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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2008-07-24 Daily Xml
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PALESTINE

Mr HANNA (Mitchell) (12:08): I move:

That this house—

(a) recognises the event known to the Palestinian people as 'Al-Nakba' meaning 'The Catastrophe';

(b) affirms the special connection of Australia to the land of Palestine and Palestinian people;

(b) regrets the failure of both sides to reach an agreement over the past 60 years which guarantees justice and lasting peace for both Israelis and Palestinians; and

(d) calls for the immediate establishment of the state of Palestine within the 1967 borders in accordance with United Nations Resolution 242.

Members may wonder initially why an issue of international significance might be addressed in this parliament. There are a number of reasons for this. First of all, at the corner of East Terrace and North Terrace we have a War Memorial, and that War Memorial commemorates the Australians of the Light Horse who fought in Palestine. There is a very deep, long lasting connection to the land of Palestine for the descendants of those Australians who fought and gave their lives in Palestine.

We were there in World War II, as well. The Australians were part of allied forces moving north from Palestine into Syria. In those times, there were Jewish battalions fighting with the allies and the Arab Legion was fighting with the allies, as well. Jews and Arabs alike were there working with the British and the Australians. The military connection is indisputable. But then there is another reason; that is, in Adelaide we have many, perhaps hundreds, of Palestinians—Palestinians by heritage, some of them Palestinians by birth, some of them, indeed, are from houses and villages which were destroyed in the war of 1947 and 1948. That war was called by the Israelis, the War of Independence and, indeed, it led to the creation of the state of Israel. However, there are two sides to that coin, and the other side is Al-Nakba.

I might just stress that there is precedence in this place for dealing with such significant international issues. I was one of those who supported Premier Mike Rann when, on 14 April 2005, he moved successfully a motion reminding us all of the genocide of the holocaust and the horrors of World War II, and condemning anti-Semitism and all other forms of racism. These weighty issues do need to be dealt with not only because of their significance but because we have people in Adelaide who have their heart and soul touched by such issues.

Before I go on, perhaps a little history, but not in my words. I begin by referring to a great Israeli academic whom I had the privilege of hearing in Adelaide a short time ago, the late Tanya Reinhart. In one of her lectures she said:

The state of Israel was founded in 1948, following a war that the Israelis call the War of Independence, and the Palestinians—Nakba (catastrophe). A haunted, persecuted people sought to find a shelter and state for itself, and did so at a horrible price to another people. During the war of 1948, more than half of the Palestinian population of 1,380,000 at the time, were driven off their homeland by the Israeli army. Though Israel officially claimed that the majority of these refugees escaped and were not expelled, it still refused to allow them to return, as a UN resolution demanded shortly after the 1948 war. Thus, the Israeli land was obtained through ethnic cleansing of the indigenous Palestinian inhabitants.

Is it going too far to call it ethnic cleansing? I note also that the Israeli historian Benny Morris has referred to this. He is indisputably a Zionist and his commitment to the ongoing success of Israel is unquestionable. He said:

There are circumstances in history that justify ethnic cleansing. A Jewish state would not have come into being without the uprooting of 700,000 Palestinians. Therefore it was necessary to uproot them. There was no choice but to expel that population. It was necessary to cleanse the hinterland and cleanse the border areas and cleanse the main roads. It was necessary to cleanse the villages from which our convoys and our settlements were fired on.

An Israeli hero, David Ben-Gurion, one of the prominent military and political leaders of the 1940s said:

If I was an Arab leader, I would never make terms with Israel. That is natural: we have taken their country. Sure, God promised it to us, but what does that matter to them? Our God is not theirs. We come from Israel, it's true. But two thousand years ago, and what is that to them? There has been anti-Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They see only one thing: we have come here and stolen their country. Why should they accept that?

It is interesting to consider the notion of ethnic cleansing and the notion of expelling people from their land in this country Australia, because there is an extraordinary resonance in terms of the way in which the European settlers treated the indigenous inhabitants of this country. They had their own catastrophe. Their population was reduced drastically and they had to retreat into the hinterland. We know that up to this day they have not yet achieved the standard of life and the happiness they had before European settlement of this country.

