Dear members of federal parliament,
I write today to urge the Australian Government to take concrete action to see a ceasefire in Gaza, to reinstate its frozen UNRWA funding and to hold Israel to account for its violations of international law.
Today marks two weeks since the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel has a plausible case of genocide to answer to in Gaza. As part of this ruling, the court issued a legally binding order for Israel to take measures to prevent genocide in Gaza, and gave it four weeks to present a report detailing the actions it had taken to this end.
Two of those weeks have now passed, and it is clear the Israeli government has no intention of ending its violence or taking action to protect the two million internally displaced Palestinians in Gaza who are struggling to survive Israel’s brutal attacks. In fact, the Israeli Government this week rejected a ceasefire proposal from Hamas, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stating that Israel had “months more fighting” ahead of it.
Israel has now killed more than 27,840 Palestinians, the vast majority of them women and children. This past week, the world was horrified to follow the story of Hind, a six-year-old Gazan girl who watched as Israeli forces in a tank fired on the car she was in, killing her family. Hind survived and spoke on the phone for hours with the Palestinian Red Crescent, while it sent a paramedic team to rescue her. Neither the paramedics nor Hind have been heard from since.
This week Israeli forces also directly fired on a UN food convoy that was waiting to move into northern Gaza, whose population is reportedly on the verge of starvation due to Israel’s ongoing blocking of adequate aid. Just yesterday, 13 Palestinians were killed in Israeli air strikes while fetching water for their families in Gaza City.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces have escalated their attacks on Rafah, in southern Gaza, where half of Gaza’s 2.3 million-strong population is now sheltering in what aid officials have termed a “pressure cooker of despair”, having been displaced from other parts of the territory by more than four months of bombing by Israel.
This past week, it was also revealed that Israel has been unwilling to share evidence with the UN regarding allegations of UNRWA wrongdoing, and that the Australian, US and Canadian governments, which have frozen their funding to the agency as a result of Israel’s allegations, have also not seen the evidence of these claims themselves.
Despite this lack of evidence, the Australian Government has refused to immediately reinstate its funding to UNRWA, even while acknowledging that failing to do so puts at risk the ongoing work of the agency and the two million people who depend upon it for their very survival. The government also refused to debate a parliamentary motion to end its support for the Israeli Government.
It is clear that Israel will not stop violating international law, terrorising Palestinians or committing genocide in Gaza until the international community - Western governments in particular - compel it to do so. Australia must act with immediacy, decisiveness and in accordance with its stated commitment to international law and its obligations under the Genocide Convention.
The Australia Palestine Advocacy Network calls upon the Australian Government to hereby end its support of and publicly condemn Israel, reverse its decision to pause funding to the UNRWA and to take all possible measures to support the ICJ’s legally binding ruling, including taking concrete action towards an immediate ceasefire and the unfettered and adequate flow of aid to all of Gaza.
Sincerely,
Nasser Mashni
President, Australia Palestine Advocacy Network |