Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak in recognition of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. I want to thank the member for Fowler for bringing this motion to the House and for his important advocacy on this issue, as well as for his longstanding advocacy on all other human rights issues.

This day of solidarity with the Palestinian people is important. It not only affirms the principles of justice and international law; it also serves to hold a mirror to the world and to the institutions of the United Nations. It is a day which holds member states to account on progress towards their commitments to the inalienable rights of the Palestinians, including their right to self-determination and a future built on peace, dignity, justice and security.

Earlier this year I noted the international community must not absolve itself of the responsibility it has to ratify its own resolutions. This year alone, we've seen this reality tested and come out short on all the benchmarks of humanitarian and international law. Instead of implementing resolutions that form the basis of a future built on the principles we serve to uphold, we instead continue to see Palestinians suffer the indignities and violence of occupation and conflict. I also said then that Australia has a long history of engagement in multilateral institutions as a middle power, with a pragmatic problem-solving ethos that gives priority to our diplomatic engagements. What framework do countries such as ours have to speak of if not the resolutions of the United Nations and the principles of international law?

When it comes to the question of Palestine and, indeed, to all of our international obligations, we can't simply refer to charters and principles without any enforcement during times of deceptive calm while doing away with them in their entirety during times of heated attacks. The irony is that doing so doesn't just absolve us of responsibility; it has the unintended consequences of denying us the ability to hold others to account in the international arena—not just on this question, but on issues within our own regional sphere.

I emphasise this because we're not here today to memorialise. The member for Fowler's motion stands to affirm an issue that not only remains alive and impactful but also, in fact, has a major impact on a significant number of matters affecting our world today. Action means ending the crippling military occupation, the world's longest in modern history, and addressing matters that the United Nations identifies as critical—namely, Jerusalem, refugees, borders, settlements, security and water. This day of solidarity reaffirms the saying that, where there is no justice, there is no peace to be found and, ultimately, no security for all sides.

It's not just solely an international issue; its context finds itself here, which, as this motion recognises, is very important to many across the Australian community—including in my own community. Today I want to reference Hisham, my constituent, who spoke to me about his late father, Hayel, who was also my constituent and a member of our local Palestinian community. I want to quote Hisham:

My father was born in Safad, in the north of what was Palestine. Very early on he became a refugee, forced to live stateless. My grandmother carried my father and his brother in her arms to the point of exhaustion as they made their way across the border into neighbouring Lebanon, forced to split from my grandfather along the way.

What was meant to be temporary refuge became permanent exile. All the while, Safad become inaccessible to him. Jerusalem became inaccessible to him. The waters and land of what was once home became foreign.

And my father, like the hundreds of thousands of others who shared his fate, were forced to live as stateless refugees, without peace and security and without a place to call home.

Hisham goes on to say:

That's how this tragedy continues—because everything stems from a lack of resolution brought about by a lack of resolve.

At what point does the international community say 'let's live up to our own values'—at what point does the world recognise that Charters, resolutions and laws are there to be actually implemented?

These words are poignant because, with each aspect of the conflict that needs to be addressed, there remains an internationally recognised and agreed-upon mechanism from which to refer to. These are the resolutions of the United Nations itself. Today not only affirms our solidarity with the Palestinian people; it is a day which serves to reaffirm our commitment to international law.

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