Where Olive Trees Weep – Australia must recognise Palestine
Jun 27, 2024
An open letter to Anthony Albanese, Prime Minister of Australia, Mr Dutton, Senator Wong, Senator Birmingham and Senator Patterson. Yesterday you, or your party, opposed a motion which would have encouraged Australia to join a growing majority of the world’s countries that recognise Palestine. Why did you do that?
Dear Prime Minister, Mr Dutton, Senator Wong, Senator Birmingham, and Senator Patterson.
Yesterday you, or your party, opposed a motion which would have encouraged Australia to join a growing majority of the world’s countries that recognise Palestine. Why did you do that?
Please take the time to view the recently released film:
This is a film produced on the Palestinian West Bank in 2022. Its Australian premiere happened on 25 June 2024 in Brisbane and Adelaide.
Please do not tell me you are too busy, or that the film is some kind of Palestinian propaganda. It is a film based on brutal facts of what it is like to be born Palestinian and to have absolutely no right in the place of your birth.
As a politician you should develop policy based on facts. Israel is clearly a pariah state. Watch this film and tell me why that is a heinous thing to say. Also tell me why your commitment to a two-state solution with absolutely no condemnation of Israeli policy and action which makes that outcome impossible, is a position worthy of anything other than contempt?
It is a film that painfully displays the brutality of the Israeli Zionist project. You don’t believe this is the case? Well, watch the film and tell me how you justify your position.
What is the story you believe that leads you to think that Palestinians do not deserve the same rights as Israelis, or indeed as other human beings for that matter?
Do you think Israelis are the victims, that their security is so perilous that for security reasons they can lock up more than 9,000 West Bank Palestinians since October 7? They have no formal charges laid against them and no right to legal representation. It is not Israelis who lie in bed thinking Palestinians are coming after them with guns. It is Palestinians who lie in bed knowing Israelis are coming after them with guns.
What is the story that the Tamimi family and others on the West Bank have concocted about Israelis? It is that they can and would like to live in harmony and peace with all who live in the lands once called the Holy Land from the river to the sea. The Tamimis genuinely feel sorry for Jews whose country now exists without a sustaining moral narrative
What is the story Netanyahu and his fellow thugs (and they are thugs) have concocted about Palestinians? It is that they are vermin, less than human and can and should be exterminated. It is a narrative that Tamimis and others are terrorists. Bassem and other members of his family have been brutally tortured in Israeli gaols on multiple occasions. Why? They have committed a heinous crime? They are a threat to Israeli ‘security’? No, they have resisted the theft of their land, their property, their rights, their freedoms. Mr Dutton you clearly accept this as a fair definition of a terrorist, one who resists brutality. Some years ago, you cancelled Bassem’s visa for an intended journey to Australia.
What story are you people really believing about Palestinians and who is providing you with that story? Why will you not listen to the Palestinian narrative?
“If we shall not end the occupation, we shall not have security, and if we shall not end this occupation, we shall not have democracy.” This is a recent statement by Ami Ayalon, former head of Shin Bet. Similar statements have been made by Ehud Barak.
It also appears to be the view of the majority of Israelis that Netanyahu is prolonging the war in Gaza for his own political reasons and to avoid the Israeli courts. The leader of the IDF has wisely observed you cannot militarily defeat an idea. Hamas is an idea which, if anything, is being strengthened the longer the conflict continues.
To begin the end of the occupation the world community must recognise Palestine.
The film ends with the following statement. We Palestinians know that no one can or will help us. We can and will help ourselves. All we ask is that the world stops feeding and resourcing the machine that is killing us. Surely that is not too much to ask?
Recognise Palestine.
And watch: Where Olive Trees weep
George Browning was Anglican Bishop of Canberra Goulburn 1993 – 2008. He was President of the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network 2013 – 2022. He is now its Patron. He is also Patron of Palestinian Christians in Australia, and of the Palestinian ecumenical liberation theology centre -Sabeel.
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