Israel / Palestine
-
“This cannot go on” – a cry for an end to intolerable suffering
Calls for a ceasefire in Gaza are intensifying as the traumatic toll on civilians sees thousands of children being killed, many health and aid workers and journalists dying on the job, the destruction of health services, surgery taking place without anaesthetic, and civilians unable to access necessities, including life-saving healthcare, food and water. Continue reading »
-
An open letter to ABC Managing Director David Anderson
ABC reporters and program presenters always refer to Hamas’s non-recognition of the right of Israel to exist, but they never mention the fact that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party does not recognise in its charter the right of Palestine to exist, why? An open letter from Ali Kazak, Former Palestinian ambassador. Continue reading »
-
One less terrorist
As of October 29, the Palestinian Ministry of Health’s official confirmed figure for those killed by Israeli bombing and shelling of the territory of the Gaza Strip was more than 8000, including more than 3400 children, which, statistically, is one child killed every 10 minutes since October 7. Continue reading »
-
A call for empathy
A friend of mine in Israel, sickened by the events of the past few weeks, when asked what we outside the country could do suggested we begin with empathy. Continue reading »
-
Prime Minister ignores Palestinian criticism of Government’s support for Israel’s oppression, genocide and ethnic cleansing
The convenor of the youth branch of Australian Friends of Palestine Association, (“Young AFOPA”) on 20 October 2023 wrote to Prime Minister Albanese expressing disappointment in his unequivocal support for Israel during its ongoing genocide in Gaza. The writer challenged the sincerity of the Prime Minister’s purported commitment to engaging in reconciliation in Australia, when Continue reading »
-
Netanyahu invokes Genocide
Prime Ministers Howard, Rudd, Gillard, Abbott, Turnbull, and Morrison have signed a statement drafted for them by the Zionist Federation of Australia in support of Israel. In doing so, were they aware that on Sunday, in launching the ground offensive into Gaza, Netanyahu invoked a genocidal precedent for his war on Gaza? Continue reading »
-
A price paid in blood: Australia secretly deploys to another Middle East war
Will Australia involve itself in another war in the Middle East? One that promises to be far more destructive and damaging to Australia than our previous misadventures. Continue reading »
-
We are the Silence: How words bear witness in life and in death
In August of this year, Yousef Maher Dawas, a young Palestinian author, wrote a story of hope and resilience, titled “Kidney Transplant and Rebirth: A Palestinian Love Story”. On the 14th of October, Yousef was killed by an Israeli missile strike, along with several members of his family. Remember his words. He was not a Continue reading »
-
Objectivity serves the powerful, and silences the oppressed
Australian journalists still cling to ‘objectivity’ as the hallmark of ‘good journalism’. And yet, Palestine has shown us how colonial notions of ‘objectivity’ pave the way for genocide. Continue reading »
-
Hamas has set a trap. It depends on Israel’s brutal response
In the 75 years since it won nationhood in a field of blood, Israel has fought many wars against its neighbours and its indigenous population. Each has been an existential struggle, because its enemies wanted – still do – to annihilate it altogether. Continue reading »
-
Herald Sun report on support for Zionist Federation letter “untrue”
Today’s Melbourne Herald Sun carries a story that, along with other former Australian Prime Ministers, I will be a signature to a statement drafted by The Zionist Federation of Australia, condemning the attack by Hamas on Israel. This report is without foundation and is untrue. Continue reading »
-
How can you sleep at night Anthony?
Can you sleep at night knowing that your extremist Israeli mates have killed 3,000 children over the last three weeks? That is one child killed every 13 minutes in Gaza. And that doesn’t include the estimated 1,000 little souls laying dead under rubble that distraught fathers can’t rescue. Can you hear the screams of the Continue reading »
-
Australia left isolated as neighbours demand protection of civilians at UNGA
Many Australians will be ashamed that our nation has failed to speak and vote unequivocally at the United Nations during this crisis. As a nation we cannot continue to pretend that Israel has “a right to defend itself” while Palestine has no such right and is being systematically destroyed. Continue reading »
-
The Promised Land
With your last breath you can exalt those fearsome prophets. As you die again and again. The million deaths they promised you. Continue reading »
-
What good comes from Israel silencing criticism?
