Dave Sharma (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Motions like this which make no mention of the role of Hamas—which do not recognise that Hamas has moral agency and which do not recognise that Hamas can restore the ceasefire at any day, at any time by agreeing to proposals put by Egyptian and Qatari mediators or by agreeing to the US special envoy's proposals to resume the ceasefire and continue the release of hostages—do not help bring that about. They might signal to an audience that's important to you where you sit on the conflict, but they do not help resolve the conflict. Ultimately, this conflict will be resolved when Hamas releases all the hostages and recognises it cannot and should not play any future role in the governance of Gaza. The Palestinian people—the Gazan population—have been protesting about Hamas's actions in resuming this conflict and breaking this ceasefire in recent days. The other, more legitimate element that governs Palestine, the Palestinian Authority, led by Fatah, have called on Hamas to relinquish any future role in the governance of Gaza, because they recognise the fate of the Gazan Palestinian population is being prejudiced by Hamas's continued intransigence here.

So by all means let's discuss this conflict in this parliament, including in this chamber, but let's also recognise that there are multiple parties that have moral agency in this conflict, and Hamas has been the most intransigent actor of all of them. Hamas is the one that broke the original ceasefire on 7 October 2023. Hamas is the one that broke the continuation of this ceasefire, which had been in existence these past two months.