Maria Kovacic (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise in recognition of the anniversary of the October 7 attacks against the State of Israel at the hands of the terrorist group Hamas. October 7 is not a day for celebration. October 7 is not a day to make so-called political arguments. October 7 is a day that will, sadly, live in infamy for the barbaric nature of the attacks that occurred on that day. It was the largest loss of life on a single day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust, one of the darkest chapters of human history.

Just over one year ago today, at dawn, thousands of terrorists in Gaza, which Israel has not occupied since 2005, poured over the border fence by motorbike, by car, by foot and even by paraglider. They did so not in the endeavour of self-determination and not in the endeavour of statehood. They did so in an act of unrelenting violence. They did so with clear contempt for human life. They did so without discrimination of combatant or civilian, of adult or child. They did so in an attempt to inflict as much death and injury as was possible before an Israeli response could occur. Above all, they did so in an attempt to inflict as much terror on the Israeli people as they possibly could. In the first 20 minutes of the attack, some 5,000 rockets roared over the border into Israel. They were unguided rockets with no specific target—not military installations, no specific target. So long as they resulted in the death of any Israeli man, woman or child, Hamas, a terrorist organisation, would see success.

At the same time, some 6,000 terrorists poured through newly exploded holes in the border fence. They crossed into Israel and ravaged its border kibbutzim and towns. They ravaged them in a way that the modern world has rarely seen. We all saw the footage that was then turned into propaganda for terrorist organisations and posted all over social media, gloating to the world of the deaths of thousands of civilians in their homes, at the breakfast table, at the bus stop and in the street.

October 7 will forever be remembered as one of the darkest days in our history and an example of the worst of our humanity. We must remember what happened, and we can't forget. We can't make excuses for it. Those that seek to make this day about something else do so without the fulsome recognition of the real atrocities that occurred. They do so without uttering the fundamental cause of the attack—antisemitism.

I recall, in the aftermath of the attack a year ago, I attended a vigil with the Jewish Australian community in Dover Heights in Sydney. It was deeply moving, and it mourned the loss of life. The Jewish Australian community was joined by so many others wishing to express their thoughts at such a very difficult time. I listened to some powerful speeches from the Premier of New South Wales, Chris Minns, and from the Leader of the Opposition, Peter Dutton. They were speeches which spoke to everything that is good about our country.

At the same time, others were using the days immediately after the attack, before Israel had responded, to organise their own rallies. They were not rallies mourning the dead or those that were kidnapped. They were not peaceful rallies; they were rallies filled with antisemitic chants. They marched from town hall down to our opera house in Sydney and put their vile, racist and antisemitic diatribe on display for the whole world to see. In our country, Australia, we saw intolerance and hate and we saw people celebrating the pain of others.

Yesterday we saw other groups in Sydney using the anniversary of the largest massacre of the Jewish people since the Holocaust, October 7, as a day to demonstrate and protest. There are 364 other days in the year to protest. Why did they need to choose that one day? To inflict further pain—was that the reason?

I condemn, in the strongest possible terms, antisemitism and racism in all its forms. We cannot accept that in this country. We cannot look the other way, and we cannot allow for it to be normalised in Australia. The standard we walk past is the standard that we will end up accepting.