I rise here, in the parliament of our nation, one of the most tolerant and successful multinational, multifaith nations in the world, to acknowledge the truth and the power of the words moved earlier today by Minister Wong condemning Hamas’s attack on Israel. I add my support to all of the sentiments expressed in that statement.
Senator O’NEILL (New South Wales) (13:57): I rise here, in the parliament of our nation, one of the most tolerant and successful multinational, multifaith nations in the world, to acknowledge the truth and the power of the words moved earlier today by Minister Wong condemning Hamas’s attack on Israel. I add my support to all of the sentiments expressed in that statement.
Australians are undoubtedly feeling the weight of this conflict and grappling with the fear and confusion that it has wrought. Throughout this parliament I have been privileged to act as the Chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Israel and in that capacity to form strong ties with the Australian Jewish community. Overt displays of antisemitism, which we have witnessed here in Australia in the past days, have no justification. Our Jewish community here in Australia have expressed to me their fear and distress at these events.
In the midst of an ongoing conflict plagued by false binaries and misinformation, I want to take the short time that I do have to reflect on why it is that our actions here in Australia, and the condemnation of gross antisemitism that we witnessed on the steps of one of our greatest landmarks, matters. Generations of Jewish people have been subjected to the hateful prejudice of antisemitism. The grossest expression of antisemitism, the Holocaust, was a horror beyond comprehension.
The fundamental dignity of the human person, irrespective of their faith, nationality, ethnicity and the context into which they are born transcends politics and all borders. It must remain central to our hearts and to our politics. It can never be forgotten. When the innate dignity of any human life is minimised, we risk descent into the darkest depths of what humans are capable of. We risk the same evil that enabled the murder of six million Jews.