On 19 December 2023, in Pearls and Irritations I wrote: “Hamas is the excuse for the Israeli attack on Gaza. It is not the reason. The real Israeli reason and objective in Gaza is to drive out the population and destroy infrastructure as part of a long-term plan to expel Palestinians in Gaza and elsewhere. This settler colonisation has been ongoing since 1948, starting with the Nakba.”

In Australia, we are very familiar with settler colonisation – driving out the original inhabitants. The attack of 7 October 2023 did not occur in a vacuum. It was the result of decades-long Israeli occupation, never-ending violence and oppression. The pressure cooker exploded!

To properly understand the key issue, we must be honest in the words we use to describe the situation. To me, the correct words are about “ethnic cleansing”, “genocide”, “apartheid” and “occupation”. Instead, the “public debate” is about Hamas, war, terrorism and a two-state solution. These words, almost trick words, are thrown around to avoid the central issues.

And what have our so-called “leaders” been doing to honestly call out what is really happening on the key issues?

Governments

For over 20 months the Albanese Government has run for cover with only a few flimsy and misleading words. And little substance.

It is certainly better late than never for the government to be now talking about recognising Palestine. But again, there is delay. Albanese is waiting for the pro-Israel Anglosphere to act. In the meantime, 60,000 precious souls have been murdered by the IDF.

Israel crossed the red line long ago, but our government failed to condemn its war of genocide for more than a year and a half. It did not enforce the findings against Israel by the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court and the UN General Assembly Resolution of 18 September 2024 which implemented the ICJ decision. It has not condemned Israel’s decades-long colonialism and apartheid against the Palestinian people.

Albanese and Penny Wong parroted on for months that Israel “had a right to defend itself”. But as an occupying power, that right is severely limited. As a victim of occupation, Palestinians have a right to resist. Australians would have had the right, even the responsibility, to resist if Japan had occupied Australia in WW2.

At the ALP Federal Conference in August 2023, Albanese arranged for delay in the implementation of the party’s platform on recognition of Palestine.

He criticised students for chanting “Palestine will be free from the river to the sea” as if that was somehow supporting Hamas. Netanyahu held up a map at the UN General Assembly proclaiming Israel as the occupier of all Palestinian land from the river to the sea.

Albanese joined those who weaponised antisemitism. He said he was concerned about social cohesion. But he showed little concern about the much more serious Islamophobia that Muslims face.

In February this year, 79 nations signed a statement condemning the announcement by Trump that he was imposing sanctions on ICC officials because they had issued a warrant for the arrest of the architect of genocide of the Palestinian people, Benjamin Netanyahu. The Albanese Government did not sign this statement, but had no hesitation in supporting the ICC in its decision to sanction Russia over the invasion of Ukraine.

Then attorney-general Mark Dreyfus couldn’t get to Israel fast enough to reassure the Netanyahu Government that Australia would stay in line.

The Albanese Government has equivocated time and time again about Australia supplying parts for Israeli aircraft. Pine Gap has been used to support Israeli precision assassinations and destruction throughout the Middle East.

I joined the ALP more than 70 years ago. I never thought that a Labor Government would turn its back on genocide inflicted on fellow human beings, anywhere and at any time. The only relief for me is that the Coalition would be worse.

Universities

Vice chancellors have similarly run for cover.

As Henry Reynolds put it in this journal, “The gravity of the current situation seems to have passed our universities by… While they expressed concern about Jewish students on campus there is little evidence that they had any sympathy for the protesting pro-Palestinian students, some of whom were aware of the fate of their contemporaries in Gaza where all the universities have been destroyed along with many schools and all the libraries… Can we have any confidence in the university leadership to hold their ground and defend the autonomy of the institutions they currently lead.”

Churches

In May, together with a group of like-minded Catholics, we sent an open letter to Catholic Bishops urging them to show concern about the genocide. We particularly asked them to heed the calls of Popes Francis and Leo who both called out the genocide in Gaza. We asked them “What would Jesus do in this situation?”

We got no response.

In this journal a week ago Kevin Liston highlighted the failure of church leaders. He said: “Our present leaders seem unable to accept their humanitarian and Christian responsibilities… Australia is in dire need of strong ethical and moral leadership.… Standing idly by while we see the bones of Gaza’s children outlined under wasted skin is not an act of love. Our church should be the voice that expresses the pain and anguish felt deeply across the country…. Popes Francis and Leo have made their positions clear, but they seem to have been left like a shag on a rock, without support from local churches as if the rest of us do not care.”

I am reminded of the Biblical story about brotherly love by the Good Samaritan who helped the traveller in distress. But the priest “walked by on the other side of the road”. That is what our bishops are doing.

Media

And our media has failed even more dismally.

Media coverage of the war in Gaza since October 2023 has seen deliberate omissions and a litany of lies propagated by Israel and the US. Truth and morality have been discarded.

The media wants us to believe it all started on 7 October 2023. But the killing, oppression and theft of Palestinian land has been ongoing for decades. Context is essential.

We are told incessantly about less than a hundred Israeli hostages held by Hamas, but very little about the 8000 Palestinian hostages/prisoners held in Israeli jails.

More than 200 journalists and media workers in Gaza have been assassinated by the IDF. But there has been no support from Australian journalists for their courageous colleagues.

Journalists with their all expenses paid education tours to Israel are forbidden or choose not to use words like “genocide”, “ethnic cleansing”, “apartheid “and “occupation”.

It is so easy for a lazy journalist to attach the tag “terrorist” to organisations and people that won’t do what the US demands. Nelson Mandela was on the US terrorist list for more than 10 years.

The real terrorists and criminals are members of the Israeli Government with their industrial scale killing. The ICJ has issued warrants for the arrest of Netanyahu for crimes against humanity and war crimes since at least October 2023.

For more than 20 months across Australia, there have been peaceful rallies drawing attention to the genocide. But there was scarcely any mention in our mainstream media, including the ABC. It would upset their pro-Israel narrative.

But then the community in large numbers marched across the Sydney Harbour Bridge in pouring rain. Even then our mainstream media attempted to debunk the meaning and size of the march by diverting attention to police concerns and a false flag demonstrator, to say nothing of the way the NSW premier made a fool of himself.

What we have been saying in _Pearls and Irritations_ for more than 20 months is now what the criminal Netanyahu has confirmed. Hamas is the excuse for the killing. The real intent by Israel from the beginning has been to purge and ethnically cleanse all Palestinians from Gaza with bullets, bombs and, now, starvation. Then it will be the West Bank.

Perhaps when this is tragedy is over, we will turn our minds not just to the failure of our institutional “leaders”, but to the dangerous influence of the Zionist lobby.