Of course, in order to approach the problem of our indigenous Australians, first we had to recognise that in fact there were Aboriginal people here before European settlers. That has occurred only in the past 20 years. In our 200 years of white settlement of this country it is only in the past 20 years that we have had the maturity through our legal system to recognise that Aboriginal people were here first and, perhaps, in a very real sense, that it was their land. The apology given by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd earlier this year would not have been possible had this reality not been recognised.

It is so difficult to move onto peace in the Arab/Israeli conflict because of this lack of recognition of the reality of what happened in 1948. The details of the occupation are horrific. The Israeli academic and writer Dr Ilan Pappe has written a book The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. In that book he details many instances of horrific ethnic cleansing. Those who are familiar with the issues have probably heard of the massacre of Deir Yassin. In fact, there were probably atrocities committed on both sides, but the evidence has come out now that as far as the Israeli military forces were concerned there was a deliberate plan to expel Palestinians from their homes and villages.

I myself have seen in Israel the sites of villages which have been razed to the ground, sometimes with the exception of a few ruins, perhaps a crumbling church or a disused synagogue. I remember one village I visited was made into a national park after 1948. All the inhabitants were cleared out and the buildings were razed except for a synagogue and a church. They stand there as ruins to curious visitors enjoying their leisure time on weekends. There is a plaque which recognises that there was a synagogue there and Jewish people had lived there for centuries. There is no reference whatsoever in that record of the Arab population. It is not just an ethnic cleansing of the population and a destruction of villages, but a complete rewriting of history. I find that reluctance to accept reality is one of the main obstacles to everyone concerned moving on.

I went to another village near Haifa where the inhabitants were expelled. They moved up the mountain near their original village and lived there without electricity or sewerage for decades. Finally, they have had some of those basic services provided by the local authorities. Meanwhile, what had been their village prior to 1948 has become an Israeli artists' settlement, whereby they can enjoy peace and quiet and paint in their studios.

I have a little time left. I have touched on the main theme of my motion. I should say something more about the call for the immediate establishment of a state of Palestine within 1967 borders, in accordance with UN Resolution 242. That resolution calls for the withdrawal of Israeli occupying forces from territories. When we talk about the territories we are talking about Gaza and the West Bank today. In other words, the UN resolution is predicated on what we might call today a two-state solution, giving Israel and a newly created state of Palestine equal status.

I must say that there is an increasing number of people enmeshed in the conflict, particularly on the Palestinian side, who are moving on from the two-state solution to an insistence that there be one democratic state in the region. The way forward is difficult. I should not give people the impression that the Australian government has supported UN Resolution 242; on the contrary, Australia votes with the US and Israel in the UN on matters concerning Israel's interests. That is not to say, however, that people in this parliament cannot make a commitment to justice and say that there should be a place in the sun for both Israelis and Palestinians. I would like to quote, before I finish, Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor, a writer and political activist, who said:

As long as one dissident is in prison, our freedom will not be true. As long as one child is hungry, our life will be filled with anguish and shame. What all these victims need above all is to know that they are not alone; that we are not forgetting them, that when their voices are stifled we shall lend them ours, that while their freedom depends on ours the quality of our freedom depends on theirs.

I think that is a very pertinent comment about civilisation and about the way that people need to live together. Finally, I will draw on the words of Uri Avnery, a man I met in Israel. He fought on the Israeli side in that 1948 war. He has told stories of coming across abandoned villages with food still on the table as people fled before the advancing Israeli forces. He was also a prominent politician and, indeed, at one time, a minister in the Israeli government. Admittedly, and by his own confession, he is on one particular side of the debate that goes on within Israel. I might add that it is a debate which has a lot more free speech and tolerance than we have in this country when the subject of Israel is debated. Uri Avnery wrote recently:

I am not worried about the existence of the state of Israel. It will exist as long as states exist. The question is: what kind of state will it be? A state of permanent war, the terror of its neighbours, where violence pervades all spheres of life, where the rich flourish and the poor live in misery; a state that will be deserted by the best of its children? Or a state that lives in peace with its neighbours, to their mutual benefit; a modern society with equal rights for all citizens and without poverty; a state that invests its resources in science and culture, industry and the environment; where future generations will want to live; a source of pride for all its citizens?

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The honourable member's time has expired.

The Hon. S.W. KEY: I move:

That the honourable member's time be extended by five minutes.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: There is no provision for that.

The Hon. S.W. KEY: It has happened to me before.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I will just see. The second reading of a bill is the only occasion.

Debate adjourned on motion of Mrs Geraghty.

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