Labor’s shift in language is a small step forward, but it’s the bare minimum and has taken such a long time. Labor must catch up quickly with the reality of the daily injustices that Palestinians face in their homeland. Human Rights Watch has said it. Amnesty International has said it. The UN special rapporteur for Palestine has said it. It’s time for the Australian government to say Israel is an apartheid state.
Full speech
Senator FARUQI (New South Wales) (16:52): I am proud to be representing the Australian Greens in this place today as it is a party which long ago recognised Palestinian statehood and has the courage to call out Israel’s systemic injustice for what it is: apartheid. Labor’s shift in language is a small step forward, but it’s the bare minimum and has taken such a long time. Labor must catch up quickly with the reality of the daily injustices that Palestinians face in their homeland. Human Rights Watch has said it. Amnesty International has said it. The UN special rapporteur for Palestine has said it. It’s time for the Australian government to say Israel is an apartheid state. The State of Israel continues to deny the right of self-determination to Palestinians and continues to dispossess them of their land.
We will continue to call for the foreign minister to recognise that apartheid is occurring, raise concern about the far-right agenda of the Netanyahu government and recognise the statehood of Palestinians. Shamefully, there remains a bipartisan commitment to the denial of Palestinian rights and minimisation of the crimes of the Israeli state. Palestinians, for decades, have been amongst the most oppressed people in the world. They are subject to daily humiliation, brutality and violence by the Israeli government. Just this week Israeli forces killed three Palestinians on the occupied West Bank. Every day Palestinians are killed or imprisoned or have their houses destroyed and have their land taken by Israeli settlement. For 75 years Palestinians have been betrayed by countries that refuse to hold their persecutor, the State of Israel, to account and give a blank cheque of diplomatic cover to anything the State of Israel does. The Labor government has approved 23 military permits to Israel since March—the same Israeli army which perpetuates crimes against Palestinian people every single day.
Not only is Australia silent but the government is aiding and abetting this violence, oppression and systemic elimination of the Palestinian people. Australia is complicit, and it’s a disgrace. The Israeli government is the most far-right, extremist coalition government Israel has seen, and the human rights of Palestinians are being further diminished by the day under this horrific Netanyahu regime. Yes, language matters, but this must be accompanied by taking real action for Palestinian human rights, including boycotting meetings with far-right Israeli ministers and placing targeted sanctions on Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich for their roles in inflaming human rights abuses against Palestinians. Labor must call the apartheid by its name and push for the Palestinian right to self-determination.