CANBERRA: Foreign Minister, Senator Penny Wong, has rejected a UK Government offer to fly her free of charge to London for a specialist eye examination.

It has been revealed that her British counterpart, UK Foreign Secretary, Ed Miliband, (below) offered the all-expenses-paid round trip to Senator Wong.

Mr Miliband contacted Senator Wong soon after he made his landmark speech during the week announcing the imposition of stronger sanctions against illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank including restrictions on the import of goods produced in illegal West Bank settlements, financial sanctions on developers of illegal settlements, and a halt to the export of arms that contribute to Israel’s illegal occupation of the West Bank.

In his speech announcing the more hardline positions on the West Bank adopted by the government of new UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham, Mr Miliband described the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements as a form of “ethnic cleansing” and criticised “settler terrorists” who had “bullied” Palestinians out of their homes.

He went further than previous UK governments by labelling the entire West Bank occupation by Israel as illegal.

A source within the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Canberra said Mr Miliband rang Senator Wong directly as soon as he became aware that Australia was not on the list of nations who had committed to similar action – Canada, France, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Portugal Norway, Poland, Spain and Sweden.

“Mr Miliband was genuinely concerned about Senator Wong’s eyesight because she obviously wasn’t seeing in the West Bank what Britain was seeing, nor apparently what 11 other nations were seeing,” the DFAT source said.

“He made a very generous offer to send a Royal Air Force jet to Canberra and rush Senator Wong to London where the UK Government would pay for a leading Harley Street ophthalmologist to examine her eyesight and take any corrective action. But Senator Wong outright rejected the offer.”

In his call to the Australian Foreign Minister, Mr Miliband repeated comments from his earlier speech, saying the Burnham Government had weighed up the costs and benefits of taking action against West Bank settlements and decided it could not stand by just because it feared Israel’s reaction, and that Britain was right to call out illegal settlements and could not remain silent or passive.

He asked Senator Wong if she was prepared to see Australia stand by and remain silent for fear of Israel’s reaction when a dozen other nations had decided to act on principle.

She replied: “Just watch me.”

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