Hitting the right spot

April 30, 2025

John Menadue should be commended for displaying the sort of courage, outspokenness and commitment to international law and human rights that is so conspicuously absent in the mainstream media and among our political representatives.

His many articles in Pearls and Irritations, and his recent speech at the ANU, are reminders of what political courage looks like in an era of political cowardice and complicity in cruelty. He calls out the endless atrocities perpetrated against the Palestinian people for what they are – a genocide.

He is unequivocal about the complicity of silence that surrounds Australia’s response to what is occurring day in, day out in the occupied territory. He makes plain that no red lines appear to exist for the Australian Government or the MSM when it comes to the tragedy in Gaza – moral and legal lines that should, in any decent society, trigger condemnation and calls for international action.

Instead, Australian politics ignores the obvious and concerns itself with how to address the cost-of-living crisis while ignoring the existential cost of living for the men, women and children of Gaza.

Menadue is right to shame our silent and complicit media, who, in responding to his principled speech at the ANU, could only mock and distort. Much to the relief of all humanitarians and advocates of international law and human rights, the community that John has created around Pearls and Irritations demonstrates a moral determination to ensure that the slaughter in Gaza will not be ignored.

How can complicit journalists and politicians ever be taken seriously again when they talk blithely about a “rules-based order” or the “rule of law”? They might well benefit from reading John’s many articles and those of other humanitarians.

They also might wish to ponder the words of Martin Luther King: “The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people, but the silence over that by the [supposed] good people.” My addition.