LEICHHARDT Council, in Sydney's inner west, has been publicly embarrassed by the activities of a pro-Palestinian group to which it offered its support.
A photographic exhibition by Friends of Hebron on "the Palestinian catastrophe" had to be removed from the council library walls earlier this month, only a day before it was due to be opened to the public.
Media reports at the time suggested the group was silenced by counter-terrorism police who visited the gallery in the lead-up to the exhibition.
However, a report by council officers, which has been obtained by The Australian, reveals that the exhibition was closed because it breached a number of the conditions placed by the council on its support.
In September, a plan put to the council for a sister-city relationship with the Palestinian town of Hebron, on Israel's West Bank, was scuttled after protests from local residents and Jewish groups. Instead, the council decided it would support projects that were "genuinely humanitarian", included people from both sides of the debate and were approved by a selection panel.
The new report says the council became aware of the library exhibition only in the week leading up to its planned opening on Friday, May 9. "It was apparent that the planned exhibition was not in accordance with the Mayoral Minute, as the project did not 'include people from both sides' and had not involved the panel of four councillors," the report says.
It says a plan for an accompanying exhibition by a Jewish group was jettisoned when council officials discovered "the (Friends of Hebron) exhibition material, particularly the text around the photos, could be divisive, and therefore not in accordance with council policy".
