Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Twenty-six thousand—that's a conservative underestimate of the number of Palestinians who have been killed in Israel's attacks on Gaza since 7 October. Twenty-six thousand people is one per cent of Gaza's population—one per cent of the population wiped out at the hands of the Israeli government in just four months. It's more than the number of people killed in the Nakba of 1947-49, when the State of Israel was created and approximately 15,000 Palestinians were killed in a series of mass atrocities. It's more than the number of civilians killed in the Russian Ukraine war over the last four years.

This statistic does not account for the thousands of Palestinians unaccounted for or the millions more displaced. It does not account for the grief, the terror, the fear and the trauma that each individual has faced as their families, their homes and their communities have been viciously destroyed by the Israeli government. In these four months of violence and devastation, Australians have watched in horror while the Labor government has stubbornly refused to even call for a permanent ceasefire. Personally, I broke down in tears a few weeks ago as I was cooking a recipe from a Palestinian cookbook and I thought of the home cooks of Gaza who have been killed in the last four months and those Palestinians who are still alive but for whom cooking their special meal is currently impossible, who are living in stench, in mud and under flimsy plastic shelters, cooking on wood fires if they are cooking at all, and whose kids are starving rather than being nurtured and nourished with maqluba, falafel and fattoush.

Silence in the face of these atrocities is not an option. Australia has a responsibility to act decisively to stop the crime of genocide and support punishment for genocide wherever it occurs, which is why the Australian Greens are calling for the Labor government to publicly back South Africa's proceedings against Israel in the International Court of Justice. The Labor government has previously intervened in ICJ court cases involving Ukraine, and we see no reason for it not to intervene now. South Africa's case presents serious and compelling evidence that Israel is committing the crime of genocide. By supporting these important proceedings, Australia can demonstrate that no country is exempt from international law. The Greens are also calling on the government to sanction Prime Minister Netanyahu and his entire war cabinet, to end all military and security trade and cooperation with Israel and to call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire. Labor, show courage and demand justice for Palestinians.