Mark Furner (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My contribution to today's matters of public interest is on the subject of Israel. I must put on record initially that I am no expert on Israel, but I am better informed than those who have not had the opportunity or taken the effort to go to that country and see its complex issues before they pass judgment on that amazing country. I also put up front my acknowledgement of and thanks to the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council, including in particular Dr Colin Rubenstein and Jamie Hyams, for their consideration in providing me the opportunity to visit that amazing country in September this year.

The diversity of the country and its myriad issues confront you as you journey through Israel. The Arab Muslims who wish to maintain their Israeli lifestyles, the Israelis, the Jews and the Palestinians all have an opinion about how to solve the country's problems. With its technology based advanced market economy, Israel is well placed in this region. It depends on imports of crude oil, grain, raw materials and military equipment. Despite limited natural resources, Israel has intensively developed its agriculture and industry sectors over the past 20 years. Cut diamonds, high-tech equipment and agricultural products—fruits and vegetables—are the leading exports.

After contracting slightly in 2001 and 2002 due to the Palestinian conflict and troubles in the high-tech sector, Israel's GDP grew by about five per cent from 2004 to 2007. The global financial crisis of 2008-09 spurred a brief recession in Israel, but the country ended the crisis with solid fundamentals following a year of prudent fiscal policy and a series of liberalisation reforms, and with a resilient banking sector. The economy has shown signs of an early recovery. Following GDP growth of four per cent in 2008, Israel's GDP slipped by 0.2 per cent in 2009 but GDP growth reached 3.4 per cent in 2010, as exports rebounded. Israel is soundly placed economically in the region.

Jerusalem had a profound effect on me. When you visit this holy city, you gain a greater appreciation of its beauty and the spiritual place that it is. Walking along the cobbled streets and through narrow alleyways, you cannot help reflecting on the period of time when Jesus would have been in the same area. When you find yourself passing within metres of a mosque and a church you realise the resilience and the passion of the people who reside in Israel who are looking for a peaceful settlement to their differences.

Then I went to the town of Sderot. This is not the only opportunity that I was provided with, but it was certainly one that made me realise a few things. This small town is close to the border of Gaza. I saw firsthand what they described as the 'rocket gallery'. I was shown this by Noam Bedein the day after a rocket was launched into this town from Gaza by terrorists. Looking at these rockets lined up on racks at the rear of the police station was an eerie experience. I realised that rocket attacks are an everyday occurrence for these people. These rockets are made out of cut-up water pipes, no doubt from Gaza. They are made into crude and elementary projectiles packed with explosives and then fired into the town of Sderot.

Following this presentation at the rocket gallery we went round the township and saw some further alarming examples of what these people go through day to day. We saw bomb shelters that are bus stops. We saw how the Israeli government is helping to build bomb shelters in the backyards of each residence to protect them from rockets fired from Gaza. We saw burnt-out homes where rockets had destroyed the residents' property and, in some cases, lives. That brought the government's policy home. We saw a playground for children with play equipment such as a long worm that had strengthened ribs to provide shelter from rockets. We saw the sports ground at the high school, where strategically placed bomb shelters dotted the area where secondary school children were playing basketball.

I challenge everyone to think about taking your child to a playground and dealing with that issue. It is beyond comprehension to have to deal with those threats as a parent. You can only imagine the stress and anxiety felt by the residents of Sderot. They get only 15 seconds warning when rockets are fired from Gaza into their neighbourhoods. So when the warning comes you have 15 seconds to get into a bomb shelter or, if you are in a playground, to get into that worm and protect your children from a rocket that has been fired from Gaza.

Over 5,000 rockets, missiles and mortar bombs have been launched from Gaza towards Israel between 2005 and January 2009, when the naval blockade was imposed. Hundreds of thousands of Israeli civilians live in range of these attacks and the town of Sderot is an example. As their effectiveness has increased, some rockets are now capable of reaching Tel Aviv, some 68 kilometres away. Since 2001 such attacks have caused more than 25 deaths and hundreds of injuries. In addition, since the start of 2009, a further 548 rockets and 356 mortars have been fired from Gaza into Israel. The enormity of the psychological toll on the affected population cannot be underestimated. In addition, there have been substantial material losses. The purpose of these acts of violence, which have been repeatedly condemned by the international community, has been to do damage to the population of Israel.

I recently read with absolute amazement of the comments of former Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser in the Age on 4 October. In this article he claims rockets fired into Israel were 'the propaganda weapon that it provides Israel.' That has to be one of the most bizarre comments I have ever encountered. What absolute nonsense!

The other matter that I wish to comment on is the improved security measures implemented by the Israeli government. They have put security measures in the entrances of supermarket and put walls along roadsides to protect people from being shot at. Walking into a supermarket brought this home to me. I was scanned by a security guard with a machine gun.

David Feeney (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On the way in?

Mark Furner (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That is right. On the way into a supermarket, I was scanned by a security guard with a machine gun strapped over his shoulder. No doubt this is stopping suicide bombers. It is stopping people being murdered as they drive their vehicles along the highways in Israel.