Born in 1938, two days after Kristallnacht, I grew up during a period of rabid American antisemitism. In response, two relatives helped found the Anti-Defamation League. Learning of the atrocities Hamas committed in southern Israel, I was aghast like everyone. But I was not surprised. Israel has been hoisted on its own propaganda, regardless of Continue reading »
-
A Western disease of cause-and-effect amnesia
The savage Israeli reaction to the suggestion by UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, that some Hamas actions may be a response to 56 years of Israeli repression was extraordinary. We have long known about Israeli sensitivity to criticism. But this brings things to a new level. Cannot Israel accept even some of its own responsibility for Continue reading »
-
Acting Prime Minister Marles does not believe Palestinian hospitals should be allowed fuel
The Australian government must withhold all political support from the Israeli government while the killing of Palestinian civilians and destruction of their infrastructure continue. And yet, what hope? On 25 October when acting Prime Minister Richard Marles was asked on radio whether fuel should be allowed into Gaza to allow hospitals to function; he could Continue reading »
-
With echoes of Iraq war, ADF deployed to Middle East
The decision to deploy the Australian Defence Forces to the ‘Middle East’ in the middle of the war in Gaza puts the Albanese Government into the same category as many appalling predecessors. Continue reading »
-
An unholy alliance is defending Israel’s slaughter of Palestinian civilians
The Hamas raid into Israel on October 7th, and pounding of the Gazan population that has followed, has seen an unholy alliance reunite: not, or not merely, between Washington and its client states resisting UN calls for a ceasefire, but also in the media, between the Murdoch and Jewish press. Continue reading »
-
In this conflict, context is everything
The truth of the matter is that Western Governments bear the primary responsibility for both the carnage in Israel and the genocide in Gaza. Continue reading »
-
The racial contract of settler colonialism
On 20 October 2023, an Aboriginal teenager died in custody in Perth, Western Australia. Cleveland Dodd, 16-years-old, was found unresponsive in his cell in Casurina maximum security prison security prison. On 21 October 2023, a Palestinian mother, Alaa, and her three children, Eman (6), Faiz (5) and 7-month-old Sara, were killed by an Israeli strike Continue reading »
-
How much killing is enough killing?
Israel has killed multiple times as many people since October 7 as were killed on October 7, has caused many times more destruction since October 7 than was caused on October 7, and has inflicted many times more pain and suffering since October 7 than was inflicted on October 7. How high does the pile Continue reading »
-
An open letter to Anthony Albanese
It is long overdue for the United States of America to assume its responsibility, hold Israel accountable and force it to respect international laws and resolutions and recognize the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people. Continue reading »
-
Netanyahu’s War
Hamas’s appalling attack has exposed an Israeli government with no plan for resolving its country’s greatest challenges. Continue reading »
-
The Australian Prime Minister’s talking points for Washington
Prime Minister: You may wish to draw on the following in your meetings with President Biden, Vice-President Harris, Secretary of State Blinken, and Secretary of Defence Austin. Continue reading »
-
Australia joins allies in moral failure of historic significance
Blame for what has and will unfold in Gaza will be shared with Israel by those States, all acting with presumed impunity, which blindly support Israel’s violations of international humanitarian law. Continue reading »
-
Culture and Religion, International relations, Israel / Palestine, Politics, Religion and Faith, World
Israel will never be safe until Palestine is free
No attempt to “explain”, rationalise, find some counter-“equivalence” for, nor any attempt to see matters through the eyes and the experiences of the murderers rather than the immediate victims can justify or forgive the barbaric massacre of Israeli children, women and men by Hamas warriors after they broke out of Gaza. It does not forgive Continue reading »
-
Collective punishment, selective truth, and slow genocide
Facts about the Israel/Palestine conflict have always been hard to come by. Some Israeli leaders are now telling more lies than many of their citizens, and former friends of Israel, can swallow. Yet Western governments still do. Continue reading »
-
The outside world must walk Israel back from the abyss. It cannot be part of the choir of incitement
A former Israeli adviser and a former Palestinian adviser say individual member states must push harder for an end to the wanton destruction. Continue reading »
-
Return of the Wild West: America was built on genocide
Gravity-defying Western double-standards are now on worldwide display, as the US and its liegemen line-up to support a vengeful Israel to the hilt. Which prompts this question: what is the difference, today, between the universal human rights gospel of the Global West and a Potemkin Village? Answer: Increasingly little. Continue reading »
