The world has witnessed Israel’s destruction of Palestinian homes, hospitals, schools and shelters over the past year and a half.
Israel has killed more than 50,000 civilians in the Gaza Strip, the majority being women and children. More than 2 million Palestinians have been forcibly displaced in the Gaza Strip — close to the entire population.
The justification for Israel’s war is the Palestinian resistance’s attack on October 7, 2023. Their aim was to capture Israelis to exchange for Palestinian political prisoners who are being held without charge in Israeli prisons.
The resistance had political objectives: to halt the Judaisation of East Jerusalem; to end the siege of Gaza; and initiate negotiations for a permanent solution within the two-state solution framework.
From the very first day of the war on Gaza, the Australian government supported Israel.
NSW Labor lit the Sydney Opera House with the Israeli flag to mourn the Israeli casualties on October 7, prompting pro-Palestine supporters to organise a peaceful rally from to protest this bias.
Rally-goers were verbally attacked by Zionists, a number of whom were waving the Israeli flag. A few pro-Palestine supporters threw sound bombs at the Opera House.
Before the Australian Federal Police (AFP) had investigated the incident, New South Wales Premier Chris Minns ordered a ban on pro-Palestinian rallies and ordered arbitrary arrests.
The mass media campaign against Palestine supporters escalated to the point that some simply fabricated news.
The AFP’s months-long investigation into the Opera House incident ended with it saying it was unable to determine the truth about what happened near the Opera House on November 9, 2023. It said one video clip had shown a chant that appeared to be antisemitic.
The Zionist narrative has not deterred tens of thousands of people from taking to the streets, week in and week out, in massive demonstrations in cities across the country.
The protests included Palestinian, Arab and Muslim communities, as well as Indigenous organisations, European, Latin American, Asian and African communities, Jews Against the Occupation ’48, socialist and communist parties, Greens, Labor Friends of Palestine and various trade union and student unions.
There have been many political, cultural and religious activities organised to support the Palestinian people. Petitions to the federal and state parliaments and municipal councils are urging them to pressure Israel to halt its war.
University teachers and students have organised peaceful campus protests to cut ties with Israeli universities until the war on Gaza ends. Campaigns to boycott companies that support Israel and supply weapons to the Zionist state have been launched.
However, none have forced Labor to stop supporting the Israeli government. It repeats that Israel has “the right to defend itself”, that the war in occupied Palestine does not amount to genocide and that Hamas is a terrorist organisation.
Furthermore, Labor has allowed hundreds of Australian Zionists to join the Israeli occupation forces. It has been slow to repatriate Palestinian-Australians stranded in occupied Palestine. It has barred Palestinian officials from visiting Australia, such as Leila Khaled and Palestinian Football Association President Jibril Rajoub.
The then-home affairs minister Claire O’Neill announced Labor would provide financial aid of up to $75,000 to every Australian affected by Hamas’ attack on Israel, in addition to psychological and recreational support. The grant was not offered to Australians of Palestinian origin.
Labor has given police new powers to use excessive force against pro-Palestine rallies and has severely restricted freedom of expression and protest laws. There are new penalties for what is deemed to be antisemitic hate speech, including the phrase: “Palestine: from the river to the sea”.
Students have been banned from wearing their keffiyeh at school and the cultural item has been banned from the Victorian parliament, as it is deemed to be anti-Jewish.
Labor has not wavered in its support for Israel’s war, despite the occupation army’s war crimes and its implementation of the “Hannibal Protocol”. According to Haaretz, senior IDF officers ordered soldiers to use any means necessary to prevent the kidnappings, even if doing so posed a threat to the lives of Israeli civilians. Labor continues to say that only Hamas killed civilians on October 7, 2023.
2022 federal election
After winning in 2022, Labor promised to reverse the Coalition’s decision to cut financial aid to the Palestinian Authority and non-government organisations in the Gaza Strip. The Coalition recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in 2018.
Hamas was placed on the list of terrorist organisations on March 22, 2022. Prior to that its military wing, the Qassam Brigades, was on the list.
Labor’s national conference that year did not endorse recognition of a Palestinian state, as it had promised.
However, on October 18, 2022, foreign affairs minister Penny Wong said Australia no longer recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. It also changed its classification of Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories on October 22, 2022, from “disputed territories” to “illegal” and it placed a ban on providing financial support to the Palestinian Authority. Hamas was also included in the terrorist list.
I asked Bob Carr, a former foreign affairs minister, in 2023, if he considered the Palestinian territories to be occupied, why don’t Palestinians have the right to resist, including with armed resistance. He responded by saying: “The Palestinians have the right to resist peacefully and we and Palestine’s friends in the international community will support Palestinian independence through direct negotiations that guarantee the achievement of a two-state solution. However, armed Palestinian resistance is considered terrorist acts that undermine the chances of peace.”
Labor did allow Palestinians to bring relatives trapped in the Gaza war, despite the Coalition saying it could lead to terrorists entering the country. This hindered the ability to bring Palestinians here quickly and anyone considered to have ties to Hamas was deported.
Labor also did provide indirect financial assistance to Palestinian families arriving here through civil society organisations, as well as through a special foundation.
However, there have been complaints made about public funds being misused including non-governmental organisations operating in the Palestinian territories and funded by the Australian government.
Labor has repeatedly said it supports an immediate ceasefire and supports urgent humanitarian aid to be allowed into Gaza. But its declaration that Hamas must leave the Gaza Strip amounts to interference in internal Palestinian affairs.
Palestinian people have the right to decide this matter, and various factions have agreed to form a committee to ensure that Gaza’s reconstruction funds are not mismanaged by Palestinian elites.
The ongoing genocide in Gaza and the major party and media bias towards the Israeli government have pushed pro-Palestinian supporters toward some extreme positions, including the call for an end to the Zionist project and a one-state solution.
These ideas are not popular in the Palestinian territories or in Palestinian refugee camps in Arab countries. But Western diaspora Palestinian activists Ali Abu Nimah on Electronic Intifada and Azmi Bishara on Arabi21, as well as the websites of the European and American leftists, continue to argue for them.
Extreme Islamic discourse also calls for the end of Israel’s existence. Fatah and Hamas, which represent more than 95% of Palestinians, do not agree.
Vote for Palestine
The “Vote Palestine” campaign, which unites many pro-Palestine groups against Labor’s failures, will undoubtedly have an influence on the election. It may be helpful to have smaller parties, such as Socialist Alliance or even independent candidates, elected to parliament, but ultimately, either Labor or the Coalition will be returned.
The preferential voting system allows the voter to send a message. The next government must be pressured to recognise a Palestinian state and pressure Israel to negotiate to achieve a two-state solution that: ensures a just and lasting solution to the refugee issue; the final status of Jerusalem; and forces the withdrawal of Israeli occupation forces from the Palestinian territories in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.
Until this happens, the Palestinian territories must be treated as “occupied”, which means Palestinians have the right to resist by all available means, including armed resistance. This is guaranteed by international conventions.
In addition, all Palestinian organisations must be removed from the terrorist list, there must be a law to prevent anti-Palestinian racism and laws preventing protests by misattributing them as antisemitism must be withdrawn.
Furthermore, any Australian citizen or institution operating in Zionist settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories must be brought to justice and Australians’ participation in the Israeli army must be prohibited.