of ignorance than prejudice," Mr Alhadeff said.

The nation's union movement has divided over the issue, with right-wing Australian Workers Union secretary Paul Howes accusing the CFMEU and MUA of "lining up with Hamas".

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