Senate debates
Tuesday, 26 November 2024
Statements by Senators
Middle East
1:38 pm
Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
The Liberal Party's unconditional support for Israel's war on Gaza, in the face of mounting war crimes and an active genocide, is a moral abomination. These so-called liberals have seen the photos of the dead children, they've heard the cries of grieving Palestinian families, and they've decided they want more. Their bloodthirsty eagerness for the lives of Arab people is a grotesque display of white supremacy. The law and order they've supported for decades now apparently includes cheerleading for the death of innocent people and excusing genocide and war crimes. Their leader talks tough about keeping out foreign criminals, but now they've finally found criminals they're happy to hand out visas to, as long as the victims of those people are Palestinians.
The Liberals have chosen a side in Gaza. It's the side of the drones, it's the side of the tanks, it's the side of the bombs and it's the side of the massacres of innocent people.
Their actions over the last 12 months have left an indelible stain on their party because they are sending a message to the world that Palestinian lives are expendable. They are isolating Australia from the global community, and they are dragging our country collectively deeper into complicity in one of the gravest humanitarian crises of our time, an unfolding genocide that has cost the lives of many, tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians. Here is a message to the Labor and Liberal parties: history will condemn those who remain silent or, even worse, cheer from the sidelines while genocide is underway.