Max Chandler-Mather (Griffith, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I second the motion. What will it take for this Labor government to drop its support for Israel? What will it take for this Labor government to drop its support for the disastrous and genocidal invasion of Gaza? What will it take for Australia to start standing up to the United States and Israel and actually take actions to stop the genocide unfolding in Gaza? Apparently, over 31,000 Palestinians being murdered in Gaza is not enough. Apparently, Israel bombing Palestinian schools, hospitals, homes and bakeries isn't enough. Apparently, Israel deliberately—and this is key; this is not some natural phenomenon—engineering a famine that may well end up killing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians is not enough for this Labor government to drop its support for the invasion of Gaza and drop its support for the State of Israel.

So there have been no sanctions or actions to stop Israel's genocide. In fact, all Labor has done is support Israel by allowing weapons to be exported to the country and refuse to even support South Africa's ICJ case at the International Court of Justice. What this government has done while there is an engineered famine in Gaza is suspend and cut aid funding for 48 days to Palestine. That's what they did—no sanctions for Israel but sanctions for Palestinians. That is truly remarkable. This was in a period, by the way, when the International Court of Justice found there was a plausible case for genocide in Gaza, and what did this Labor government do? It stopped aid funding to Palestinians. By the way, 80 per cent of all the world's critical famine is in Gaza. That's what the Labor government did. Not only that but they temporarily suspended the visas of Palestinians fleeing this conflict and this genocide. But apparently there are no sanctions for Israel.

We know about the critical famine. This parliament knows—everyone in this parliament knows—of the 31,000 people murdered, 13,000 of whom are children. Sometimes these numbers are hard to comprehend. The horror of it is hard to comprehend. But, to give some perspective on just how horrific this is, the average number of kids in an Australian school is 420. That means that 30 schools worth of Palestinian children have been killed. Think about the futures that these kids could have had—the loves, the relationships and the connections to their parents—all snuffed out.

This parliament can't even bring itself to oppose the invasion of Gaza and the genocide happening right now in Gaza, being carried out by the State of Israel with, by the way, weapons manufactured in Australia and exported to Israel. The UNICEF chief has said, and the headline is, 'Gaza babies "don't even have the energy to cry"'. There is an effort in this parliament, right now, from the major parties to turn away from this horror, to try to pretend like it's not happening and there's nothing you can do. But you know full well that if this parliament was able to take sanctions on Russia justifiably then we can take sanctions against Israel. In future generations, we'll ask every parliamentarian in this House, 'What did you do when this was happening?'

Let's talk about what's happening. This is from the article: one in three babies under the age of two in northern Gaza are suffering from acute malnutrition according to UNICEF. Catherine Russell, the executive director of the UN's children agency described with US broadcaster CBS:

…essentially, the body starts to consume itself because it has nothing else and it's a painful, painful death for children. I've been in wards of children who are suffering from … malnutrition, the whole ward is … quiet…the babies have don't even have the energy to cry.

This is what's happening right now in Gaza. There are babies and children in the arms of their parents, if they haven't already been killed by the State of Israel, who are dying slow, quiet, painful deaths. Do not pretend like you don't know this isn't happening. In 10, 20, 30 years time, every member of this House will have to ask themselves, 'What was every member of this parliament doing?' What did you do? And don't turn around and think you can lie to people in the future and say, 'We were doing everything that we could.' We know that you weren't, and the Australian public knows that as well. Think about that for a moment. We need a permanent and immediate ceasefire, a ban of weapons sales to Israel, and to join South Africa's case at the ICJ. That's the bare minimum when such a horror is taking place on our watch.

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