The following is the text of a speech given by Sue Wareham at a public online meeting Why genocide is a key election issue held on 27 April under the auspices of Australians for Humanity. Wareham is president of the Medical Association for Prevention of War (Australia).

A lot is at stake in the current election, and many of the things that hang in the balance are not the ones the current leaders are talking about. Climate action and other environmental measures are critically important, as are economic justice for all people, saving our democracy from powerful vested interests, keeping nuclear power out of Australia, and many others.

We know that federal elections are generally not fought on foreign policy matters, so why should this one be different? Specifically, why do Israel’s destruction of Gaza and its people, and its land grab for Palestinian land, matter so much?

If Australia had absolutely no way of influencing Israeli actions, then omitting this from the election campaign would perhaps be understandable. But we know that’s not the case. Australia still maintains a diplomatic, defence and trade relationship with Israel — a “ warm and close” relationship the DFAT website tells us — with a Trade and Defence Office in Jerusalem, dozens of active permits for the export of lethal military equipment to Israel, MOUs with Israel on defence industry co-operation and cyber security, and more.

All this is with a nation widely believed to be committing genocide.

Australia stood by while plans unfolded to simply push the whole population of Gaza elsewhere and take their land, plans which are now being implemented.

This is beyond hypocritical. It is an abrogation of every principle of justice that we Australians pride ourselves on, and every principle that we’re told Australians fight wars for. Australia’s stance has stunned even many of us who have observed for decades the double standards in our nation’s foreign policy.

If the moral implications alone of Israel’s actions and Australia’s complicity were not sufficiently important to be election campaign material, there are other reasons they should be, which I’ll very briefly outline.

Our common humanity and the preservation of the international laws that are meant to protect us all

Our common humanity is the most important thing standing between us and a “dog eat dog” world where rules mean nothing and the powerful rule over the powerless with impunity. There can be no exceptions to our common humanity, because once we bend or ignore the rules for one group then the rules are meaningless and none of us are safe.

There is no conflict in recent memory in which the laws of war have been violated so often and with such savagery and where Australia has had the capacity to act and yet failed to do so.

The implications of Israel’s actions for healthcare everywhere

Israel’s targeting of healthcare in Gaza has become so normalised that each new atrocity against hospitals, their staff, the sick and injured, ambulances and aid deliveries receives fleeting media attention, if any, before it is overtaken by another, and another, and another. Children are grossly and disproportionately affected by the destruction of healthcare. the hunger, malnutrition and dirty water and the terrifying circumstances in which they live.

Israeli attacks on healthcare are not accidental. The WHO representative for the West Bank and Gaza, has stated that “the health sector is being systematically dismantled”. The UN reports also that, “Israel has perpetrated a concerted policy to destroy Gaza’s healthcare system as part of a broader assault on Gaza…”.

When the right to healthcare is violated with utter impunity and on a most grotesque scale, healthcare everywhere is vulnerable.

Aspiring political leaders who fail to grasp that reality, and are not moved to action by the suffering of the Palestinian people, do not deserve a vote.

The catastrophe of warfare itself is being normalised

Australia’s response to rising tensions regionally and globally has not been to redouble our meagre efforts for peace, but to redouble our preparations for warfare. In preparing for war, that is exactly what we are more likely to achieve.

Mention has already been made in this forum of Australia’s tens of billions of dollars of military spending — augmented by the eye-wateringly expensive and provocative AUKUS agreement — that could otherwise resolve the cost-of-living crisis, provide the best healthcare and education for all, and the climate and environmental remediation that is desperately needed, all of which would make us far more secure.

We must hold consistently to a message of peace, which means prioritising peace, investing in peace, funding peace research and rejecting the false promise of “peace through strength”. And it means justice for all people. There can be no peace without justice, and there can be no peace in the Middle East without justice for the Palestinian people.

Countering the intimidation of Australians into silence

There has been shameful abuse of the word “antisemitism”, and political cowardice and complicity from our leaders in their failure to defend our right to protest – indeed, our obligation to protest genocidal actions.

We must send a strong message that we expect our democratic freedoms to be protected, not actively undermined.

Standing in solidarity with the oppressed

We must stand in solidarity not only with the oppressed and dispossessed people of Palestine, but also with the very many Australians who have been most deeply and personally affected by this war. I pay my deep respects to those of you here who fall into that category.

As human suffering on a scale we cannot imagine deepens, we must not abandon the victims of this catastrophe, or those victims still to come if the current situation continues with such impunity.

Australia’s actions matter

It doesn’t matter that Australia is not a central player in the Israel-Palestine war. As a close ally of Israel, Australia is an important player, and there are principles to uphold and to implement in our relationships with those that are the key players.

Our votes in this election matter.