The Greens have been prominent in condemning Israel’s ongoing mass murder and destruction in Gaza. The federal Labor Government adamantly sits on its hands while condemning the Greens. Whence the absence of principle and courage on the government’s benches?

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has claimed (to the Labor Caucus, 14 November 2003, and perennially), that he has been “an advocate for the rights of Palestinians my entire political life”. In student days and soon after, he was an activist against apartheid South Africa and then the Israeli Occupation, but those days are ancient history.

On 29 May 2024, Bandt moved that Parliament suspend normal business and recognise Palestinian statehood. All but the four Greens’ MPs and Independent Andrew Wilkie voted down the motion. Labor MP Tim Watts, then assistant minister for Foreign Affairs, led the reaction. Watts accused the Greens of “wedge politics” (otherwise “vote-harvesting”). More:

“[recognition] could occur as part of a peace process and once there is progress on serious governance reforms and security concerns. Hamas is a terrorist organisation. We see no role for them in this. A Palestinian state cannot be in a position to threaten Israel’s security. We want to see a reformed Palestinian governing authority that is committed to peace, disavows violence and is ready to engage in a meaningful peace process.”

Labor Parliamentarians shamelessly trot out this twaddle. The Zionist imprint is omnipresent. When are we going to hear the demand that an Israeli state cannot be in a position to threaten Palestinians’ security?

There was uproar in the House of Representatives on 4, 5 and 6 June 2024, as Bandt stood his ground when met with a barrage of denunciations from government and Opposition members. The Greens were accused, among other things, of fomenting violent and damaging protests outside MPs’ offices and (bizarrely) of setting back the cause of Palestinians.

Nasser Mashni, of the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network, weighed in for the Greens. He said: “It was ‘disturbing that more effort is being put into discrediting protesters [and] silencing dissent … than into addressing the root causes of public discontent – Israel’s genocide and Australia’s inconsistent … response to it. The overwhelming majority of Palestine solidarity protests in Australia have been peaceful in both reality and intent.

“For eight months, citizens have used the traditional channels available to them to press for stronger government action. In the face of government inaction … protest becomes not just a right, but a duty.”

Labor chooses to attack the Greens for having the temerity to highlight Labor’s ongoing quiescence – for being the conscience of the nation in matters with respect to Israel’s perfidy.

In the same vein, Labor MP Josh Burns, on Sky News on 14 May 2025, accuses the Greens of being “hyper-fixated” on Gaza. Burns demeans himself by appearing on the execrable Sky News.

Burns had earlier supported sometime Greens-voting Jews (which included a “Jewish Greens” cohort) who were withdrawing their vote. Said Burns (Jason Koutsoukis, ‘Labor faces the Greens over Gaza’, The Saturday Paper, 15 June 2024):

“These are people who are members of the Greens who don’t feel comfortable in the Greens anymore and who have been devastated by the way in which the Greens have not provided that safe and respectful place in their party, and they feel very isolated and disenfranchised.”

Devastated, isolated and disenfranchised? Could one imagine that the sensitive souls in the “Jewish Greens” would have abandoned any lingering support for the foreign power that is Israel and offered more fervent support for the only party to take seriously the motif ‘Never Again’? More, they might burnish their supposed Green credentials, even if they care nothing for Palestinian lives, by exhibiting outrage over Israel’s ongoing ecocide in Gaza.

The Albanese Labor Government is steadfastly committed to supporting Israel as an apartheid state and, de facto, Israel’s right to ongoing ethnic cleansing and genocide. The government’s formal claims to support a two-state solution and long-term peace in the Middle East is just so much palaver. Abject gutlessness reigns, contemptibly hidden behind self-righteous verbiage.

The carnage in Gaza is an inconvenience to Australia’s political class and the media who would prefer to be “comfortable and relaxed” regarding Australia’s contemporary inconsequential trajectory and their contributory role in it.

This memorable phrase was uttered by John Howard to ABC Four Corners’ Liz Jackson in January 1996. Howard was hoping to marginalise an accounting for White Australia’s colonial imprint on Indigenous Australia. Howard’s progeny, spanning the “respectable” political spectrum, want to comparably write Palestine’s indigenous population out of history.

There are some out there among the unwashed who support the Greens’ breaking from this political myopia. Here’s T.I. (Sydney Morning Herald, 9 May 2025):

“The Greens have been mightily punished for speaking truth to power, in calling for strong government action on the climate catastrophe, the housing crisis, and the Gaza genocide (the UN’s description, not just mine). Seems we would rather just stay ‘relaxed and comfortable’.”

And from L.T. (Sydney Morning Herald, 17 May 2025):

“It is heartening to hear that the Greens have not turned their back on Gaza and the environment after their losses in the election. Ethics and morality should be a constant, not a political expedient to gain votes. The genocide in Gaza is a continuation of the mass killing and displacement of Palestinians during the 1948 Nakba, just two sides of the same coin. Palestinians are caught in a never-ending nightmare, yet still they resist and hope. Surely it is time that the Australian government showed enough courage to unequivocally support them.”

Don’t hold your breath. But compliments to the generally complicit Nine Media for printing these letters.

The much vilified Greens received a fitting paean on this site for their stance ( Sawsan Madina, 14 May 2025), among which:

“Some blamed your election result on your supposed extreme position on Gaza. Seriously? How can calls to stop the deliberate starving of children be labelled extreme? What does taking a moderate stance on ethnic cleansing and genocide look like? … from the other party [Labor]we expected better. Sadly, for us, but more importantly for the Palestinians under the raining bombs, all we got was inaction wrapped in hollow words.”

For what shall it profit Anthony Albanese (et. al), if he shall gain 94 seats, and lose his own soul? Over to you Albo.

The views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Pearls and Irritations.