To: 'bill.shorten.mp@aph.gov.au' <bill.shorten.mp@aph.gov.au>
Subject:
Dear Minister Shorten,
I listened with interest to your interview on RN yesterday. As with every politician I have listened to, you were very strong in your support for Israel, and very strong in your (utterly proper) condemnation of the Hamas attack on 7th October, but, as for the plight of the Palestinians, that seems not to matter too much. Like many politicians, you would have us believe that this all started just a few months ago, but, as the Secretary General of the United Nations has pointed out, the events of 7th October did not take place in a vacuum. The Israeli government, predictably, demanded his immediate resignation.
Unless and until the Western world accepts that the current situation – one of displacement, dispossession and slaughter of the Palestinians – which has been ongoing since the Nakba of 1948 -is untenable, in contravention of international law, and therefore must be seriously addressed, then nothing will change.
You rightly condemned the steep rise in antisemitism in recent months. Sadly, and perhaps inevitably, people see what is going on in Gaza, associate the Israelis with the Jewish people, and react accordingly. If we are to reduce/ eliminate the evil of antisemitism, then it is important to address with honesty and principle the present genocidal actions of the Israeli apartheid government, which has so far killed or wounded more than 100,000 Gazans, most of them women and children.
It is beyond time for the Australian government to condemn the actions of the Israeli military, to demand an immediate ceasefire, and to make it clear to the Israelis that failure to comply will have serious consequences.
The Australian government should not be complicit in this genocide.
Mike G
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