We should stand with Israel. Any deaths on either side, Israel or Palestine, should be abhorred. People have lost their lives, children’s lives have been disrupted forever, and families have been torn apart. It’s so terrible. I mourn with Israel.
Mr McCORMACK (Riverina) (18:04): As I said previously, I mourn for those families who have lost loved ones. This—and I’m not using it as a prop; I’m using it as a piece of evidence—is a notice of intention to hold a public assembly. It’s a two-page document, it’s available online and it’s what should’ve been filled out when there was going to be a rally at Sydney Town Hall last week to stand up for—I use those terms very loosely—Palestine.
The New South Wales Minister for Police and Counter-terrorism, Yasmin Catley, told the state parliament that the protest, at which flares were thrown and anti-Jewish hatred chanted—and I’m not going to repeat them now; we heard them from the opposition leader and we’ve seen them all too readily on our television screens, in our newspapers and on our radios in recent times—was a ‘spontaneous gathering’. Yeah? Nah! I’m sorry; this was promoted, aided and abetted by the New South Wales Greens, and they stand condemned for their disgusting actions. Shame on them! But it didn’t just stop there. If it had and they’d walked back from it, we could be forgiven for thinking they had made a mistake. And we all make mistakes.
We know that atrocities have been committed and innocent lives lost in the most barbaric ways in Israel. No-one should be supporting or celebrating this. No-one should be throwing flares and projectiles at the police. I’m so pleased that the New South Wales Police—they should not be criticised at all—made sure that there was the necessary staff for ensuing gatherings.
We have a motion in this place today brought by the Prime Minister, and I commend him for it. I applaud the opposition leader’s words. I sent a text to the Deputy Prime Minister regarding for his eloquent speech on the motion before us—not on the amendment brought forward by the Leader of the Greens. When that amendment was rightfully lost, we then had the unedifying sight—though perhaps it wasn’t so unedifying, because there was a show of solidarity from the fair-minded members of this parliament who sat on the government benches and voted for the proposal put forward by Prime Minister Albanese—of the Greens leader, the member for Melbourne, and the member for Brisbane, the member for Griffith and the member for Ryan, all Greens, voting against it and being rightly defeated.
Senator Faruqi is the Deputy Leader of the federal Greens. When this place was illuminated in blue and white in support of Israel, she tweeted, ‘One colonial government supporting another. What a disgrace. #FreePalestine’. Then you have Jenny Leong, a New South Wales Greens parliamentarian, sending tweets that could only be described as disgraceful. I’m not going to read them, because it only promotes the cause they are promoting.
I also have to say that, if it is good enough for a secretary of the Public Service to stand aside because of a message he may or may not have put up on WhatsApp, then that should be good enough for a journalist who describes the beheading of Israeli children as ‘BS’ on a chat group with other media and then doubles down. If it’s good enough for a secretary of the Public Service to be stood down, I would ask whether that person is still in his job.
We need to be very careful when atrocities such as this occur. Women were having their phones and purses taken from them and then petrol was thrown on them and set alight, and in some instances their children were beheaded before them. And we’ve got people—leaders, journalists—making comments which are simply untrue. It’s just beyond beyond. It defies logic.
As a friend reminded me this morning, it does not matter what side, innocent lives are being taken. Yes, these atrocities were caused and created by Hamas. It is a terrorist organisation, make no mistake. But not all Palestinians agree with the incursion and invasion and atrocities committed; they do not, and their feelings should be respected as well. Israel has to do what it must do to defend itself, and anyone who thinks otherwise is not being fair-minded. We do need a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict. It is simply not good enough that people are making statements of which they have no facts. They are using their hatred and their longstanding bias against Israel, and this is so unfortunate.
One of the best moments I ever saw—and I notice that the member for Chifley has sat through a number of these speeches, and I asked him this morning if he was okay—in this parliament was when he, a Muslim, and the former minister for Kooyong, Josh Frydenberg, who is Jewish, whose parents fled from the Holocaust horrors of war-torn Europe—and I know the member for Chifley’s parents also came to this country for a better life. They hugged each other after a rather terrible statement was made about Jews in the Senate by a senator, who thankfully is no longer in this place and whose name I won’t even dignify by mentioning. We all know who he is. That should be how this parliament operates, and it was seen in a good light this morning when the Prime Minister made the motion and spoke to the motion. Others have stood up and addressed this motion, because it is important.
We should stand with Israel. Any deaths on either side, Israel or Palestine, should be abhorred. People have lost their lives, children’s lives have been disrupted forever, and families have been torn apart. It’s so terrible. I mourn with Israel.