Something that brought home to me the courtesy and consideration that the Israeli people provide other people throughout the world was the Save a Child's Heart organisation run by Simon Fisher at Wolfson Medical Centre. This is an amazing initiative in which an Israeli based international humanitarian project provides life-saving cardiac surgery and other critical procedures for children from developing countries like Indonesia and from regions such as Africa, the Americas, Eastern Europe and Asia. For locations close to Israel, like the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan and Iraq, Israel in fact provides 49 per cent of medical procedures for children. While visiting the hospital I saw a young child, sedated following an operation, lying in bed next to her mother. The child had came from Gaza for a heart operation, an operation that this child would never have received had it not been for Save a Child's Heart or for the help of the Israeli government.    In addition to the medical treatment provided to date to over 2,700 children from 42 countries, the project provides a comprehensive training program in Israel for doctors from these countries. While we were present it was explained that a doctor from Tanzania was, after eight years of training, returning to their country to be the sole cardio practitioner able to treat children with heart problems. Yad Vashem The Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Authority is another stark reminder of what happened to this country and reminds us what happened in history. The main display in the complex is the historical museum, which tells the story of the Holocaust in chronological order, beginning with Adolf Hitler and his rise to power in 1933, the persecution of the Jews through to the final stage of the awful genocide of the Holocaust. The authority commemorates the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators. I think anyone would be moved by the displays and material describing the systematic persecution and murders of the Jews as delivered by the chronicles and displays throughout the museum. At the very end of the museum is provided a register of the names of the millions of Jews killed, along with the children's memorial commemorating 1½ million children who died during the Holocaust.

Notwithstanding the numerous examples of this terrible piece of history, one part stuck in my mind, consistent with contemporary activities occurring in Melbourne and Brisbane—that is, the boycotting of Jewish businesses. History tells us that Saturday, 1 April 1933 was the start of anti-Semitic attacks on the Jewish population. Nazi Brownshirt troopers stood at entrances to Jewish shops, department stores and professional offices holding posters saying 'Germans, defend yourselves against the Jewish atrocity propaganda, buy only at German shops.' These events led to series of laws and decrees robbing the Jews of one right after another within the 12 years of Hitler's Reich, with 400 laws and decrees targeting the Jews.

As most of us would be aware, there exists today events where Jewish businesses have been boycotted for no apparent reason. In the Melbourne CBD on 1 July this year this action resulted in 19 arrests after anti-Israel protesters blocked potential customers from entering the Max Brenner chocolate and coffee store. If you go to YouTube and search for these particular protests you will see examples and footage of these boycotts and you will see firsthand protesters holding up signs like 'Israel: the Mother of Terrorism', and shouting out over loudhailers, 'We're going to shut you down Max Brenner'. As a result of these bigoted protests the Max Brenner store was forced to close for the duration of the protest. The correlation between the two events should not be lost; anyone associated with them, whether individuals or political parties, like Greens Senator Rhiannon, who was in here before, should be condemned on the basis of their association of these activities. I know she has been supporting these events, and it is something she really needs to take stock of and realise the effect it is having on a business that has nothing to do with what is occurring in Israel.

The Palestinian Media Watch is another example of what is happening over there. It is an Israeli research institute that studies Palestinian society from a broad range of perspectives by monitoring and analysing the Palestinian Authority through its media and schoolbooks. PMW's major focus is on the messages that the Palestinian leaders, from the Palestinian Authority, Fatah and Hamas, send to the population through the broad range of institutions and infrastructures they control. PMW's many reports and studies on Palestinian summer camps, poetry, schoolbooks, crossword puzzles, religious ideology, women and mothers, children's music videos and the PA's indoctrination of adults and children to seek shahada—or martyrdom—have had significant impact on the way the world sees the Palestinians. PMW has presented its findings before members of US congress and to members of parliament in numerous countries including the European Union, Britain, France, Norway, Sweden, Holland, Switzerland, Canada and Australia, and has lectured at universities and conferences worldwide.

PMW's material has been presented before the foreign affairs committee in the US congress and the US senate appropriations committee. In addition, PMW reports regularly on how foreign aid is misused by the PA for terror promotion. These reports have led to changes in legislation and funding procedures. Through its bulletins and reports PMW continues to give the world a precise understanding of the reality of the Palestinian Authority. Disturbing examples of propaganda delivered over television by Hamas is this following set of words in a video clip, entitled 'Hamas: Kill Christians and Jews "to the last one"'. It reads as follows:

Allah, oh our Lord, vanquish Your enemies, enemies of the religion [Islam] in all places.

Allah, strike the Jews and their sympathizers,

the Christians and their supporters,

the Communists and their adherents.

Allah, count them and kill them to the last one, and don't leave even one.

That is just one example of what the PMW has been able to provide and show the world of the propaganda that is being delivered through Hamas and others associated with terrorist acts. I will never understand how anyone is able to advocate the theft of a child's innocence through systematic brainwashing in their very early age of adolescence by planting the seeds of terrorism in their minds.

Another opportunity arose while in Bethlehem to visit a Palestinian refugee camp. I am running out of time, but I will try and get through this. It really was a great opportunity in Bethlehem to visit one of these camps. While having some preconceived ideas of these types of camps from media images, I was quite surprised to see the opposite. Despite being reasonably quiet walking through the streets of the camp, the silence was shortly broken by the sound of children returning home from school, playing and laughing, enjoying their journey homeward. In addition, we had an opportunity to purchase some light refreshments at a corner store.

In conclusion, I left Israel slightly pessimistic of a solution ever being reached. As in a previous life, where for 20 years I was involved in negotiations of all sorts, I know that, to reach agreement on any matter, there needs to be genuine negotiations and compromise. Without this approach any conclusion to reach a settlement will fail. (Time expired)

Brett Mason (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Universities and Research) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Hear, hear! A great speech!