Where are the anti-Hamas rallies? Where are the rallies calling for the Islamic Republic of Iran to stop giving Hamas millions and millions for rockets and weapons? Where were these rallies before civilians were being slaughtered on 7 October?
Senator CHANDLER (Tasmania) (19:44): Hamas has murdered more than 1,400 civilians deliberately and in the most horrific ways imaginable, and yet they have found support in Australia. Their leadership has promised to carry out such terror attacks again and again, and yet they still find support in Australia. Their leaders stole billions of dollars for their personal gain. They stole fuel, food and water from the people of Gaza. They dug tunnels and shelters for themselves and forced civilians to act as human shields. Their leadership says openly to the world: ‘Nobody should blame us for the things we do. Everything we do is justified.’ It is incredibly disturbing that propaganda coming straight from the mouths of Hamas terrorists and the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran regime is being parroted on the streets of our cities.
Where are the anti-Hamas rallies? Where are the rallies calling for the Islamic Republic of Iran to stop giving Hamas millions and millions for rockets and weapons? Where were these rallies before civilians were being slaughtered on 7 October? We have always known that the IRI regime funds and trains Hamas, not to help the people of Gaza but to hold them hostage and to create terror and war. It is unfathomable that the most deadly attack on Jewish people since the Holocaust has also launched an outbreak of open antisemitism in western democracies, including here in Australia. Our leaders must address this antisemitism unequivocally and without qualification—no deflecting; no changing in the subject; no pretending that you can’t see it. It is shameful that here in Australia members of our Jewish community now fear for their safety and the safety of their families. It is very clear that there is a minority in this country which wants us and its backers to be successful in defeating Israel. There is an even larger number who either don’t know or don’t care that they are repeating, word for word, the propaganda of Hamas and their backers in Tehran.
Why do we see, time and again, posters showing the faces of the missing children and civilians held hostage by Hamas being torn down and defaced? There is no possible justification for such callous hatred. Why is there such silence about the central role of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is using its vast terror network to provoke violence not just in Gaza but in Iraq, in Syria and in Yemen? Iranian women and girls have been murdered, beaten and raped because they have been trying to show the world for some time now what the IRGC and its leaders in Iran will do to spread its murderous ideology. Instead of the IRI regime being isolated and cut off from its financial resources for terror, it has been able to profit and gain leverage from its abhorrent behaviour. This regime openly calls for Israel to be destroyed. They want chaos and violence across the Middle East, and they want the power and status of being at the centre of this violence. They want Jews to be killed and they want Israel to be blamed. It is appalling the extent to which they are getting what they want, not just in the Middle East but, through the propaganda and hateful rhetoric which is being spread, on our streets.
Stop giving the funders and promoters of hate what they want. Stop absolving them of blame for the horrors which they themselves pay for and openly celebrate. Khamenei and Hamas leadership are celebrating the propaganda victory of the rallies on our streets, which are making our Jewish community feel so threatened. Stop giving Hamas and the IRI regime what they want. Just like Nazi Germany, Hamas and the IRI regime are using antisemitism to grow their own power by creating war and terror. Any movement which uses antisemitism as a tool can never be in the interest of peace and should never find support in this country.