Pearls and Irritations

Dear Julian Leeser MP, I live in your electorate, Berowra. In this letter I respond to your statement in your newsletter: “These differences [between the major political parties] are most notable on Israel and Ukraine where we have failed to stand by our values and stand with our friends as previous governments both Labor and Liberal have done.”

But first, in the context of Israel’s actions in Palestine, I should mention that my late father was Jewish. One of my father’s elder brothers, Friedrich, disappeared in the Holocaust before I was born. I do not identify as a Jew, but do identify as someone who supports equal human rights for all people. This, of course, includes Australia’s Indigenous people, Jews and Palestinians.

I write this just after International Holocaust Day, when we heard the heartfelt statements by national leaders, “Holocaust, never again”. But what many people cannot accept is that it is happening right now!

I understand that it’s difficult for some people to recognise what Israel is actually doing in Gaza and the West Bank is akin to ethnic cleansing. Some of my Jewish friends cannot discuss it, while others acknowledge it frankly.

The evidence is overwhelming that Israel has been deliberately targeting hospitals, doctors, journalists, refugee camps, universities, wastewater treatment plants and so-called “safe” zones in Gaza. In addition to this recent specific targeting, in 2007 the Israeli government imposed a blockade on food, water, fuel and medicines, and restrictions on movement, that have continued to the present. It has imprisoned thousands of Palestinians, many without charge, and tortured some. It has imposed a system of apartheid and, in the West Bank, settler colonialism. Since 7 October 2023, Israel has demolished more than 70% of the homes in Gaza.

These and other human rights violations by Israel have been documented by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the United Nations Special Rapporteur, the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court and many aid groups on the ground in Gaza and the West Bank.

Taken together, these violations show that since 1948 the governments of Israel, past and present, have imposed a reign of terror, including such abominations as “mowing the lawn”, and implemented targeted policies of destroying Palestinian culture and making the whole region from the river to the sea uninhabitable for Palestinians.

If we were non-Jewish Germans, living in Germany in the 1930s, and our friends joined the Blackshirts, should we “stand with our friends” and support their ruthless actions? Or should we be true friends and advise them to change path?

Supporters of Israel’s actions claim that Israel is acting in self-defence after the brutal attack that killed about 800 Israeli civilians and about 400 Israeli soldiers. But genocide or extermination of thousands upon thousands of Palestinians, mostly civilians, is not a valid self-defence response.

Personally, I support non-violent social change. The historical record shows that, on many occasions over many years, attempts to negotiate by Hamas and other Palestinian organisations were rejected by Israel. On several occasions when Palestinians undertook nonviolent resistance, they were jailed or gunned down. For example, in the 2018 March of Return in Gaza, a nonviolent action demanding the right of refugees to return to their homes as set out by the United Nations, Israeli soldiers killed hundreds of Palestinians and injured thousands.

The history of the expulsion of Palestinians from their land, and the suppression and periodic slaughters of those remaining, offers an explanation, not a justification, of the Hamas attack on the above date. The prisoners were, temporarily, breaking out of the concentration camp that is Gaza.

To avoid being misrepresented, I repeat that, in my opinion, the crimes by Israeli governments do not justify the brutal killing of civilians by Hamas and the taking of hostages on 7 October 2023. But the Israeli government has disseminated lies to exaggerate Hamas’ brutality and ‘justify’ its genocide. Detailed independent investigations of the events on that day, e.g. by Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit, have found that no baby was beheaded or burned to death. After 15 months, there is still no credible independent evidence of systematic rape by Hamas.

While this letter focuses on Israel’s covert genocidal agenda, it must be acknowledged that this terrible situation would have been impossible without the support of successive United States governments with weapons, money and votes in UN Security Council.

To conclude, I ask that you, as my representative in Federal Parliament, to stand by the values of equal human rights for all and support the United Nations in its attempts to maintain these rights and international law.

Yours sincerely,
Dr Mark Diesendorf

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