Thursday, 2 November 2023

Middle East conflict

Ellen SANDELL (Melbourne) (09:52): Many people have contacted me expressing how horrified they are at the events happening in Israel and Palestine right now. On 7 October Hamas killed over 1400 Israelis in the most brutal attacks. These attacks must be loudly condemned and they have been, including here in the Victorian Parliament. Many Labor and Liberal MPs were also quick to support the Israeli government and their response, but few MPs have spoken out about what is now happening in Gaza and what has been happening to the Palestinian people for decades.

Gaza has a population of just over 2 million people, 40 per cent of them are children. Fenced into an area about half the size of Melbourne, they are literally trapped. Yet over the last three weeks the Israeli military has dropped thousands of bombs on them and cut off any access to food, electricity, medicine and even water. Two million people are literally being starved to death. Over 8000 have been killed, almost half of them children. This is a humanitarian catastrophe. This is collective punishment of 2 million innocent people by the Israeli government. That is a war crime, and war crimes can never justify more war crimes.

Yet this week when 140 countries voted for a UN resolution calling for a ceasefire, our Labor government in Australia abstained. We should not be looking away; we should be using our voices to call loudly for peace, and we need to be honest that to have a lasting peace the Israeli government needs to end the illegal occupation of Palestinian territories. We need all hostages released immediately and we need a ceasefire. Surely supporting more violence and war crimes is never the answer.