Tuesday, 12 November 2024

 Katherine COPSEY (Southern Metropolitan) (13:30): I move, by leave:

That this house:

(1)   notes that:

(a) the United Nations General Assembly voted on 18 September 2024 to adopt a resolution that demands that Israel ‘brings to an end without delay its unlawful presence’ in the occupied Palestinian territory, with 124 nations voting in favour of the resolution, 14 voting against, and 43 abstaining;

(b) the resolution calls for the state of Israel to:

(i) comply with international law and withdraw its military forces, immediately cease all new settlement activity, evacuate all settlers from occupied land, and dismantle parts of the separation wall it constructed inside the occupied West Bank;

(ii) return land and other ‘immovable property’, as well as all assets seized since the occupation began in 1967, and all cultural property and assets taken from Palestinians and Palestinian institutions;

(iii) allow Palestinians displaced during the occupation to return to their place of origin and make reparation for the damage caused by its occupation;

(2)   the resolution stems from the advisory opinion issued by the International Court of Justice in July, in which the court declared that Israel’s continued presence in the territory ‘is unlawful’, and that ‘all States are under an obligation not to recognize’ the decades-long occupation;

(3)   does not support the state of Israel’s continued invasion of Gaza;

(4)   supports calls for an immediate and permanent ceasefire; and

(5)   calls on the Victorian government to advocate to the Australian federal government that it ends its support for the state of Israel’s invasion of Gaza.

Leave refused.