A year ago, Mussa Hijazi, a stone-throwing young teenager of the first Intifada who became a long-serving Canberra lawyer, laid out three options on how the conflict in Gaza would end.
In reverse order, they were:
- Israel accepts that it needs to sit down with Hamas, or whoever is in charge, and negotiate on matters including ending the apartheid regime and allowing Palestinian refugees the right of return.
Now, he says, “Though I held some tiny, almost negligible hope deep inside, I knew it was unlikely and merely suggesting it perhaps makes me seem naïve.”
- The Palestinians with the support of others (unlikely while despots remain in charge of the surrounding countries) manage to wipe out Israel.
Now, he confirms, “I never really thought Option 2 would become a reality.”
When he gave his first option last November, I was shocked. Bad as things were then, I couldn’t believe it would really come to pass.
- Israel succeeds in wiping out Gaza, and I do not mean Hamas, I mean all of Gaza, by killing the entire population or pushing some into Egypt.
Now, Mussa says, “Clearly Option 1 is the one Israel is pursuing. Obviously, they have not completed the task, but they are doing what they can.
Mussa continues to organise rallies in Canberra and he continues to monitor Middle East news closely while still managing his law firm. His commitment is unwavering despite his deep understanding of Australian ignorance and prejudice.
As Pearls quoted him last year, “When I first arrived back here [from Palestine], I quickly realised … if you identified as Palestinian … you were assumed to be a terrorist. I was a member of the Army Reserves here for some five years. I did well, I think, and moved up the ranks.
“For the purpose of military exercises often there was a need for someone to play ‘the enemy’. I found myself being tasked with that. When I moved up the ranks, I became known by many in the regiment, including senior command, as Corporal Hijack!”
Indefatigable, he knows the rallies are perhaps at best like water on stone.
However, he says, “I will continue to do what I can to support [the Palestinian people] even if that is limited to mere words because eventually those words will have to sink in and the western world will be ready to let go of its last settler colonialist project.
With almost the entirety of Gaza now unlivable, he says, “We have learned that Israel and its backers, the US, most of Europe, including the UK, us and Canada are comfortable watching a genocide …
“The dehumanisation of the Palestinians has been ongoing for more than 75 years but of course it was escalated after October last year. What has happened since October 7th was not justified by what happened on that day but rather by what did not happen, but we were told did.
“The beheaded-babies and the mass-rapes lies told by Israel, repeated by the mainstream media and western politicians guaranteed that there would be no sympathy for Palestinian civilians.
“Records have been set on a daily basis: more children killed than any other conflict, more children missing than any other conflict, more children shot in the head than in any other conflict, more children orphaned, more children suffering amputations to one limb, two limbs, and that’s just children. Horrible records for health workers, aid workers, civil-defence workers, journalists and the list go on …
“Where there is no infrastructure in one of the most heavily populated places on earth, leaving limited agricultural land, and when more than 35kg of explosives for every man, woman and child has been dropped, not only has any crop, orchard or farm been destroyed, but the likelihood of that land ever being farmed again is not in the realms of reality …
“Israelis are so blinded by their victimhood, their hatred for Palestinians … that they are happily broadcasting their genocide to the world.
“I expect more of the same unless the US decides otherwise. No change will emanate from Israel. Those who want to make excuses (and there are very few of them) will tell you it’s a Netanyahu problem. I don’t believe so.
“Israel does not have a Netanyahu problem, it has a Zionism problem, a political supremacist ideology that allows them to justify the actions they have taken not only in the last 58 weeks or the siege on Gaza that was in place for 17 years before October 23 or the apartheid regime in existence for 57 years or the original genocide and ethnic cleansing 76 years ago. Any Israeli not fully on board has left the country. The ones who are there are openly supporting the genocide. Netanyahu, [National Security Minister Itamar] Ben-Gavr and [Finance Minister Bezalel] Smotrich are not a fringe minority: they clearly represent the majority.
“So, with little hope, what does one do? Well, I must believe there is still some humanity left in the world and that if enough people who are told this is complex can be educated on why it isn’t things can change.
“We are a long way away, particularly those of us living in other settler-colonialist countries that were built on genocide and ethnic cleansing.
“If we cannot recognise and reconcile our own history, and here I speak as an Australian rather than a Palestinian, then we cannot be expected to have sympathy for the ethnic cleansing and genocide of the indigenous people of a place on the other side of the world.”
Andrew Fraser is the principal of Fraser Criminal Law and has worked in criminal law in the Canberra region for more than 15 years. Before beginning legal practice, Andrew was a journalist for close to 30 years with the Canberra Times and the Sydney Morning Herald, including stints in the Federal Parliamentary Press Gallery. He is also a former news editor, chief of staff and political correspondent of the Canberra Times.
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