We cannot be bystanders

May 6, 2025

“Should we merely continue to do the same for another year, another year?” asks Stuart Rees in his passionate, timely (past time) article, writing of the ethnic cleansing in Gaza and beyond.

He then suggests, correctly in my view, “An alternative is to push P&I towards being mainstream. In that way, a confident prime minister might feel obliged to display his much-vaunted Australian kindness to all the people of Palestine.”

This “push” self-evidently requires a renewed and consistent effort beyond the pool of P&I writers, however accomplished, and beyond those who bring us P&I day in and out.

Goodwill is not enough. Sympathy and concern are not enough. To care effectively, requires action that could include a concerted P&I subscription “drive” in your own circles of influence, regular donations certainly to ensure a steady financial footing, plus initiating the vital personal discussions that challenge the status quo, while also challenging the silencing of this horror on mainstream media through your informed engagement.

None of us wants to be complicit in this appalling moral crisis, the most debased in our lifetimes. None of us wants to pretend we “don’t know”. Let’s share and advance the alternatives. Cogently. And immediately.