Julia Irwin (Fowler, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On 12 July, at 9 am, a small force of Hezbollah fighters captured two Israeli soldiers, apparently on the Israeli side of the blue line designating the disputed border between Israel and Lebanon. The raid was accompanied by a Hezbollah rocket attack on Israeli targets. This attack was one of many violations of the blue line by both sides since the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000. But, as the United Nations interim force reports, none of these incidents resulted in a military escalation, and those same reports show that Israeli military aircraft have violated the blue line on an almost daily basis. Two days after the attack, after Israeli aircraft had begun laying waste to Lebanon, Robert Fisk reported from Beirut:

... and prisoner swaps is probably all that will come of this. In January 2004 for example, Israel freed 436 Arab prisoners ... in return for an Israeli spy and the bodies of three Israeli soldiers.

But this was not to be a measured response. What followed the Hezbollah attack has been an all-out aggressive war. Less than 12 hours after the incident, Israeli bombing of civilian targets began, and the killing and destruction has continued on a scale which has appalled the civilised world. But this was hardly a knee-jerk response. The San Francisco Chronicle reported:

... more than a year ago, a senior Israeli army officer began giving power point presentations, on an off the record basis setting out the plan ...

The Washington Post says it was told by a senior Israeli official that the raid by Hezbollah provided Israel with a unique opportunity for wiping out the organisation, and, according to New Statesman, the US government knew in advance of Israel’s intention to take action in Lebanon and the British government was also informed. So it should come as no surprise that, as the carnage in Lebanon proceeded, the leading nations of the Western world did nothing to stop the killing in and destruction of Lebanon. And even today their interests ignore the welfare of the people in Lebanon.

After 28 days of war, the situation on the ground can only be described as a humanitarian disaster. Over 1,000 people have been killed, the great majority being civilians. Over one-third are children. With the destruction of homes, roads, bridges and power plants, the deliberate targeting of Red Cross and other relief agency facilities and vehicles, the targeting of fleeing civilians and the deliberate killing of UN observers, the result is a nation in ruins. Over one million people, a quarter of the population of Lebanon, have fled their homes. The Israeli blockade and the bombing of vehicles prevent the supply of food and medicines to those in need.

But the Western world seems to have its own agenda when it comes to calling for peace. The US-French proposal demands the implementation of Security Council resolution 1559 of 2004 but says nothing of the 138 resolutions ignored by Israel, including resolutions 242 and 338, which declare the ‘inadmissibility of acquisition of territory by war’. Indeed, Israel’s presence in Lebanon today is in breach of resolution 1559. The Israelis also ignore the 16 July statement by the G8, which says:

... the root cause of the problems in the region is the absence of a comprehensive Middle East peace ...

But what is needed right now is an immediate and unconditional ceasefire. Israel must stop its bombing of Lebanon and Hezbollah must stop firing rockets into Israel. A just and lasting peace will only come from proposals such as that of the government of Lebanon which calls for not just the release of the two Israeli prisoners but the release of Lebanese prisoners as well. Critical to peace are the immediate withdrawal of Israeli forces to the blue line and the earliest repatriation of those displaced by the conflict. International assistance will be desperately needed to rebuild Lebanon. But, to address the root cause of the conflict, a just peace will require the return of lands illegally occupied by Israel since 1967, including the Shebaa Farms.