International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People

The Hon. M. EL DANNAWI (15:51): Last night, I attended a vigil for Palestine. We mourned all the lives lost on, since and before October 7 in both Gaza and the West Bank under the Israeli state's occupation of Palestine.

The International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People falls on 29 November every year. As I talk about Palestine today, I wish to separate the action of Hamas from the legitimate needs and aspirations of the Palestinian people. The attack on Israel on 7 October by Hamas was shocking in its brutality and I stand firm in saying that no group of people should ever be subjected to attacks based on their ethnicity, religion or culture.

Of course, I condemn Hamas and the Australian government has condemned Hamas. I hope for the release of all hostages safely to their families. However, the ongoing attacks on Gaza committed by the Israeli state since that day must also be recognised and condemned as inhumane. I echo the sentiments of my fellow Labor members in the federal government in saying that Palestinians are being collectively punished for the actions of Hamas.

Some areas targeted by the State of Israel are: refugee camps; homes, with over 46,000 housing units destroyed and 1.7 million people internally displaced; holy sites including mosques and churches; hospitals, with only two out of 24 reportedly still operational; and schools, with at least 300 damaged by Israeli air strikes.

No part of the Gaza Strip has been spared from the bombardment. One hundred per cent of students have no access to education. The average wait time to receive half of a normal bread portion is four to six hours. There is no access to clean water in the north. An estimated 50,000 pregnant women are in desperate need of prenatal and postnatal care and over 50 per cent of Gaza's population is under 18. These statistics were all reported by the United Nations, with over 14,800 people killed and over 36,000 injured: NGO staff, health workers, journalists, poets, artists, men, women, children—humans.

These attacks are not just contained to Gaza. The Israeli state has killed 239 Palestinians and attacked 171 medical facilities in the occupied West Bank, which is not Hamas-governed. This large death toll cannot just be collateral damage in the pursuit to destroy Hamas, so I say today that I condemn the actions of the State of Israel. As UN experts have stated:

There is an ongoing campaign by Israel resulting in crimes against humanity in Gaza.

What we have been hearing, repeatedly, is that the State of Israel has given warnings to the residents of Gaza to evacuate. How would you evacuate if you had no fuel or transport? How would you evacuate with only a few hours of notice? As UNRWA Commissioner-General remarks:

Gaza is being strangled and it seems that the world right now has lost its humanity.

Since 7 October, there has been a rise in anti-Palestinian and Islamophobic sentiment here in Australia. Pro-Palestine does not mean pro-Hamas. It is not antisemitic to call out the violence enacted by the Israeli state. We must denounce Hamas for the evil that it is, but we cannot allow this moment to be used to dehumanise all Palestinians or Muslims.

Over the past few weeks, community members have reached out to me to express their pain about the lack of balance in the support given to the Palestinian community and their supporters. There are many people hurting in our community right now, many who are left to draw only the following conclusion from the silence: that some lives matter more than others.

There is an unacceptable double standard at play here, and our Palestinian, Arab and Muslim communities deserve more. We have before, and should again, ensure that we as a state are committed to recognition and peace for Palestine. The temporary ceasefire will allow the people of Gaza a moment of reprieve, but it does not ensure the ongoing safety and security of Palestinians. We must start calling for a permanent ceasefire, an end to the occupation, and for reconstruction towards full justice for Palestinians.